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Jung Min-ho

Korea Times Politics & City Reporter

Jung Min-ho has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2012, mostly covering social and political issues. He currently belongs to the Politics & City Desk where he covers topics such as health, labor and human rights. Prior to joining the team, he was responsible for covering North Korea and sports. His article about a biosecurity breach of Middle East respiratory syndrome won him an award from the Korea Science Journalists Association in 2016. He is also the co-author of the book, "Medical Pioneers of Korea" (2019). He served as the head of the international relations committee at the Journalists Association of Korea from 2021 to 2023.

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Foreign Affairs

Seoul eyes better risk management in ASEAN region after racism backlash

Online calls to “boycott Korea” across Southeast Asian social media have prompted Seoul to reassess how vulnerable its hard‑won soft power in the region is to sudden reputational shocks, according to a senior official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The official, who oversees Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) affairs, told The Korea Times that the ministry has been tracking signs of anti‑Korean sentiment and the “SEAblings” online backlash since it erupted after a recent K‑pop concert in Malaysia. “We’re concerned about this anger spreading into wider public sentiment, so we have been monitoring it closely,” the official said on Thursday. The conflict traces back to a Jan. 31 concert by Korean band DAY6 in Kuala Lumpur, where a group of Korean fan site photographers were accused of bringing in high-resolution cameras despite a strict ban on such equipment. Local fans who said their views were blocked posted videos and screenshots, saying the photographers did not respect Malaysian rules. What began as an online dispute over manners escalated into tr

Feb 27, 2026By Jung Min-ho
Seoul eyes better risk management in ASEAN region after racism backlash
  • Anti-Korean backlash grows in Southeast Asia after online disputes
Foreign Affairs

Korea, UAE seal $65 bil. partnership in defense, nuclear energy, high-tech

Korea and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have agreed to move ahead with more than $65 billion in joint projects, presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik said Thursday, after leading a high-level mission to Abu Dhabi to turn recent summit pledges into concrete deals. Kang, who also serves as presidential special envoy on strategic economic cooperation, held three rounds of talks with Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of Abu Dhabi’s Executive Affairs Authority, to push forward projects spanning defense, energy, advanced technology and culture. The two countries also agreed to establish sector-specific working groups to generate visible outcomes before the next summit. The visit followed President Lee Jae Myung’s state visit to the country in November and the reciprocal trip to Korea in January by Khaldoon Al Mubarak as the UAE’s special envoy. During his mission, Kang paid a courtesy call on UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, delivered a personal letter from Lee inviting him to visit Korea and received Mohammed’s agreement to make a return visit at an early date. The

Feb 26, 2026By Jung Min-ho
Korea, UAE seal $65 bil. partnership in defense, nuclear energy, high-tech
Global Community

Foreign residents feel less rooted in Seoul: survey

Foreign residents in Seoul feel less rooted in their local communities than they did a year ago, even as their overall satisfaction with life in the capital city has improved, according to a new survey. The 2025 Seoul Survey, released Wednesday by the city government, found that the sense of belonging among foreign residents declined across every indicator measured on a 10-point scale, where 10 signifies “strongly agree” and 0 “not at all.” Asked whether neighbors help one another “in times of difficulty,” foreign residents gave an average score of 4.11, down from 4.54 a year earlier. The number of registered foreign residents in Seoul was estimated at around 260,000 last year. The latest Seoul Survey, conducted among 2,500 foreign residents aged 20 and over who have lived in Korea for more than 91 days and currently reside in the city, found that other measures of neighborhood connection remained similarly low. On average, foreign residents marked 4.05 for whether neighbors tend to know one another. They gave 3.90 for whether people discuss local issues and 3.81 for whether

Feb 25, 2026By Jung Min-ho
Foreign residents feel less rooted in Seoul: survey
Global Community

Korea’s ethnicity-based visa system widens divide among migrants

The government's recent decision to consolidate two visa categories for ethnic Koreans — merging the F-4 and H-2 visas — was framed by officials as a step toward greater equality. But critics argue that the change leaves intact a more fundamental hierarchy that discriminates based on ethnicity and country of origin. Eliminating the previous visa distinctions, which treated ethnic Koreans from China and the former Soviet states differently from those arriving from wealthier countries such as the United States, marked an important move against discrimination, said Yu So-jin of the University of Sheffield. Even so, the benefits of this long-term stay-and-work track remain reserved for coethnic migrants (of Korean descent) and are not extended to nonethnic migrants in Korea, underscoring the limits of the reform, she added. “On a fundamental level, this visa system is discriminatory against all other non-coethnic migrants who are subject to stricter rules. It also reflects that Korea’s immigration policies are more restrictive and less inclusive than many other comparable countries

Feb 24, 2026By Jung Min-ho
Korea’s ethnicity-based visa system widens divide among migrants
Society

Ruling party pushes 5% profit fine for workplace deaths amid business worries

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea is pressing ahead with a new industrial safety bill that would let regulators fine companies up to 5 percent of their annual operating profit when multiple workers die on the job, despite concerns from business groups. Following the approval of the National Assembly’s Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee last week, the revision to the Occupational Safety and Health Act now heads to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee before a final floor vote. The bill, led by Rep. Kim Ju-young, would for the first to link financial penalties for repeated fatal accidents directly to profitability rather than flat fines. If passed, the labor minister would be able to impose a penalty of up to 5 percent of a firm’s operating profit when three or more workers are killed in industrial accidents in a year and the employer is found to have violated key safety or health obligations. If operating profit is nonexistent, difficult to calculate or deemed too small, authorities could instead levy up to 3 billion won ($2.1 million). “Under the current law, e

