[Vol.501]
- “Housing Poverty” on the rise for young singles in Seoul
- Around four in ten young Seoulites living on their own occupy housing that fails to meet minimum residential standards, a study shows. While the overall housing poverty rate is in decline, the situation has become steadily worse since 2000 for young ...
[Vol.499]
- South Korean government to discuss resumption of humanitarian aid to North Korea
- T he South Korea n government plans to pursue the resumption of humanitarian aid to North Korea through international organizations, which was suspended during the preceding Park Geun-hye administration. The plan means that Seoul intends to provide hum...
[Vol.498]
- NIS monitored Korean film industry under Park Geun-hye administration
- The National Intelligence Service (NIS) set up an “entertainment section” under its intelligence and security bureau to monitor people involved in the making of progressive-leaning films and planned the making of right-wing “patriot...
[Vol.497]
- Samsung Group chain of command likely to persist despite Vice Chairman’s imprisonment
- With Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jaeyong having received a five year sentence in his recent trial, there is a great deal of interest regarding who will lead Samsung Group – which brings in nearly 300 trillion won (about US $270 billio...
[Vol.496]
- Ministry of Unification asked to be ready for window of opportunity with North Korea
- (…) “Peace on the Korean Peninsula should be approached with the attitude that we are keeping that peace, with a sense of ownership and with a focus on the national interest. We need to be more proactive about tackling this issue through...
[Vol.495]
- Ruling party approves social welfare increases
- On Aug. 16, the South Korean government and the ruling party decided to start paying a childcare allowance of 100,000 (about US $100) in July 2018 and to increase the basic pension to 250,000 (about US $250) won as of April 2018. Kim Tae-nyeon, chair...
[Vol.494]
[Vol.493]
- NIS spent $2.66 million a year hiring civilians to manipulate public opinion
- (…) A commission charged with reforming the NIS announced on Aug. 3 that a task force investigating the NIS comment scandal, ahead of the 2012 presidential election, recently confirmed that the NIS had operated 30 teams of civilians working to...
[Vol.492]
- 7 out of 10 self-employed people are their own only employee
- Over 70% of all selfemployed South Koreans have no employees, a study shows. The number of self-employed people with employees was also found to have increased in wholesale and retail sales, areas that are expected to suffer a heavy impact when the m...
[Vol.491]
- Minimum wage increased by 16.4%, the biggest hike in history
- The 2018 minimum wage is being increased by 16.4%, a rate of increase more than double the 7.4% average for the past five years. (…) The minimum wage was set at 7,530 won (US$6.68) an hour at a plenary session of the Minimum Wage Commission...
