South Korea - The Korea Times

STEM professors take helm of Korean universities in AI era

A growing number of professors with backgrounds in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are being appointed as university presidents, demonstrating a rapid shift in the leadership landscape that underscores a broader refocusing of institutional priorities toward research and advanced technology. As the government ramps up support for industry-academia collaboration and pushes to expand the advanced tech workforce, even universities long known for their strengths in the humanities are pivoting to expand their focus on natural sciences and engineering. Among institutions ranked in the top 30 of The Korea Times K-universities Global Excellence Rankings 2026, 19 institutions — a clear majority — are led by presidents with backgrounds in natural sciences or engineering. Hanyang University’s ERICA campus, ranked 19th, was excluded as it shares the same president as the main campus. To account for 30 distinct university leaders, the analysis was extended to include the 31st-ranked institution. The trend shows a sharp reversal from a decade ago. In 2016, 17 of the 30 pre

Apr 30, 2026By Jung Da-hyun

STEM professors take helm of Korean universities in AI era

Korean labor law loophole leaves microbusiness workers unprotected

Jung Woo-jin remembers Christmas Eve 2024 as the day his manager handed over the car keys. Jung, a pseudonym for a man who worked at a relocation agency for foreign executives from October 2024 to January 2026, said the manager ordered him to drive the vehicle to the supervisor's home and park it in the underground garage ahead of a night out drinking. The personal errands escalated as time went on. Over the next year, the manager made Jung plan a private vacation for his boss in Europe, book hotels and rental cars, and research local traffic laws. Jung also had to move personal belongings and settle utility bills at the supervisor's residence. Jung eventually quit and reported the abuse to the Seoul Regional Employment and Labor Office. Authorities, however, rejected his complaint. While Jung’s company had six employees when he joined, officials determined that high turnover brought the average during his tenure to 4.66 workers. Because Korea’s workplace harassment laws apply only to businesses with at least five regular employees, the calculation left Jung in a regulatory gap wit

Apr 29, 2026By Hankookilbo

Korean labor law loophole leaves microbusiness workers unprotected

Busan partners with Agoda to attract foreign remote workers with workcation benefits

Busan is teaming up with online travel platform Agoda to promote the southeastern port city as a "workcation" destination for foreign visitors, offering remote workers streamlined booking and accommodation discounts. Starting May 6, Busan will launch the program on Agoda's platform, with an initial focus on key inbound markets including Japan, China and Taiwan. A dedicated Busan workcation page and social media marketing campaigns will go live to highlight details about workcation opportunities in the city to users worldwide. The city also plans to streamline its workcation enrollment process for foreign participants, simplifying verification to lower entry barriers and make the program more accessible to international users. International remote workers and digital nomads can participate by completing verification on busaness.com, using a passport and proof of employment, after which they receive a dedicated Agoda promo code for discounts. The Agoda deal is the latest step in Busan's bid to become a global workcation hub. In 2023, the city opened a 708 square-meter workcation center on

Apr 29, 2026By Park Ung

Busan partners with Agoda to attract foreign remote workers with workcation benefits

Unionized cargo workers, BGF Logis reach tentative agreement after fatal truck accident

Unionized cargo workers said Wednesday they have reached a tentative agreement with BGF Logis, the logistics affiliate of the CU convenience store chain, following the death of a union member hit by a truck during a recent demonstration near a logistics center of the company. Last Monday, a 2.5-ton truck struck participants of a cargo worker rally near a CU convenience store logistics center in Jinju, about 290 kilometers southeast of Seoul, killing a union member in his 50s and injuring two others. The rally was staged to demand that BGF negotiate directly with unionized cargo truck drivers who are not directly employed by the company. Such a call followed the recent enactment of the so-called yellow envelope act that made prime contractors more accountable for subcontracted workers while restricting businesses from claiming damages from striking workers. The Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union said it reached the deal in a meeting with representatives from BGF Logis early Wednesday, with an official signing ceremony slated for 11 a.m. The union said blockades at major lo

Apr 29, 2026By Yonhap

Unionized cargo workers, BGF Logis reach tentative agreement after fatal truck accident

Lawyers, counselors grapple with what AI can and cannot replace

A Seoul-based lawyer surnamed Ha spends about 600,000 won ($410) a month on artificial intelligence (AI) subscriptions such as Claude and Korean legal platforms such as SuperLawyer and LBOX. Hiring a junior lawyer would cost him close to 100 million won a year, roughly 14 times as much. The math, he says, is no longer close. “Without AI, I’d probably have one more person in the office by now,” Ha told The Korea Times, adding that over the past two years, he has used large language models intensively for work. “I still need to review the quality of final drafts, but the need to hire new lawyers has definitely gone down.” Only a few years ago, Korean law firms routinely hired swarms of new law school graduates to plow through ruling precedents, check statutes and draft the first versions of briefs. Now, more managing partners reach for a subscription instead of a job posting, and the same calculation is playing out across other white-collar professions, from legal offices to counseling rooms, as AI forces a reckoning over what kind of work still requires a human. “I don’t re

