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 [...]
SEOUL, May 29 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of babies born in South Korea set yet another fresh low for the month of March, leading to a record-low fertility rate for the first quarter, data showed Wednesday, A total of 19,669 babies were born in March, down 7.3 percent from a year earlier, according to [...]
SEOUL, May 29 (Korea Bizwire) – In a powerful display of their demands, around 20,000 nurses (according to organizers) gathered in front of the National Assembly in Seoul on May 23, raising their voices for the enactment of a separate nursing law. After resident doctors left hospitals in protest of the government’s plan to increase medical [...]
SEJONG, May 28 (Korea Bizwire) – A procession of studies has highlighted the inverse relationship between women’s economic participation and birthrates in South Korea, where childcare responsibilities still largely fall on mothers. The International Monetary Fund recently urged South Korea and Japan to establish a positive cycle in which greater female workforce participation contributes to economic [...]
SEOUL, May 28 (Korea Bizwire) – The population is anticipated to drop in nearly all regions by 2052, except for Gyeonggi Province and the central city of Sejong, due to the chronically low birth rates, a report showed Tuesday. According to the report released by Statistics Korea, the population in 15 out of 17 provinces [...]