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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.

Global Korea Awards winners share experiences with gender minister

Outstanding students from multicultural backgrounds shared their stories and policy ideas with Minister of Gender Equality and Family Won Min-kyong, turning their personal experiences into proposals for change. Winners of the Global Korea Awards — hosted by The Korea Times to support multicultural students who often encounter hurdles rooted in cultural differences or language barriers — gathered for a luncheon with Won at Government Complex Seoul in Jongno District, Thursday. “I read about each of your backgrounds and achievements. You are all truly remarkable,” Won said, explaining that the ministry is shifting from awareness campaigns toward policies that respond to what multicultural families and immigrant-background youth actually need. “We all share this planet. That common ground calls us to reject discrimination and build a society where young people of all backgrounds stand equal,” she said. Korea Times President-Publisher Oh Young-jin noted that multiculturalism, once an unfamiliar concept when the awards launched 15 years ago, has become a natural part of Korean soc

May 7, 2026By Park Ung
Global Korea Awards winners share experiences with gender minister

After impeachment, disappointed young Koreans turn away from politics

For 22-year-old college student Lee Ji-ahn, a press conference held last March by eight lawmakers in their 30s and 40s from both the ruling and opposition parties remains a clear memory. “The benefits go to older generations, while the burden falls on future generations,” lawmakers gathered at the National Assembly said as they criticized the national pension reform bill, arguing that the parametric adjustment — raising the contribution rate from 9 percent to 13 percent and the income replacement rate from 40 percent to 43 percent — would make the system worse for young people. “It was the kind of politics I wanted to see,” Lee recalled. But the cross-party push to represent younger voters was short-lived, soon buried under partisan bickering between the ruling and opposition parties. Lee said skepticism began to grow: “Why does it matter if I vote for one party?” Kwon Mil-roo, another college student in her 20s, said she was shocked by a filibuster speech late last year by the leader of the main opposition People Power Party. In the speech, the opposition leader said ma

May 7, 2026By Hankookilbo
After impeachment, disappointed young Koreans turn away from politics

Gov't uncovers 84 cases of abuse against foreign seasonal workers

The Ministry of Justice said Thursday it conducted an inspection of human rights violations against foreign seasonal workers last month and found 84 violations at 61 workplaces in eight cities and counties. Violations of working conditions, such as unpaid wages and human rights violations, including verbal abuse, were the most frequent, with 25 cases each, the ministry said. A lack of fire prevention facilities and the provision of container accommodations unsuitable for residential use also totaled 18 and 16 cases, respectively, it added. Workplaces and local governments, where such violations have been confirmed, will be subject to appropriate punitive measures, and relief procedures will be taken for victims of human rights violations after further investigations. The ministry said it will continue inspections of 3,445 other workplaces in 27 cities and counties nationwide until June 30 to check the foreign workers' overall working and living environment, including involvement of illegal brokers, wage arrears and violations of labor contracts.

May 7, 2026By Yonhap
Gov't uncovers 84 cases of abuse against foreign seasonal workers

Hangeul education for multicultural children emerges as urgent priority

“Now I can study on my own,” 10-year-old Han Seo-yeon said, beaming proudly. A student at South-North Love School, an alternative school in Seoul’s Guro District, Han then opened a Korean language textbook and read aloud in a clear voice without hesitation. Her textbook page was filled with "red circles" marking right answers to many questions requiring comphrension of long passages correctly. She still finds grammar bit tricky, but when it comes to writing simple sentences, she can do it with ease. As she explained how much her Hangeul had improved, a proud smile spread across her face. Han is a child from an immigrant background who lived in China with her Chinese-Korean parents until she came to Korea last July. Back then, she could not read Hangeul, but thanks to Hangeul lessons at school and reading comprehension classes provided by the NGO Friends of Hope, she has now fully mastered the letters of the Korean alphabet. Her growing confidence among friends at school has been a bonus. “I was sad and frustrated at first because I couldn’t read signs, textbooks or exam papers,

May 7, 2026By Hankookilbo
Hangeul education for multicultural children emerges as urgent priority

Gov't to try to identify all unclaimed fallen soldiers buried at national cemeteries

The government will try to identify all unclaimed fallen soldiers buried at national cemeteries and bestow state honors on them, officials said Thursday. The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission and the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs said they will look into military conscription records and all other available data to check the identities of all those fallen heroes and honor them as national meritorious service personnel. The rights commission has been in discussions on the matter with the patriots ministry after confirming in August last year that an Army major buried at a national cemetery had not been registered as a state-honored hero because he had no family members to file for the recognition. The project will begin with those buried at the Seoul National Cemetery and expand to the Daejeon National Cemetery and 19 other state-managed cemeteries, the rights commission said. Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans were killed during the 1950-53 Korean War. It is unclear how many sets of remains buried at national cemeteries have not been claimed.