Apr 29, 2026By Jung Min-ho

Lawyers, counselors grapple with what AI can and cannot replace

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

The government will introduce a new allowance and raise pay for short-term public sector workers as part of a sweeping plan to stamp out unfair employment practices affecting irregular workers whose contract is less than one year across state-funded organizations. At a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, the Ministry of Employment and Labor reported that the plan, drawn up jointly with related ministries, is aimed at rooting out practices such as repeatedly renewing 11-month contracts to avoid paying severance and sidestep giving permanent jobs to short-term workers. The new measure is expected to be adopted next year. According to a government survey of 2,100 state-related bodies, there are roughly 146,000 fixed-term workers in the public sector, with about half — some 73,000 — on contracts of less than one year. The average monthly wage for these workers is 2.89 million won ($1,960), but those on contracts that last less than one year earn slightly less at 2.8 million won a month. Based on those findings, the labor ministry has decided to work toward banning contracts shorter than 12 months

Apr 28, 2026By Jung Min-ho

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

Medical schools short of teaching faculty after increase in admission quotas

Medical schools failed to hire enough teaching faculty following a large increase in admission quotas for 2025, the state audit agency said Tuesday. The Board of Audit and Inspection announced the results of an audit into what measures medical schools took to ensure quality education after their aggregate admission quotas rose by about 1,500 to 4,567 for the 2025 school year under a decision by the then government of ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol. Of the 30 medical schools given larger quotas, 18 fell short of meeting their hiring plans as of February last year, with Soon Chun Hyang University in the central city of Cheonan topping the list with a shortage of 92 teachers. Only 59 percent of newly added teaching positions were filled at 30 medical schools between March 2024 and February 2025, and the situation was worse at schools outside of the Seoul metropolitan area due in part to lower wages and poorer living conditions in provincial areas. The audit agency said government budgets were also allocated to medical schools solely based on increased quotas without taking the specif

Apr 28, 2026By Yonhap

Medical schools short of teaching faculty after increase in admission quotas

Regulatory blind spot leaves students passing by adult-content livestream studio on way to school

An adult-content livestreaming studio located next to an elementary school in Seoul’s Gangnam district has sparked controversy over its potential impact on students’ learning environment. A joint inspection by district authorities, launched after a series of complaints from parents, found that no concrete action could be taken under current law, further fueling the dispute. According to Gangnam District Office on Monday, the studio at the center of the controversy is located in the basement of a commercial building about 100 meters from an elementary school in Cheongdam-dong. Officials said the space is used by female online streamers who produce what are called “Excel broadcasts,” a kind of livestream in which viewer donations are displayed on-screen in a spreadsheet-like format. The format often features multiple streamers at once, with some using provocative gestures or revealing outfits to encourage viewers to compete with one another in sending donations. Citing their structure and sexually explicit content, the National Tax Service last year described such broadcasts as

Apr 28, 2026By Hankookilbo

Regulatory blind spot leaves students passing by adult-content livestream studio on way to school

Seoul opens int'l student support center in Sinchon

Seoul city government has launched Seoul Global Student Center in the Sinchon university area, offering a one-stop platform in the northwestern neighborhood for foreign students seeking employment, startup support and settlement assistance, the city announced. The center, which begins full operations in May, is located near several major universities to maximize accessibility for foreign students. It complements the existing Seoul Global Center in Jongno, central Seoul, which serves the broader foreign resident population, by focusing specifically on the needs of international students. The number of foreign students in Korea has nearly tripled over the past decade, rising from roughly 90,000 to approximately 250,000, according to 2025 data from the Korean Educational Development Institute. Regardless of their multilingual skills, multicultural awareness and global networks, systematic support for these students remains inadequate, with critics pointing to a widening gap between policies aimed at attracting foreign students and those designed to help them find employment and settle in t

Apr 28, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan

Seoul opens int'l student support center in Sinchon

S. Korea identifies remains of another soldier killed during Korean War

South Korea's military has identified the remains of another soldier killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, raising the number of such service members to 273, the defense ministry said Tuesday. The ministry's Agency for KIA Recovery and Identification and the 21st Infantry Division recovered the remains of late Cpl. Kim Pan-seong near Yanggu, Gangwon, in 2024, according to the ministry. KIA stands for killed in action. Kim, who joined the military service in May 1951, died while fighting against North Korean and Chinese forces on Mount Baekseok, near Yanggu County, in October the same year. He was 21. South Korea has so far identified the remains of 273 service members killed in the conflict since it launched the excavation project in 2000.