South Korea’s Labor Standards Act was amended in February 2018 to reduce the maximum weekly working hours to 52 from 68. The reduced workweek came into force for companies with 300 or more employees in July last year. At the outset of this year, it was applied to small and medium-sized enterprises with 50 to 299 workers. Violators of the revised workweek rules are subject to up to two years in prison or a fine of up to 20 million won ($17,630). The government has deferred the punishment

Regarding its killing of a South Korean fisheries official at the West Sea on Sept. 22, the North said Friday that the incident happened because the South failed to exercise proper control over its people. Through its Korean Central News Agency, North Korea argued that South Korea was the first to blame for the shooting death of its citizen. The North overturned its position 35 days after its leader Kim Jong-un offered an apology on Sept. 25 saying that he feels “very sorry.” It e

Apparently buoyed by positive figures released by the Bank of Korea on Tuesday, President Moon Jae-in said in his parliamentary speech on the proposed budget for 2021 the following day that it was time for a full-fledged push to revitalize the economy. He stressed the need to continue an expansionary fiscal policy to help achieve a full economic recovery and a win in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, which he said the country should catch at the same time without fail. His administrat

An agency to investigate corruption cases involving high-ranking officials exclusively instead of the prosecution is likely in breach of the Constitution. Related legislative procedures last year were undemocratic. The ruling Democratic Party of Korea secretly promised to help revise the election law in favor of minor parties in return for their cooperation in passing the agency bill. The National Assembly speaker approved a forcible resignation of a lawmaker who vowed to vote down the bill in

Late Samsung Group chief Lee Kun-hee’s heirs, including his only son Jae-yong, the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, are set to shoulder a record amount of inheritance tax, as he left behind about 18 trillion won ($15.9 billion) in stock assets. The total inheritance tax to be paid by them is estimated to be close to 11 trillion won, exceeding the total of 10.6 trillion won that the National Tax Service collected in inheritance tax from 2016 to 2019. The case, which also concerns the