The Korea Times

Gov’t ramps up crackdown on ‘salt farm slavery’

The government is ramping up a crackdown on labor exploitation in salt farms in an effort to close loopholes that have allowed “salt farm slavery” to persist and become an international human rights and trade issue. Under a plan jointly announced Thursday by the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, government workers will cooperate with police to create a standing, field-centered response system targeting abusive practices in salt farms. The move follows the latest such case in Yeonggwang, South Jeolla Province, in which a salt farm owner was arrested for allegedly exploiting three workers, at least one of whom has a serious intellectual disability. The case has reignited worries over rights violations in remote coastal workplaces. On June 25, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said it formally designated the three workers as victims of human trafficking. As recognized victims, they can receive up to six months of living expenses support of 783,000 won ($505) per month each, along with access to medical, legal and other assistance. Offici

Jul 2, 2026By Jung Min-ho

Gov’t ramps up crackdown on ‘salt farm slavery’

Companies

JoongAng Ilbo puts controlling rights up for sale amid creditor workout

JoongAng Ilbo, one of Korea's largest newspapers, is preparing to put its management rights up for sale as part of a workout plan aimed at stabilizing operations and restoring its finances. The publisher reportedly told its creditors that it is considering a sale of its controlling stake as part of its plan submitted to the workout committee. The plan also includes selling off real estate assets and subsidiaries, as well as cutting costs, with the aim of securing about 66.4 billion won ($43 million) in liquidity. JoongAng Ilbo's largest shareholder is JoongAng Holdings, which owns 64.73 percent of the paper. Chairman Hong Seok-hyun holds a 15.63 percent stake as the second-largest shareholder, while CJ Olive Networks holds a 9.24 percent. The move comes after JoongAng Ilbo failed to meet an early repayment request on corporate paper worth 22 billion won on June 19, prompting the company to file for a workout with Hana Bank. Under Korea’s workout regime, troubled firms pursue restructuring and a return to normal operations by negotiating debt adjustments with creditors to avoid court-le

Jul 1, 2026By Jung Min-ho

JoongAng Ilbo puts controlling rights up for sale amid creditor workout

Politics

Oh Se-hoon begins final mayoral term with 2030 presidential bid in view

Oh Se-hoon was reinaugurated as Seoul mayor Wednesday, beginning a final four-year tenure many view as a launch pad and test ground for a presidential bid in 2030. Having secured his place as one of the key leaders within the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), Oh’s term this time is expected to serve less as a routine mayoral administration and more as a high-stakes audition for the nation’s highest office. In his address, Oh sketched out five priorities — young people, health, housing, transport and small businesses — but spoke in terms that reached well beyond the capital, promising to confront youth employment insecurity, soaring housing costs and the squeeze on small businesses. “If young people no longer believe that honest work leads to a decent life and that taking risks opens up opportunities, there is no greater crisis for Korea,” Oh said. “We must not allow even a single citizen to live in the despair of believing they will never own even one home in their lifetime. There can be no more important livelihood task than easing people’s housing worries.” He

Jul 1, 2026By Jung Min-ho

Oh Se-hoon begins final mayoral term with 2030 presidential bid in view

Society

What’s new in Korea in 2nd half of 2026: 1-week parental leave, unified rail app and more

Korea will introduce short-term parental leave, expand spousal leave around pregnancy and miscarriage and toughen penalties for wage theft as part of a broad package of social policy changes coming into force in the second half of this year. Government ministries on Tuesday announced a six-month policy package spanning family-friendly workplace rules, rail services, weather forecasting and disaster alerts. From Aug. 20, workers who have children aged eight or younger will be able to take one- to two-week blocks of child care leave once a year. The new option is designed for short-term care needs during school holidays or temporary closures of child care facilities, and allow parents to split their child care leave into shorter segments instead of only using it in lengthy stretches. Officials hope this flexibility will encourage more male employees at small firms to actually use parental leave rather than forgoing it due to workplace pressures. Spousal leave rules will also be relaxed. From Sept. 18, men will be allowed to take spousal maternity leave starting up to 50 days before their p

Jul 1, 2026By Jung Min-ho

What’s new in Korea in 2nd half of 2026: 1-week parental leave, unified rail app and more

Society

Korea's 'fake news' law set to redraw online speech rules

A viral YouTube video, a one-star review on a delivery app, a heated post on a parenting community — all of these will fall under the same legal standard starting July 7. Korea's revised Information and Communications Network Act, widely known as the "fake news" law, introduces punitive damages for YouTubers with more than 100,000 subscribers and high-traffic TikTok accounts if they display what authorities define as "unlawful" content, while platforms such as Naver, Kakao, Google and Meta stand to face steep penalties if they fail to police such content. High-traffic influencers targeted The enforcement decree spells out who can be sued for punitive damages over illegal and fabricated information. Individuals on online platforms like YouTube or TikTok who have posted at least three pieces of content over the past three months and either have more than 100,000 subscribers or average more than 100,000 monthly views in that period will fall under the definition of major online information producers. If they are found to have deliberately spread false information that causes harm in order

