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CEO & Publisher: Oh Young-jinDigital News Email: webmaster@koreatimes.co.krTel: 02-724-2114Online newspaper registration No: 서울,아52844Date of registration: 2020.02.05Masthead: The Korea TimesCopyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.

Less-skilled-less-pay policy for migrant workers hits law hurdle

SMEs and Startups Minister Hong Jong-haak. Korea Times fileBy Ko Dong-hwanA South Korean ministry supporting small and medium businesses said operators' recent demands that migrant workers be paid less than experienced Korean laborers is against domestic and international laws and difficult to legalize.A Human Resource Innovation Policy Division official from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups told The Korea Times the proposal ― calling for the so-called “graded payment system” for foreign laborers ― by the Korea Federation of SMEs needs the ministry's further consideration to verify its feasibility. The official said domestic labor laws and the International Labor Organization's rules run against the proposal.“The proposal demands that migrant workers don't fully receive the statutory minimum hourly wage taking effect in Korea in 2019,” said the official, who wished to remain anonymous. The wage increased by 10.9 percent to 8,350 won ($7.45). “But Korea's labor laws, as well as the ILO, ban treating workers based on their nationality.”The official

Aug 24, 2018
Less-skilled-less-pay policy for migrant workers hits law hurdle
  • Biz lobby suggests 'less skilled, less paid' policy for migrant workers

Taken for a ride: Foreign students fall easy victim to rent fraud

Some landlords are targeting international students. YonhapBy Jung Hae-myoung International students here are increasingly falling victim to real estate-related fraud.In one case, a Vietnamese student, 28, didn't get her room deposit of 5 million won back because her landlord said she didn't pay any monthly rent. But she claimed she paid six months' rent in a lump sum but didn't receive a receipt. “The real estate procedure is complicated for international students,” one Chinese international student, surnamed Jing, told Dong-A Ilbo. “And it is harder to understand the jargon when they speak in Korean.” Foreign students, now numbering 120,000 here, often fall victim to the fraud. The paper cites four types. The first is a makeshift contract. Instead of a standard template contract, the landlords arbitrarily draw up one that does not protect the rights of foreign tenants. The second is the cash transaction. The third is the imposition of repair costs on the tenants. In the second and third cases, the landlord tries to take advantage of the foreign students' ina

Aug 24, 2018
Taken for a ride: Foreign students fall easy victim to rent fraud

Foreign Line

Startup CEO gives fireside chatJH Kim, CEO of ICONLOOP, will give a talk for Startup Grind Seoul starting at 7 p.m. this Thursday at Maru180 in southern Seoul. ICONLOOP recently introduced its blockchain engine, loopchain. It is a blockchain tech partner of the Korea Financial Investment Association (KOFIA), providing a stable coin method and increased cybersecurity for the Digital Plaza for Small Business, which facilitates trading, smart contracts, financial services and policy support for micro enterprises. Kim studied computer science and engineering at POSTECH and has over 20 years of information security experience. He has extensive experience in developing public key infrastructure, authentication and security protocols. Startup Grind is a global startup community designed to educate, inspire and connect entrepreneurs. It offers monthly fireside chats, mixers and annual conferences. The event provides networking opportunities over food and drinks plus a raffle.Visit facebook.com/startupgrindseoul for more information.Seoul Players audition for Rocky HorrorCalling all transvest

Aug 21, 2018

Korea Encounters Korean youths experiment with art, bodypainting in 1960s

?By Matt VanVolkenburg The Korea Times archives The 1960s are known as a decade when the horizons of art and fashion were expanded dramatically, and Korea was no exception to this trend. While daily newspapers covered these topics in a limited way, their weekly magazines, which tended to sensationalize, gave a good deal more coverage to cutting-edge art and fashion, especially when it involved scantily clad women.Though the Hankook Ilbo published the country's first weekly in 1964, the form came into its own when Seoul Shinmun began publishing Sunday Seoul in late 1968. Other weeklies soon followed. These magazines were clearly aimed at a male audience and often featured nude photos of Korean and Western women, the latter provided by Associated Press. Unsurprisingly, American and European experimental fashions of the time received eager coverage, including bodypainting, see-through clothing and clothing made of stickers or paper.It was not long before these trends rea

Aug 21, 2018
[Korea Encounters] Korean youths experiment with art, bodypainting in 1960s

Daegu hosts bodypainting festival

Courtesy of Daegu International Bodypainting FestivalBy Jon DunbarBodypainting and fantasy makeup artists and models from Korea and around the world will descend on Kolon Field Concert Hall in Daegu's Duryu Park this weekend for the 2018 Daegu International Bodypainting Festival (DIBF).The event turns people's bodies into canvases for works of art, brought to life by the contours and movements of the human body. Although bodypainting in some form is timeless in many cultures, it was popularized in the West as part of youth culture in the 1960s and spread to Korea the same decade. The Korean media gave it much sensationalist coverage, simultaneously condemning and inviting readers to be titillated at nude and semi-nude images. When the Park Chung-hee government cracked down on youth culture in the 1970s, bodypainting was one of its targets. But DIBF has had no such troubles, as it counts Daegu City as an official sponsor. It may also help that nudity is prohibited, with models wearing underwear and other covers. “In the early days, there were many reactions from the majority of