May 7, 2026By Yonhap
Gov't to try to identify all unclaimed fallen soldiers buried at national cemeteries

International schools highlight gaps in Korea’s school violence law

Despite years of tightening school violence laws, international schools in Korea remain outside the purview of most legislation on the issue thanks to their unique status. Hundreds of cases have been reported at international schools over the past five years, but the institutions have largely been left to handle incidents under their own rules, without holding the committees that would normally convene in cases of school violence at other kinds of institutions. Schools say they address cases that arise under their own internal guidelines, but recurring incidents are fueling calls to bring them under the Act on the Prevention of and Countermeasures Against Violence in Schools. According to data submitted by the Ministry of Education to the office of Rep. Kim Yong-tae of the main opposition People Power Party, Wednesday, a total of 264 school violence cases were reported at seven accredited international schools between 2020 — when school violence countermeasure committees were introduced — and last year. By school, North London Collegiate School Jeju recorded the highest number of inc

May 6, 2026By Jung Da-hyun
International schools highlight gaps in Korea’s school violence law

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’
  • Lawyers, counselors grapple with what AI can and cannot replace
  • Declining income, no consent: AI eats into Korea's creative, language workforce

Gov't to expand compensation eligibility for descendants of independence heroes

The government plans to expand eligibility for a compensation scheme for descendants of Korean independence fighters during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, the veterans ministry said Wednesday. The revised Act on the Honorable Treatment of Persons of Distinguished Service to Independence calls for providing regular compensation payments to second-generation descendants, regardless of when their forebears died, according to the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs. Since 1973, the law has allowed payments only to the spouses and children of independence heroes and to only one grandchild if the independence fighter died before the country's liberation on Aug. 15, 1945. In cases where first-generation descendants are no longer alive, compensation is limited to direct descendants. The revised law will remove those eligibility restrictions. If implemented, more than 2,300 descendants are expected to be added to the list of eligible recipients, the ministry said. The revised act was approved at a Cabinet meeting earlier in the day. It will be promulgated before the e

May 6, 2026By Yonhap
Gov't to expand compensation eligibility for descendants of independence heroes

Barricades around statue symbolizing WWII sexual slavery victims removed

Barricades surrounding an iconic statue of a girl representing victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery were permanently lifted Wednesday, six years after they were placed due to security concerns. Cheers erupted as participants of a weekly rally remembering the victims pushed the police fences from the "Statue of Peace" near the former site of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul. The police barricades were placed in June 2020 at a civic group's request. The site had become a flashpoint in recent years as far-right groups denying the Japanese military's sexual enslavement of women during World War II held counter-rallies nearby, raising concerns of possible damage to the statue. But the arrest of a leader of the rallies in March on charges of defaming the victims had paved the way for discussions to remove the barricades. Police temporarily lifted them last month before Wednesday's permanent removal. "Just as the girl statue's barricades opened today, (we) will tear down the walls that block the steps toward justice and peace," participants of the weekly rally said in a statement. As the barri

May 6, 2026By Yonhap
Barricades around statue symbolizing WWII sexual slavery victims removed

Buddhist sect welcomes humanoid robot Gabi with precept ceremony

Under a roof of paper lanterns strung across Jogye Temple in downtown Seoul, a group of monks from the Jogye Order, Korea's largest Buddhist sect, sat across from a postulant awaiting a precept ceremony — except that postulant was the country's first humanoid robot to take part in the ritual. Clad in humble black shoes and the Buddhist order's ceremonial gray and brown robe, the 1.3-meter-tall robot stood in front of Buddhist monks and nuns as it pledged to commit itself to Buddhism in the ceremony held Wednesday, ahead of Buddha's Birthday later this month. The robot folded its hands together and bowed to the monks officiating the ceremony, as one of the monks carefully hung a 108-bead rosary and attached a sticker instead of the original ritual where one has to slightly burn his arms near an incense stick. "Will you devote yourself to the holy Buddha?" one of the monks asked. "Yes, I will devote myself," the robot replied in an audible voice. "Will you devote yourself to the holy teaching?" the monk asked. "Yes, I will devote myself," the robot answered. The monk then laid out five prec

May 6, 2026By Yonhap
Buddhist sect welcomes humanoid robot Gabi with precept ceremony
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