GWANGJU, Oct. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea is confronting a troubling rise in criminal investigations and prosecutions involving people with mental disabilities, prompting renewed calls for reforms to safeguard their legal rights. According to a report released in May by the Judicial Policy Research Institute, criminal cases involving mentally disabled individuals nearly doubled in four [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 29 (Korea Bizwire) – Three years after a deadly crowd crush turned a festive Halloween night into one of South Korea’s darkest moments, visitors returned Wednesday to a narrow alley in Seoul’s Itaewon district. They came quietly, many before dawn, carrying white chrysanthemums and handwritten notes that filled the street once choked with panic [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — The recent arrest of a Korean couple accused of orchestrating a multimillion-dollar fraud ring in Cambodia has thrown new light on a crime many still struggle to take seriously: romance scams. While some ask how anyone could fall for a stranger online, advances in artificial intelligence and increasingly sophisticated psychological [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — A new payment technology that allows bus passengers to board without tapping a card or phone has debuted in Seoul, in a pilot seen as a step toward a fully touch-free public transit system. Tmoney, the operator of South Korea’s dominant transit payment platform, said Monday it has activated its [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — A popular bakery chain’s plan to close for a day to hold an employee sports festival has ignited an unexpected debate over changing attitudes toward workplace bonding in South Korea. Sungsimdang, a renowned bakery in the central city of Daejeon known for drawing tourists from across the country, announced that [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s Supreme Court has upheld the acquittal of four former National Intelligence Service investigators accused of illegally recording private conversations during a domestic surveillance operation nearly a decade ago. The court affirmed a lower ruling last month that cleared the men of violating the country’s telecommunications privacy law, according [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 26 (Korea Bizwire) – A clear majority of South Koreans continue to view unification with North Korea as a national goal, even as doubts persist about the prospects for renewed diplomacy with Pyongyang, according to a government-commissioned survey released Sunday. Nearly 69 percent of respondents said unification remains either “very necessary” or “quite necessary,” [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 25 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea this weekend begins a solemn experiment in shared remembrance. For the first time, the government and the families of those lost in the Itaewon disaster will stand together in public mourning, three years after a crowd crush in a narrow Halloween alley took 159 lives and scarred [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean high school graduates who fail to secure employment within three months of finishing school face dramatically lower chances of landing stable, well-paying jobs, according to new research released Thursday. The study, conducted by the Korea Educational Development Institute (KEDI), analyzed 792 high school graduates who did not pursue [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — At exactly 10:29 a.m. on Thursday, six days before the third anniversary of the Itaewon crowd crush, three shrouded photographs were revealed outside Exit 1 of Itaewon Station — the site of the 2022 tragedy that left 159 people dead. Against a deep violet backdrop embroidered with constellations, the images [...]