SEOUL, July 18 (Korea Bizwire) — In a direct response to South Korea’s strengthened gaming regulations, U.S. game publisher Electronic Arts (EA) has disabled microtransaction features for Korean users of its upcoming soccer title, “FC 26,” making it one of only two countries—alongside Russia—facing such restrictions. According to industry sources on Thursday, EA has blocked [...]
SAMCHEOK, South Korea, July 17 (Korea Bizwire) — In a move aimed at addressing demographic challenges and extending the reach of youth-focused policies, the city of Samcheok in Gangwon Province has officially expanded its definition of “youth” to include individuals up to 49 years old. The revised regulation, enacted in May through an amendment to [...]
SEOUL, July 17 (Korea Bizwire) — The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Thursday it will begin integrating big data analytics into the early stages of policymaking, marking a major shift toward predictive, evidence-based urban governance. The initiative, dubbed “data-first administration,” aims to assess the impact of key municipal projects across five sectors—urban space, transportation, housing and [...]
SEOUL, July 17 (Korea Bizwire) – President Lee Jae Myung on Thursday instructed senior aides to review a plan to redesignate Constitution Day as a public holiday. Observed annually on July 17, Constitution Day had been a public holiday but was reclassified in 2008 as a commemorative day, meaning government offices and businesses no longer [...]
SEOUL, July 17 (Korea Bizwire) – A leading government-affiliated research institute has issued a stark warning against adopting a defined contribution (DC) pension model as an alternative to South Korea’s current national pension system, calling it a “poisoned chalice” ill-suited to the country’s demographic and economic realities. The report, released Wednesday by the National Pension [...]
SEOUL, July 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea on Wednesday launched a task force to establish the so-called RE100 industrial complexes entirely powered by renewable energy sources, in a move aimed at addressing regional energy imbalances and accelerating the country’s energy transition, the industry ministry said. In its inaugural meeting, the task force discussed necessary [...]
SEOUL, July 16 (Korea Bizwire) — One in nine South Korean civil servants recently participated in the long-criticized custom of subordinates treating senior officials to meals, underscoring the persistence of outdated hierarchical practices within the public sector despite reform efforts. A joint survey released Friday by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the [...]
SEOUL, July 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Im Seung-kwan, newly appointed as the fourth Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), pledged Monday to strengthen South Korea’s public health security infrastructure and position the agency as a central command hub for infectious disease crises. Speaking at his inauguration ceremony at KDCA headquarters in Osong, [...]
SEOUL, July 15 (Korea Bizwire) — The Financial Services Commission (FSC) on Tuesday raided the major TV station SBS over allegations that some of its officials engaged in illegal insider trading using undisclosed information about a partnership with Netflix, government sources said. The FSC’s Capital Market Investigation Division carried out the raid while questioning an [...]
SEOUL, July 15 (Korea Bizwire) — Google plans to launch a standalone premium subscription plan for YouTube video streaming without the music streaming component in South Korea, as part of a voluntary corrective measure to address its alleged anti-competitive practice, the country’s antitrust regulator said Tuesday. The standalone product, dubbed YouTube Premium Lite, will be [...]