WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea was elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for the 2025-2027 term on Wednesday, as Seoul seeks to actively participate in international efforts to address North Korean and other human rights issues. The U.N. General Assembly elected South Korea to the 47-member council for a sixth [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — The Cabinet meeting on Thursday approved a new bill calling for tougher punishment for digital sex crimes using deepfake technologies. The revision of the sexual crimes punishment law calls for punishing people caught possessing, purchasing, storing or viewing deepfake sexual materials and other fabricated videos with up to three [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean consumers are grappling with inconvenient cancellation processes and limited refund policies in the country’s burgeoning video streaming market, according to a recent government investigation. The Korea Consumer Agency and Democratic Party lawmaker Min Byoung-dug released findings on October 8 from their joint study of six major streaming providers, including [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — The state human rights watchdog has ruled in favor of a high school’s ban on the use of mobile phones by its students on campus, reversing its previous position that such a ban violates their human rights. The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) made the controversial decision [...]
DAEGU, Sept. 20 (Korea Bizwire) – With just a week to go before the Daegu Queer Culture Festival, tensions are escalating as both organizers and opponents have turned to the courts, filing injunctions that underscore the deeply divisive nature of LGBTQ+ rights in this conservative city. On September 19, the festival’s organizing committee submitted an emergency [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 18 (Korea Bizwire) – For Ahmed Lababidi, a 31-year-old Syrian refugee who fled forced military conscription in 2012, January marked a bittersweet milestone. After 12 years in South Korea, Lababidi, who uses the Korean name La Yeonu, finally reunited with his family in Turkey, only to find that time had transformed them into near-strangers. [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Korea Bizwire) – A Seoul court of appeals again reversed a district court ruling on compensation for South Korean victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor Thursday, ordering Japan’s Nishimatsu Construction Co. to compensate five victims. The Seoul High Court ruled that the Japanese company has to pay 20 million won (US$15,000) to [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 3 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s media regulator said Tuesday encrypted messaging app Telegram has complied with its request to remove certain deepfake pornographic content on its platform and apologized for its response to digital sex crimes. Numerous chat rooms suspected of creating and distributing deepfake porn content with doctored photos of Korean [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 30 (Korea Bizwire) – Women’s rights groups and university human rights clubs gathered in Seoul’s Gangnam Station area on August 29 to denounce the recent surge in ‘deepfake’ sex crimes and demand prompt action from authorities. The Seoul Women’s Association and other organizations held a press conference near Exit 10 of Gangnam Station, urging [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 27 (Korea Bizwire) – Police will carry out an intensive crackdown on deepfake sex images as a recent series of such crimes stoked fears that any woman could fall victim, officials said Tuesday. During the seven-month crackdown set to begin Wednesday, police will aggressively hunt down those who produce and spread such images, [...]