SEOUL, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean parents of young students are reacting nervously to the recent openings of sex doll experience shops or cafes in their neighborhoods around the country. Following the Supreme Court’s ruling last June in favor of the importation of life-size sex dolls, several hundreds of new businesses have reportedly [...]
SEOUL, April 12 (Korea Bizwire) — A tougher mask mandate that went into effect for all indoor public places nationwide on Monday is triggering a spate of controversy, as some people complain of inconvenience in their daily lives. Beginning this week, mask wearing is mandatory in all public indoor spaces and on public transportation, including [...]
SEOUL, March 25 (Korea Bizwire) – Tension between South Korea and China is escalating as the latter presents groundless claims that elements of the former’s inherent culture such as hanbok, kimchi and pansori originated in China. Against this backdrop, a new South Korean drama is under fire for featuring a string of scenes that have [...]
SEOUL, March 18 (Korea Bizwire) — Topps, a U.S. trading card manufacturer, removed an illustration showing beaten-up members of BTS after it came under fire for releasing the product at a time when hate crimes against Asians are raising alarm bells. The New York-based company introduced the sticker collection “The Shammy Awards” on Tuesday (U.S. [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 18 (Korea Bizwire) – Three U.S. professors have criticized a recent controversial claim by a Harvard University professor that Japan’s wartime sexual slavery was voluntary prostitution. Mark Peterson, professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah, posted a column on Korea.net, the South Korean government’s foreign language [...]
INCHEON, Feb. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — Controversy is building over Incheon city government’s response to complaints about wild dogs in the region by hiring subcontractors and paying them for the number of dogs captured. Last year, the port city’s eight counties and district authorities hired private companies to capture some 200 wild dogs in response [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — Last week’s acquittals of 13 corporate executives in a deadly humidifier sterilizer case were caused by the court’s wrong interpretation of the causal relations between chemicals contained in sterilizer products and victims’ lung-related illnesses, a group of scholars argued Tuesday. The Seoul Central District Court ruled last Tuesday that [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 13 (Korea Bizwire) – Today’s chatbots are smarter, more responsive and more useful in businesses across sectors, and the artificial intelligence-powered tools are constantly evolving to even become friends with people. Emotional chatbots capable of having natural conversations with humans are nothing new among English speakers, but a new controversy over a South [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — A culture group on Thursday criticized the recently revised law allowing celebrities to delay their mandatory military service, raising questions on its feasibility. Earlier this month, the National Assembly passed the revised Military Service Act to allow pop culture artists who have received cultural medals or awards from the [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — A Chinese media report has sparked controversy over the origin of kimchi. The Chinese state daily tabloid Global Times has angered South Koreans after claiming that China’s recent International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certification humiliated South Korea. The South Korean government, in response, retorted that the debate had ended [...]