Aug 21, 2018
Daegu hosts bodypainting festival

Taiwan's Manic Sheep connect Asia's indie music scene

Taiwanese indie pop band Manic Sheep / Courtesy of Manic SheepBy Ali SafaviIndie music is often seen as the wheelhouse of Western countries, but it hasn't stopped growing in Asia. What is taking more time is for musicians across Asia to form relationships between countries that have traditionally been insular. This is resulting in East Asian bands touring other countries within the region and finding new collaborative partners and inspiration. “My favorite band is Sonic Youth, and I was a big fan of Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth's founding bassist) which made me want to start practicing bass,” says Chris Lo, vocalist and guitarist of Taiwanese band Manic Sheep. Despite a population of only 23 million _ less than half of South Korea's _ Taiwan produces a commendable number of indie and electronic bands every year, especially in the genres of shoegaze and dream pop that Manic Sheep do so well. After supporting international acts such as The Album Leaf and Kyte, the band found themselves being invited to prestigious festivals abroad such as SXSW, Clockenflap and Fuji Rock. Chris s

Aug 21, 2018
Taiwan's Manic Sheep connect Asia's indie music scene

Biz lobby suggests 'less skilled, less paid' policy for migrant workers

Workers hold a sit-in at Bosingak Bell in Jongno-gu, Seoul, in April to demand changes in the workplace. Korea Times fileBy Ko Dong-hwanInexperienced migrant workers should be paid less than professional Koreans for at least the first few years after the migrants arrive, says Korea's business federation for small to medium size companies.The Korea Federation of SMEs, also known as K-BIZ, earlier this month accepted most of its member companies' suggestions that raising migrant workers' wages more than 10 percent to the new legal minimum hourly wage starting January 2019 is unfair.K-BIZ argued on Aug. 12 that the foreign workers, mostly inexperienced in the manufacturing sectors for which they were recruited, should be paid 80 percent of the minimum wage the first year, 90 percent the following year, and finally 100 percent in the third year.Such a system is followed by many Korean companies that pay lower-than-regular wages to new employees during an aptitude assessment period that lasts from months to a year. The government has raised the minimum hourly wage to 8,350 won ($7.45) sta

Aug 20, 2018
Biz lobby suggests 'less skilled, less paid' policy for migrant workers
  • 67% of SMEs willing to replace foreign workers with North Koreans, survey shows
  • Less-skilled-less-pay policy for migrant workers hits law hurdle

Rejected asylum seekers decry 'no honorable return'

Fleeing Bangladesh in fear of religious persecution and applying for refugee status after arriving in Gimpo in 2000, Ronel Chakma Nani, right, has been supporting migrant workers and asylum seekers in Korea as director of the Gimpo Immigrant Center. Photos provided by Gimpo Foreign Citizen Support CenterBy Ko Dong-hwanSouth Korea is a harsh land for asylum seekers. Of 40,470 who have arrived here, almost 20,400 have been evaluated since 1994 and only 839 accepted as of June 2018. That's about 4 percent and compares starkly with the 3.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey and the 2.2 million in Lebanon. So what happens to the 96 percent of asylum seekers in Korea who were rejected?They have nowhere to go, caught between the country they fled and another country that refuses their entry. They can try a different country but the odds of acceptance are nearly zero. These vagrant souls are haunted by “no honorable return,” a phrase coined by Ronel Chakma Nani, the director of the Gimpo Immigrant Center in Gyeonggi Province.“Rejected asylum seekers in Korea have no exit,&rd

Aug 15, 2018
Rejected asylum seekers decry 'no honorable return'

CITYSCAPES Explaining the unexplained on Yonsei campus

A mysterious object sits in the front yard of Underwood Memorial House on Yonsei University's Seoul campus, last Sept. 21. / Courtesy of Ron Bandun By Ron BandunThe universe is a big place filled with unexplained things. Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) exist, until they become identified. In your limited existence you can't explain every natural phenomenon you encounter, and it's arrogant to presume your unexplainable encounter somehow unlocks the mysteries of the universe. In all my experiences, I've had a few encounters that gave me a deep chill. I like to sit and savor it, like you would an ice cream sundae or a horror movie. Though for the record, I hate horror movies; I'm already living in one.Of course the sensation always subsides, leaving me with no more answers about life after death.I probably felt it most intensely on the Yonsei University campus, right in front of Underwood Memorial Hall, located past an old stone bridge and surrounded by trees. The h

Aug 14, 2018
[CITYSCAPES] Explaining the unexplained on Yonsei campus

Skyline Luge transforms Tongyeong's mountain slope

New Zealand Ambassador to Korea Philip Turner rides a gravity-powered luge cart at Skyline Luge Tongyeong, Aug. 3. / Courtesy of Skyline Luge Tongyeong By Jon DunbarNew Zealand's biggest investment project in Korea would have to be something unconventional, and the country known for its extreme sports and outdoor recreation doesn't disappoint. Skyline Luge Tongyeong offers 2.1 kilometers of downhill track on the slopes of Mount Mireuk, below the popular Hallyeosudo Landscape Cable Car in South Gyeongsang Province. Riders of all ages and experience levels take a gravity-powered ride in a wheeled luge that provides full control on the way down the hill on a purpose-built track complete with twists, turns and tunnels. “As the rider has full control of the luge cart, every ride can be different, which is where Skyline gets its tagline: once is never enough,” said James Dudfield, general manager of Skyline Luge Tongyeong.New Zealand's Skyline Enterprises introduced this

Aug 14, 2018
Skyline Luge transforms Tongyeong's mountain slope
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