The Korea Times

Korea's birthrate uptick masks demographic crisis, advocate warns

Korea’s slight rebound in births should not lull politicians into a false sense of security, said a leading family policy advocate, calling for mayoral and gubernatorial candidates to treat low birthrates as an urgent structural crisis rather than a past problem. “We may have seen a rebound, but the current numbers are nowhere near a level where we can feel complacency,” Hwang In-ja, executive representative at the Federation for Korean Families and former lawmaker, said during an interview in Seoul, May 7. “This still is a national crisis and in Seoul it is even more serious. The city’s total fertility rate last year was 0.63.” Hwang said her organization began preparing for the June 3 local elections late last year out of concern that birthrate policy was slipping down the political agenda. “In the past five years or so, low fertility was at the center of every election,” she said. “But as soon as the numbers ticked up a little, we saw candidates losing interest. We created this manifesto precisely to wake them up again.” Hwang said the upcoming elections should be

May 15, 2026By Jung Min-ho

Korea's birthrate uptick masks demographic crisis, advocate warns

Seoul mayoral candidates urged to put families at heart of every policy

Society

Seoul mayoral candidates urged to put families at heart of every policy

The next mayor of Seoul should put families at the center of every major policy decision, from transport and housing to labor and budgeting — instead of merely adding yet another targeted support scheme. That is the core message of 172 civic groups ahead of the June 3 local elections, as they call for the adoption of a new “family impact” standard to be applied across all city policies. At a policy forum hosted by the Federation for Korean Families and nine other organizations in central Seoul on May 7, the groups released a joint manifesto urging all mayoral candidates to “reflect family impact in all Seoul governance,” not just in a handful of welfare programs. “Over the past few decades, central and local governments have poured astronomical sums of money into trying to overcome this (demographic) crisis. But what has been the result?” the joint statement said. “The reason is clear. Policy has not treated the family as a single, living community, but has instead carved people up into fragmented individuals — women, children, older people and youth. One-off cash han

May 15, 2026By Jung Min-ho

Seoul mayoral candidates urged to put families at heart of every policy

Korea's birthrate uptick masks demographic crisis, advocate warns

Politics

Seoul mayoral race tightens as Chong’s lead shrinks to within margin of error

The Seoul mayoral race has tightened sharply, with incumbent Oh Se-hoon closing what was once a double-digit gap against his liberal rival Chong Won-o and pulling the contest to within the margin of error. In a poll released Thursday by the Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI), conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday among 1,002 Seoul residents aged 18 or older, 44.9 percent of respondents said they would support Chong of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), while 39.8 percent backed Oh of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP). Just three weeks earlier, in a KSOI poll conducted under the same conditions, Chong led Oh by 45.6 percent to 35.4 percent — a 10.2-point lead. The surveys have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level. Further details are available on the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission’s website. Speaking to The Korea Times Thursday, experts said the narrowing gap reflects a mix of factors, including lingering voter distrust of liberal housing policies, questions about Chong’s past misconduct and

May 14, 2026By Jung Min-ho

Seoul mayoral race tightens as Chong’s lead shrinks to within margin of error

Global Community

Immigrant groups demand rights as residents, not just workers ahead of local polls

Migrant rights groups called on politicians to drastically expand social rights and protections for more than 2.8 million migrants living in Korea, accusing policymakers of treating them as workers but not as residents, neighbors or — where eligible — voters. At a press conference in Seoul ahead of the June 3 local elections, representatives of the groups said everyone who lives and works in the country should be guaranteed equal access to welfare and public services, including health care and education, regardless of nationality. They claimed both central and local governments build their economies on migrant labor while systematically excluding migrants from tax-funded benefits. They called on candidates to present concrete pledges to remove legal and institutional discrimination, strengthen local migrant support systems and embrace migrants — including undocumented workers and children — as members of society whose rights must be protected. “This election will decide our region’s future — and migrant workers must be part of it,” said Udaya Rai, head of the Migrants’

May 13, 2026By Jung Min-ho

Immigrant groups demand rights as residents, not just workers ahead of local polls

Foreign Affairs

Seoul City opens Korean War monument at Gwanghwamun Square ahead of local elections

In a dimly lit underground hall beneath Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul, Monday, portraits of veterans of the 1950-53 Korean War flickered to life on vertical screens as a group of reporters gathered to capture the multimedia spectacle. Cascading waterfall imagery projected the names of the veterans across curved walls before dissolving into animated plants that bloomed into fields of flowers. The Seoul Metropolitan Government officially opens the Garden of Gratitude, Tuesday, unveiling a stone monument honoring 22 nations that fought in the Korean War at the downtown square — positioned between the U.S. Embassy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters — just three weeks ahead of the June 3 local elections. Aboveground, 23 gray granite pillars — representing the 22 ally countries and South Korea — curve upward in a formation designed to evoke honor guards presenting arms. Each structure stands 6.25 meters tall — a height chosen to reference June 25, the date the war began, Kim Chang-kyu, head of the city office’s balanced development bureau, explained during a p

May 12, 2026By Jung Min-ho

Seoul City opens Korean War monument at Gwanghwamun Square ahead of local elections

