SEOUL, Jun. 3 (Korea Bizwire) – A staggering 24% of dual-income families in Seoul experience symptoms of depression, according to a new study by the Seoul Research Institute. Working mothers and fathers struggle with insufficient societal and institutional support for child-rearing and caregiving responsibilities. Alarmingly, 15.8% of unmarried youths in Seoul within the optimal marriage age [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 3 (Korea Bizwire) – The number of medical facilities capable of handling births in South Korea has plummeted by over 30% in the past decade, according to recent government data, raising concerns over access to maternal care across the nation. More than 70 regions either lack obstetrician-gynecologist (OB-GYN) clinics entirely or have facilities unable [...]
SEOUL, June 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Average South Korean workers in their 20s need 86.4 years to buy an apartment in Seoul using only their wage earnings, a report showed Monday. Lee Han-jin, a researcher at the Labor Institute of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the largest umbrella union, released the report based on [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 3 (Korea Bizwire) – A North Korean defectors’ group said Monday it could consider temporarily halting the scattering of anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border if the North’s leader Kim Jong-un apologizes for the sending of trash-carrying balloons to South Korea. Since Tuesday, North Korea has sent nearly 1,000 balloons carrying trash to the [...]
SEOUL, June 3 (Korea Bizwire) — The Seoul city government said Monday it will offer exceptional incentives to small and medium-sized companies that implement childbirth and child care promotion systems, such as payment of money gifts for birth and flexible work hours. Incentives, such as the supply of replacement workers, extra allowances for co-workers of [...]
SEOUL, June 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Nearly 86 percent of South Koreans believe junior doctors, who have been on a walkout since late February, should return to hospitals, a poll showed Monday, reflecting growing public fatigue over the ongoing disruptions in medical services. According to the poll conducted by the Korean Health and Medical Workers’ [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 3 (Korea Bizwire) – Seoul’s annual queer culture festival, one of the nation’s largest LGBTQ celebrations, took place on June 1 along Euljiro Street after being denied the use of Seoul Plaza by city authorities for the second consecutive year. Counterprotests erupted across the capital, contributing to traffic disruptions throughout the day. The Seoul [...]
SEOUL, May 31 (Korea Bizwire) — The health ministry said Friday it will provide more financial support for trainee doctors and begin a trial operation to reduce their working hours, amid protracted walkouts prompted by a plan that boosted the number of medical students. Deputy Health Minister Jun Byung-wang told reporters that the pilot program [...]
CHANGWON, May 30 (Korea Bizwire) – An environmental activist who was fined for spray-painting “climate crisis” on tunnels chose to serve a brief jail sentence instead of paying the penalty, in a protest intended to raise awareness about global warming. Park Jong-kwon, a co-leader of the Gyeongnam Climate Crisis Emergency Action group, defaced tunnel entrances in [...]
SEOUL, May 30 (Korea Bizwire) – A multiyear nationwide study that analyzed sewage for traces of illicit drugs found that methamphetamine was detected at every wastewater treatment plant surveyed across South Korea, suggesting prevalent use, health authorities said May 29. The investigation provides one of the most comprehensive looks yet at narcotics consumption patterns in the [...]