South Korea's presidential office on Sunday reaffirmed its push to ease strains over the wartime forced labor dispute with Japan amid further backlash following the Japanese Foreign Affairs Minister's refusal to acknowledge the victims as forced laborers. President Yoon Suk Yeol's office released Sunday clips of Yoon saying during the closed-door meetings with the Cabinet on Tuesday that his effort to mend ties with Japan "will deliver on his presidential election campaign promise" as

Foreign Affairs March 12, 2023

South Korean female workers were paid on average two-thirds of the wages of their male counterparts in the first half of 2022, data showed Wednesday. The average monthly salary of female workers during the cited period came to 2.2 million won ($1,600), which stood at 65 percent that of male workers' 3.39 million won, according to data gathered by the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions' research institute. The fact that a greater proportion of women than men are underpaid, with a mon

Social Affairs March 8, 2023

The Seoul Metropolitan Government on Wednesday unveiled a plan to build the world's tallest hubless Ferris wheel on the banks of Han River near the World Cup Stadium in northwestern Seoul. The 180-meter Ferris wheel on the landfill-turned-grassland Haneul Park, which is located on a hilltop, will be the tallest one of its kind, the city government said. The world's tallest spokeless Ferris wheel, at 145 meters, opened in Shandong province in China in 2017. It will also be the second-ta

Social Affairs March 8, 2023

Card spending in Itaewon's nightlife district in the fourth week of February fell 57.1 percent compared with the fourth week of October 2022, just before the crowd crush disaster during the Halloween weekend which claimed 159 lives. According to data from the Seoul municipal government Tuesday, the foot traffic in Itaewon 1-dong -- which covers streets filled with international shops, bars, clubs and restaurants -- fell 29 percent over the cited period. This downward trend is in contrast wi

Social Affairs March 7, 2023

South Korean legal service firm Law-Win has recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Tax-Ro, its peer specializing in tax practice and consulting, the company said Sunday. Under the agreement, the two companies would be able to address legal services demands of one another, which, for example, will allow Tax-Ro to handle tax practices for Law-Win clients on behalf of Law-Win, and vice versa. In Korea, many small-sized law firms are not capable of covering what is beyond their own pract

Social Affairs March 6, 2023

Main opposition Democratic Party of Korea Chairman Lee Jae-myung denied charges of violating election law during the presidential election campaign in 2021 during a court appearance Friday. It was Lee's first court appearance since he was narrowly defeated by President Yoon Suk Yeol in March 2022 election and later was voted chair of the opposition party that controls the National Assembly with 169 seats out of 299. Lee reiterated his claim that the prosecution's charge against him is "unre

Politics March 3, 2023

Police have launched a probe into Chung Sun-sin, the state investigation chief who resigned hours after it was revealed that his son had a history of school bullying. Seoul Metropolitan Police ordered Seodaemun Police Station to investigate allegations that the National Office of Investigation chief had concealed his son's record of verbal abuse in 2017 while applying for a position to lead the office. His son was accused of verbally abusing at least two classmates at a boarding high school

Social Affairs March 3, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol hosted a historic bill-signing ceremony Thursday to elevate the Veterans Affairs Ministry to a full-fledged ministry and establish a government agency to support the Korean diaspora. The event marks the first public bill-signing ceremony by a South Korean president to reorganize the government structure, according to Yoon's office. The elevation of the Veterans Affairs Ministry and creation of Overseas Koreans Agency will become effective early in June. The ceremony

Defense March 2, 2023

Nearly 1 out of 4 low-skilled foreign workers who came to Korea on the E-9 visa have applied to change their workplace in the past six years on average, with some citing workplace violence, data showed Wednesday. From 2017 until October 2022, Korea has seen nearly 45,000 applications on average to change the workplace each year, out of some 200,000 workers on an E-9 visa, according to data from the Ministry of Employment and Labor requested by Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Lee In-young. They ac

Social Affairs March 1, 2023

  A new state-run agency dedicated to providing consolidated administrative support to some 7.3 million South Korean diaspora across the world will likely to be set up in June this year. The new government body will be carved out of the Foreign Ministry and be tasked with creating and implementing state policies aimed at supporting Korean diaspora, according to the bill to revise the Government Organization Act, endorsed by the Cabinet at a meeting on Tuesday. This means the first governmen

Politics Feb. 28, 2023

South Korea's first joint venture between foreign and local law firms said it would provide comprehensive legal services for companies facing a growing number of cross-border litigations, touting its competitiveness in practicing both Korean and international law in Korea. "As companies invest internationally, and often into challenging jurisdictions, the result is often cross-border arbitrations and investigations related to compliance with anti-bribery, anti-money laundering and sanc

Social Affairs Feb. 27, 2023

More than 1 in 5 young adults are suffering huge debt in the face of soaring housing costs or living expenses, data showed Monday. According to a recent study by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, a state-run research institute, more than 21 percent of householders aged between 19 and 39 saw their debt-to-income ratios exceed 300 percent as of 2021, meaning their level of debt was more than three times their income. The proportion of young people with debt ratios above 300 perc

Social Affairs Feb. 27, 2023

South Korea's Presidential Office is mulling a revision of the anti-graft law, also known as the Kim Young-ran law, to raise the limit on food price from the current 30,000 won ($22.82) to 50,000 won. Unveiling the plan, Lee Do-woon, spokesperson of President Yoon Suk Yeol's office, said the revision is being discussed to prop up the local economy. Those subject to the law, including public officials, school teachers and journalists, are currently banned from being offered with meals t

Social Affairs Feb. 26, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol's office on Sunday came under fire over a flaw found in the vetting process of a state police investigation chief who was revealed to have defended his son in a school bullying case instead of holding his son accountable. Former prosecutor Chung Sun-sin was appointed by Yoon to be the South Korean police investigation chief on Friday, but resigned the next day hours after criticism built up over his son's verbal abuse of his classmate five years ago. Chung and h

Politics Feb. 26, 2023

Japan's nuclear regulation authority tentatively confirmed plans Wednesday to narrow the scope of radioactive elements to be monitored in the radiation-contaminated water from quake-stricken Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the South Korean Prime Minister's Office said in a statement Wednesday. The types of nuclides under the monitoring has been reduced from 64 to 30, according to Prime Minister Han Duck-soo's office. The Seoul government pledged to place the Ko

Social Affairs Feb. 22, 2023