SEOUL, Dec. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — A new law banning English level tests for preschool children has ignited a sharp debate among parents in Seoul’s education hubs, exposing deep divisions over early childhood education and the future of private English instruction. Earlier this month, the National Assembly passed a bipartisan amendment to the Private Education Act [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — Nearly one in three South Korean workers say they cannot freely use their paid annual leave, according to a new survey by a civic advocacy group, highlighting persistent gaps between labor law protections and workplace realities. The findings, released Sunday by Workplace Abuse 119 (Gabjil119), are based on a poll [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean lawmakers sharply criticized Coupang on Wednesday during a National Assembly hearing on the company’s massive personal data leak, condemning the absence of founder Bom Kim and accusing the e-commerce giant of showing contempt for Korean consumers and regulators. Members of both ruling and opposition parties denounced Kim, the [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Young South Koreans are reporting strikingly low levels of life satisfaction compared with their global peers, revealing a generational mood shaped as much by economic pressure as by a sense of dwindling possibility. A government report released Tuesday shows that among waged workers ages 19 to 34, only 36 percent [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — A surge of South Koreans are scrambling to determine whether their personal information is circulating on the dark web following Coupang’s massive data leak, newly released government data shows. According to figures submitted by the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) to Rep. Lee Jeong-heon of the Democratic Party, users [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s Ministry of Justice said Monday it has introduced an artificial intelligence–based behavior analysis system at the National Forensic Psychiatric Hospital to better identify early signs of violent or self-harming behavior among patients undergoing compulsory treatment. The system monitors individuals with severe mental illness in real time, detecting [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean lawmakers on Monday advanced a bill that would sharply increase financial penalties for companies responsible for major personal data breaches, amid rising public anger over a series of high-profile leaks. The bill, approved by the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee subpanel, would raise the maximum fine for [...]
BUSAN, Dec. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s Coast Guard has arrested a smuggling ring accused of importing thousands of counterfeit luxury goods from China and selling them online, prompting several global fashion houses to issue formal letters of appreciation — an unusually public response from brands that rarely acknowledge enforcement actions. The South Regional Coast [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — A large majority of South Koreans believe that maintaining peaceful coexistence with North Korea is more important than achieving reunification, according to a government survey released Thursday. The Unification Ministry’s poll found that 79.4 percent of respondents agreed that “peaceful coexistence without war is more important than reunification,” reflecting [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — A series of massive data leaks over the past decade, culminating in a recent breach involving 33.7 million Coupang accounts, has created a landscape in which personal information circulates widely and can now be used to reconstruct an individual’s identity and daily habits with alarming precision. While each incident may [...]