Law & Crime

Ex-Marine commander gets 3-year sentence over conscript’s death

A former Marine commander has been sentenced to three years in prison over the death of a young conscript who was swept away and killed during a river search operation in 2023. The Seoul Central District Court on Friday convicted Lim Seong-geun, former commander of the Marine Corps 1st Division, of occupational negligence resulting in death and violating a military order. He was indicted over the death of Cpl. Chae Soo-geun (then a private), who was swept away by strong currents and died while taking part in a search operation for a missing resident in the Naeseong Stream in Yecheon, North Gyeongsang Province, on July 19, 2023. A panel of judges, led by Cho Hyung-woo, also handed suspended or custodial sentences to four other officers involved. Park Sang-hyun, former commander of the 7th Brigade of the 1st Marine Division, and Choi Jin-kyu, former commander of the division’s 11th Artillery Battalion, who oversaw operations in the flood-hit area, were each sentenced to 18 months in prison. Former 7th Artillery Battalion Commander Lee Yong-min, the immediate superior of the headquarters

May 8, 2026By Jung Min-ho

Ex-Marine commander gets 3-year sentence over conscript’s death

Society

Experts warn of job, fiscal risks in ‘fair allowance’ plan

The government’s plan to introduce a “fair allowance” for short-term public sector workers is drawing criticism from economists and administration experts, who warn that the policy could distort the wage system, strain public finances and end up shrinking jobs it is meant to protect. Announced at a Cabinet meeting on April 28, the initiative would grant an additional lump sum payment to fixed-term workers employed at state-funded organizations, whose contracts are shorter than a year, with higher rates applied to shorter contracts to reflect their greater employment insecurity. The allowance would be pegged to a reference “living wage” of 2.54 million won ($1,730) per month, set at 118 percent of the legal minimum wage. The rationale is to tackle the widespread practice of repeatedly hiring workers on 11-month contracts to avoid paying severance and granting them the other benefits associated with permanent positions. But some critics believe the measure is built on shaky conceptual and institutional grounds. Lee Ji-man, an industrial relations expert at Yonsei University, sai

May 8, 2026By Jung Min-ho

Experts warn of job, fiscal risks in ‘fair allowance’ plan

Korean government to pay ‘fair allowance’ to short-term workers

Law & Crime

Appeals court cuts ex-PM’s sentence to 15 years, but upholds insurrection conviction

Former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Thursday after an appeals court overturned a lower court ruling but still found him guilty of playing a key role in an insurrection linked to former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s brief imposition of martial law. A panel of judges, led by Lee Seung-cheol, at the Seoul High Court quashed the original 23-year sentence and reduced it to 15 years, while issuing a strongly worded condemnation that any act aimed at extinguishing the Constitution’s functions can “never be tolerated under any circumstances.” Judges ruled that the martial law decree, declared by Yoon in December 2024, was unconstitutional and unlawful, and said Han helped give it the appearance of legitimacy by proposing a Cabinet meeting that made it look as if the decision had undergone proper deliberation. The court found that by proposing the meeting and trying to have Cabinet ministers sign related documents after the declaration, he performed an important role in the insurrection. The court said an insurrection does not merely paralyze state funct

May 7, 2026By Jung Min-ho

Appeals court cuts ex-PM’s sentence to 15 years, but upholds insurrection conviction

Society

AI era forces Korea’s labor, capital to negotiate new ‘survival pact’

As artificial intelligence (AI) spreads from coding assistants to factory robots and hiring tools, experts say Korea’s familiar labor disputes over wages and bonuses are giving way to a more existential question: How labor and capital will share the costs and gains of this once-in-a-generation technological shift. The answer, according to experts interviewed by The Korea Times, is that Korea is not ready. AI has not triggered mass layoffs, but it is quietly sealing off entry-level opportunities, deepening inequality and exposing gaps in the country's legal and training systems. Without a credible safety net and a convincing transition plan, experts warn, blunt protectionism — already visible across many sectors — becomes the rational response to automation for most workers. “AI has become a survival question for both labor and capital,” said Ahn Jong-ki, a professor at the Korea University Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, noting the nation’s world-leading robot density and recent trials of physical AI on production lines. Korea already ranks among the most aut

May 6, 2026By Jung Min-ho

AI era forces Korea’s labor, capital to negotiate new ‘survival pact’

Health

Korea to crack down on ‘fake ambulances’ with GPS tracking

The government is moving to crack down on so-called “fake ambulances” that illegally use emergency vehicles for personal purposes or nonurgent transport, amid concerns that such abuses are risking the lives of patients. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare Wednesday, under a new plan, all ambulances will be required to transmit their GPS location data in real time to the national center, allowing authorities to monitor operations and flag suspicious movements. The ministry said it will discuss the issue Thursday at the inaugural meeting of its task force launched last month to rectify irregularities in the nation’s medical and welfare system. Private ambulances play a key role in Korea’s emergency transport system, handling nearly 70 percent of intermedical facility transfers. But some recent cases of vehicles being used to shuttle celebrities under the cover of sirens and lights have sparked public backlash, with critics warning such abuses can delay real emergencies and erode trust. Through inspections conducted between July and September last year, the central and l

May 6, 2026By Jung Min-ho

Jung Min-ho

Read more

Korea's birthrate uptick masks demographic crisis, advocate warns

Seoul mayoral candidates urged to put families at heart of every policy

Seoul mayoral race tightens as Chong’s lead shrinks to within margin of error

Immigrant groups demand rights as residents, not just workers ahead of local polls

Seoul City opens Korean War monument at Gwanghwamun Square ahead of local elections

Ex-Marine commander gets 3-year sentence over conscript’s death

Experts warn of job, fiscal risks in ‘fair allowance’ plan

Appeals court cuts ex-PM’s sentence to 15 years, but upholds insurrection conviction

AI era forces Korea’s labor, capital to negotiate new ‘survival pact’

Korea to crack down on ‘fake ambulances’ with GPS tracking

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