Feb 24, 2026By Jung Min-ho
Ruling party pushes 5% profit fine for workplace deaths amid business worries
Global Community

Korea’s international student population rises over 50% in 3 years

The number of foreign nationals holding student visas in Korea has surged by about 50 percent in just a few years, with universities and immigration data demonstrating the rapidly expanding presence of international students. According to the latest relevant data released by the Ministry of Justice, the total number of people on D-2 (degree-seeking) and D-4 (language training) visas reached 305,807 as of Jan. 31, up from 260,989 a year earlier. Given that the figure stood at 194,590 in January 2023, the number of such visa holders has risen by more than 50 percent — a trend that is reshaping campuses across the country. Vietnamese nationals account for the largest share, at 115,939 students or 37.9 percent, followed by 25.2 percent from China. They are followed by Uzbekistan with 6.6 percent, Mongolia with 6.2 percent, Nepal with 5.5 percent and Myanmar with 3.3 percent. Meanwhile, the number of students from countries such as the United States, Japan and various European states remains relatively small, though it is steadily growing. This trend is also observed in another measure tha

Feb 22, 2026By Jung Min-ho
Korea’s international student population rises over 50% in 3 years
  • Demographic decline puts dozens of universities at risk, experts warn
Society

Korea’s infamously difficult CSAT English section to get AI makeover

The notoriously difficult English section of Korea’s College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) is now heading for an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven overhaul, with officials saying that the reform begins with a simple diagnosis: The English used on the university entrance test is not the kind of English people actually use. The Ministry of Education announced earlier this week that it will build an AI-based system to generate English passages, with the goal of using them in mock exams for the 2028 academic year. Officials will also work to apply the technology to review CSAT questions. A senior ministry official who oversees the project acknowledged that recent CSATs included English passages using language that is “not actually used in real life.” “The reason is that we have been relying on overseas source texts, and those sources tend to be academic papers or convoluted scholarly books, which have drawn criticism (for being impractical),” the official told The Korea Times. He said the problem of CSAT English being impractical and unnatural is part of what the ministry is try

Feb 13, 2026By Jung Min-ho
Korea’s infamously difficult CSAT English section to get AI makeover
  • Think your English is good? Try solving Korea’s 'insane' college entrance test!
Society

AI expected to heavily cut jobs in sales, manufacturing over next decade

Korea’s latest 10-year employment outlook has delivered a stark message for workers: Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a distant threat, but a significant force reshaping which jobs will expand, which will vanish and what skills people will need to stay employed. According to a 2024-34 workforce projection released Thursday by the state-run Korea Employment Information Service (KEIS), employees in routine-based, easily automated roles will face the heaviest job losses over the next decade, as new technologies rapidly transform the structure of labor demand. Sales workers are projected to suffer the steepest losses, with employment in sales jobs expected to shrink by 268,000 over the next decade. Researchers tie this directly to the spread of online commerce and unmanned or self‑checkout systems. Machine operators and assemblers are next in line. Employment of these workers, who run equipment and production lines in factories, is projected to fall by around 180,000 jobs as companies roll out industrial robots, AI‑driven production control and fully fledged “smart factory

Feb 12, 2026By Jung Min-ho
AI expected to heavily cut jobs in sales, manufacturing over next decade
  • Labor, gov’t launch consultative body as concerns rise over AI replacing human workers
Society

Labor, gov’t launch consultative body as concerns rise over AI replacing human workers

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), a powerful umbrella labor organization with more than 1 million members, launched a joint consultative body with the government on Wednesday to address rising anxiety over artificial intelligence (AI) and rapid industrial change in workplaces. As the Ministry of Employment and Labor and other government departments prepare for sweeping changes that new technologies are expected to bring across industries, including robotics and AI-powered production systems, the labor union called for a “human-centered” approach to the transition. The ministry and KCTU formally inaugurated a high-level operational consultative body, under which representatives of both sides will meet monthly to discuss and seek agreement on key labor issues. The ministry set up a similar structure with another major labor union, the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, on Monday, and also plans to do so with the Korea Enterprises Federation on Feb. 24. At the launch ceremony, KCTU Vice President Lee Yang-soo urged the government to play a more active role in protecting

Feb 11, 2026By Jung Min-ho
Labor, gov’t launch consultative body as concerns rise over AI replacing human workers
  • Bill proposed to safeguard workers from AI-driven job losses
Society

Seoul mayor urges review of voting rights for foreign residents ahead of June elections

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon called for a review of voting rights for foreign residents in local elections, while defending his troubled Hangang Bus project as a pillar of his mayoral legacy and broader vision for the capital. Speaking to reporters at a City Hall press conference on Tuesday, Oh signaled a strong intention to seek another term, framing the upcoming vote as a test of Seoul’s global standing and the public’s faith in his leadership. Under the Public Official Election Act, noncitizens who hold permanent residency and have lived in the country for at least three years may cast ballots for mayors, governors and local councils, though not for president or National Assembly members. According to data from the National Assembly Budget Office, disclosed last year by Rep. Kim Mi-ae of the conservative People Power Party, the number of noncitizens eligible to vote in local elections exceeded 140,000, with 81 percent of them Chinese nationals. “Voting rights must go hand in hand with responsibility and contribution,” Oh said. “Anyone with such a right should have contributions

Feb 10, 2026By Jung Min-ho
Seoul mayor urges review of voting rights for foreign residents ahead of June elections
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