Jul 1, 2026By Jung Min-ho

Korea's 'fake news' law set to redraw online speech rules

People & Events

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists wins Miwon Peace Prize

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was named this year's winner of the Miwon Peace Prize. The nonprofit organization was founded in 1945 by Manhattan Project scientists including Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer and is best known for its Doomsday Clock. Organizers announced the winner on Monday, citing the group's decades-long efforts to raise awareness of existential threats and reshape how the world understands risk. The Doomsday Clock, created as a symbolic measure of how close humans are to causing their own catastrophic disruption, stands at 85 seconds to midnight as of 2026 — the closest it has ever been to the symbolic destruction represented by the end of the countdown. The Bulletin integrates threats including nuclear weapons, climate change and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence into that single global signal. The award, established by the Kyung Hee University system and its affiliated organizations, honors individuals or institutions whose work advances peace and the future of humanity. It commemorates the legacy of Kyung Hee’s late founder

Jun 29, 2026By Jung Min-ho

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists wins Miwon Peace Prize

Law & Crime

Digital sex crimes by intimate partners increase share of total, report finds

Offenses involving digital sex crimes by current or former partners are making up a growing portion of sexual violence in Korea, a new government report showed Tuesday, although the country is experiencing an overall decline in several forms of sexual violence. It also said victim-blaming and secondary victimization remain high. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family released the results of its comprehensive 2025 survey on sexual violence based on a nationwide study conducted every three years under the Sexual Violence Prevention and Victims Protection Act. The 2025 survey was conducted with 10,151 men and women aged 19 to 64. Findings showed that lifetime victimization rates for several major offenses have fallen compared to the results of the 2022 survey. The lifetime prevalence of sexual violence involving means of communication — such as phones and online platforms — decreased from 9.8 percent to 7.6 percent, while sexual harassment fell from 3.9 percent to 2.4 percent and rape, including attempted rape, from 0.2 percent to 0.1 percent. Behind the overall decline, however, th

Jun 23, 2026By Jung Min-ho

Digital sex crimes by intimate partners increase share of total, report finds

Society

Activist calls for school police as alternative to ‘Teach You a Lesson’ agents

An education activist is calling for the introduction of a U.S.-style school police system in Korea, arguing that a recent proposal to create a real-life version of a fictional teacher protection squad from the Netflix series "Teach You a Lesson" is legally infeasible and that only police officers with investigative powers can realistically safeguard teachers and students. Lee Keon-joo, representative of the Citizens' Coalition for the Future of School Education, a Seoul-based nonegovernmental organization, said the proposal by Gyeonggi education superintendent-elect Ahn Min-seok — inspired by the Korean Educational Rights Protection Bureau, a fictional squad in the drama that deploys discipline agents, sometimes through vigilante violence, to rescue classrooms from unruly students and difficult parents — fails to address the legal realities teachers face daily. “What’s depicted in the drama is a kind of fantasy, because in reality teachers would face serious legal consequences for human rights violations or child abuse if they did the same,” Lee said during a recent intervie

Jun 22, 2026By Jung Min-ho

Activist calls for school police as alternative to ‘Teach You a Lesson’ agents

Books

LTI Korea chief bets on human translators despite rapid AI development

As generative artificial intelligence (AI) transforms the global translation landscape, the head of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea) is making a counterintuitive bet: The future of literary translation will rely not less on humans, but more. “In literature, AI alone cannot meet the level expected by international publishers, without human intervention,” LTI Korea President Chon Soo-young said in a recent interview. “Even if more (advanced) AI models emerge, human post-editors would still be needed to review the work.” Chon cited an anecdote shared by Kim Un-su, a novelist famous for “The Plotters (2010).” At LTI Korea’s 30th anniversary event on May 21, an editor at an English-language publishing house initially showed little interest after reading a translation of his work, but later decided to publish it after reviewing a version translated by Sora Kim, a prominent literary translator. “After that, the editor even discussed his next book,” Chon said. “What mattered was not so much to the publisher what the novel was about, but whether Sora

Jun 20, 2026By Jung Min-ho

LTI Korea chief bets on human translators despite rapid AI development

Law & Crime

National Assembly launches probe into ballot shortages as NEC scandals mount

The National Assembly approved a sweeping parliamentary investigation into the June 3 local election ballot paper shortage, paving the way for a broader probe into irregularities at the National Election Commission (NEC), an institution long insulated by constitutional guarantees of its independence. The special committee on the Ninth Nationwide Local Elections Ballot Paper Shortage and Election Management Reform was officially launched on Thursday after legislators adopted the investigation motion and its 45-day plan in a plenary session, with 250 of 251 lawmakers present voting in favor. The probe will run in parallel with a separate criminal investigation that has already begun calling in election workers. The 18-member committee is made up of nine lawmakers from the ruling liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), seven from the People Power Party (PPP) and two from minor parties, with PPP lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun as chair. “The committee pledges before the people that it will do its utmost to uncover the full truth and to pursue sweeping reforms of election management, so that the

Jun 18, 2026By Jung Min-ho

Jung Min-ho

Read more

Gov’t ramps up crackdown on ‘salt farm slavery’

JoongAng Ilbo puts controlling rights up for sale amid creditor workout

Oh Se-hoon begins final mayoral term with 2030 presidential bid in view

What’s new in Korea in 2nd half of 2026: 1-week parental leave, unified rail app and more

Korea's 'fake news' law set to redraw online speech rules

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists wins Miwon Peace Prize

Digital sex crimes by intimate partners increase share of total, report finds

Activist calls for school police as alternative to ‘Teach You a Lesson’ agents

LTI Korea chief bets on human translators despite rapid AI development

National Assembly launches probe into ballot shortages as NEC scandals mount

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