SEOUL, Aug. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s population declined on-year for the second consecutive year last year, while the number of single-person households continued to increase, government data showed Tuesday. As of the end of 2021, the nation’s registered population stood at 51,638,809, down 0.37 percent from 51,829,023 tallied at the end of 2020, [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — Insurance agencies and planners have voiced strong opposition to big tech companies’ entry into the insurance sales business, criticizing it as an infringement of their commercial rights. The Insurance Agency Association and the Labor Union Solidarity for Insurance Planners held a joint press conference in front of the presidential [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — The government plans to nurture a total of 1 million professionals specialized in artificial intelligence (AI), big data, metaverse or other digital technologies over the next five years, the education ministry said Monday. The plan is aimed at meeting the labor demand for digital talents and helping promote the [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — The coronavirus pandemic, which has roiled markets since 2020, may be hurting the finances of South Korea’s state pension fund, a report said Sunday. The National Pension Research Institute reported that the number of marriages dropped to 214,000 in 2020, down 10.7 percent from 2019. In 2021, there were [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — A local bank’s refusal to open an account for a foreigner with a long name is discriminatory, South Korea’s human rights watchdog said Monday. The move came 13 months after a foreigner filed a petition with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea for being rejected by the bank [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — One hundred days into office, President Yoon Suk-yeol has seen his approval ratings more than halve to somewhere around 25 percent in the wake of unpopular personnel appointments and policy proposals, but no dramatic remedies are in sight. Yoon was inaugurated on May 10 after winning the election by [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong was given a presidential pardon on Friday, in a move widely expected to help him consolidate his leadership and speed up business decision-making in the country’s biggest conglomerate. The decision comes as the tech giant has been faced with intensifying global competition from [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — The city government of Seoul will no longer give permission to construct basement or semi-basement homes, while pushing to gradually weed out existing subterranean homes, officials said Wednesday. The plan follows the deaths of three family members in a flooded semi-basement home in Seoul’s Gwanak district Monday night when [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — The government will increase the quota of foreign workers in five industries to alleviate labor shortages, officials said Monday. The Ministry of Labor and Employment said it will speed up the entry process for immigrant workers, streamline administrative procedures for employers of immigrant workers and strengthen support tailored for [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s amateur athletes are exposed to the risk of indiscreetly taking prohibited drugs due to a lack of awareness, data showed Sunday. The share of amateur athletes who said they had taken prohibited doping substances such as steroid hormones at least once was estimated at 34.8 percent, more [...]