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☆ Samsung Employees Return to Work After Strike Fails to Win Concessions
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-05 | by ( Jin Yu Young | More About Jin Yu Young | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Thousands of unionized workers at Samsung Electronics in South Korea, who had declared an indefinite strike last month, had returned to work by Monday after failing to win concessions from the global tech giant. It was the first unionized action in the decades-long history of Samsung, one of the world’s biggest makers of computer chips. But the striking employees, numbering roughly 6,500 or so, accounted for only a fraction of union membership and a sliver of the company’s total work force. Most of them were back at work by Monday, according to Lee Hyun Kuk, the vice president of the Nationwide Samsung Electronics Union. But the financial burden of a prolonged, unpaid strike on employees forced union leaders to issue a back-to-work order last week.

Persons: Lee Hyun Kuk Organizations: Samsung Electronics, Samsung, Nationwide Samsung Electronics Union Locations: South Korea

☆ Declaring ‘Crisis,’ South Korean Firms Tell Managers to Work 6 Days a Week
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-05 | by ( Jin Yu Young | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Back in the day,” said Lim Hyung-kyu, a retired Samsung Electronics executive now in his 70s, “my weeks were Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Friday, Friday.”Mr. Lim joined Samsung, South Korea’s largest company, in 1976 and rose through the ranks to chief technology officer. For much of his 30-plus years at Samsung, working on the weekends was normal — and legal under the nation’s labor laws. South Korean labor laws cap working hours to 52 a week: 40 standard hours with up to 12 for overtime. But over the past few months, some influential South Korean companies have told executives to work longer hours, in some cases telling them to come to the office six days a week. Some people in South Korean business are predicting that lower-ranked employees and managers at smaller companies will feel pressure to follow suit.

Persons: ”, Lim Hyung, ” Mr, Lim, Mr Organizations: Samsung Electronics, Samsung, Korea’s Locations: South

The billionaire founder of South Korean technology giant Kakao, Kim Beom-Su, was arrested on Tuesday on allegations of stock manipulation related to the company’s investment in one of the country’s largest K-pop agencies. A high-profile bidding war broke out over the agency, SM Entertainment, early last year. Prosecutors allege, Kakao manipulated SM Entertainment’s stock price to hinder Hybe, the company behind BTS, from acquiring the agency, whose roster of artists includes Girls’ Generation. Last year, prosecutors indicted Kakao’s chief investment officer and the company itself on stock manipulation charges. The Seoul Southern District Court confirmed that Mr. Kim had been arrested on Tuesday morning.

Persons: Kim Beom, Kakao, Mr, Kim Organizations: SM Entertainment, Prosecutors, Seoul Southern, Court Locations: Korean, Hybe, Seoul

☆ Defeated by A.I., a Legend in the Board Game Go Warns: Get Ready for What’s Next
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-10 | by ( Daisuke Wakabayashi | Jin Yu Young | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Lee Saedol was the finest Go player of his generation when he suffered a decisive loss, defeated not by a human opponent but by artificial intelligence. Mr. Lee was beaten by AlphaGo, an A.I. The stunning upset, in 2016, made headlines around the world and looked like a clear sign that artificial intelligence was entering a new, profoundly unsettling era. “I am very surprised because I have never thought I would lose,” Mr. Lee said at the time in a post-match news conference. “I didn’t know that AlphaGo would play such a perfect Go.”

Persons: Lee Saedol, Lee, AlphaGo, Google’s, ” Mr, ” Organizations: Go

Unionized workers at Samsung Electronics said Wednesday they would go on an indefinite strike, an escalation of a rare labor dispute that could disrupt the technology giant’s world-leading chip business. An estimated 6,500 workers walked off the job on Monday for a planned three-day strike over pay and working conditions. The Nationwide Samsung Electronics Union decided to extend the strike after “hearing no word” from the company, according to Lee Hyun Kuk, the vice president of the union, which represents 28,000 workers, or a fifth of the Samsung’s global work force. The union said it has been negotiating with Samsung since January over vacation days and wages. “As the strike goes on, the management’s blood will dry out and they will eventually come to the negotiating table on their knees,” the union said in a statement.

Persons: Lee Hyun Kuk Organizations: Samsung Electronics, Nationwide Samsung Electronics Union, Samsung, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company

☆ BTS Fans Rejoice: Jin, Its Eldest Member, Completes Military Service
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-11 | by ( Jin Yu Young | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The first member of the boy band to enlist in South Korea’s army, Jin, 31, was discharged on Wednesday morning, BTS’s label said. Over the next year or so, his bandmates are expected to complete their military service, which is required of nearly all South Korean men. Jin, the group’s eldest member, whose birth name is Kim Seok-jin, began his 18-month stint in the military that December. His enlistment came after much public debate about whether BTS should get an exemption from the draft, as Olympic medalists and some classical musicians do. Researchers say BTS’s global success has contributed billions of dollars to the South Korean economy.

Persons: Jin, BTS’s, —, group’s, Kim Seok Organizations: BTS Locations: South Korea’s, South Korea

☆ Train Crash in Czech Republic Kills 4 and Injures More Than 20
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-06 | by ( Jin Yu Young | More About Jin Yu Young | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A train crash in the Czech Republic late Wednesday killed at least four people and injured more than 20 others, according to officials. A passenger train was bound for Kosice, Slovakia, with roughly 380 passengers on board when it hit a freight train, according to the national Fire and Rescue Service. The crash occurred in Pardubice, a city around 62 miles east of Prague, which is where the passenger train had started its journey. The freight train was carrying calcium carbide, a caustic, flammable chemical compound used in steel manufacturing, among other things. There was no leakage from the crash, according to the Fire and Rescue Service.

Organizations: and Rescue Service, Rescue Service, Pictures Locations: Czech Republic, Kosice, Slovakia, Pardubice, Prague

☆ Papua New Guinea to End Search for Landslide Victims
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-06 | by ( Christopher Cottrell | Jin Yu Young | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Two weeks after a landslide leveled a remote community in Papua New Guinea’s Enga Province, search and rescue operations are about to end, amid indications that the disaster was less devastating than previously thought. So far, nine bodies have been recovered, but crews have struggled to work through debris that covered an irregularly shaped area more than a third of a mile long. Aid workers have distributed food — rice, canned fish, cooking oil, sugar and salt — to about 3,000 people living near the site. Geological experts from New Zealand have urged the authorities to evacuate a larger area because of the risk of another landslide, a United Nations agency said, adding that the search for victims is scheduled to end on Friday.

Organizations: United Locations: Papua, Enga Province, New Zealand, United Nations

☆ What We Know About the Papua New Guinea Landslide
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-28 | by ( Jin Yu Young | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Nearly five days after a landslide devastated a remote section of Papua New Guinea, officials in the Pacific Island nation have begun evacuating residents, because the area remains unsafe. The circumstances also make it difficult to understand the true scale of the tragedy, with estimates of the death toll ranging from the hundreds to the thousands. Here is what we know so far:What happened? The landslide hit the community around Yambali village around 3 a.m. on Friday. Boulders the size of shipping containers demolished buildings, burying at least 60 homes and at least one elementary school.

Persons: ” Sandis Tsaka, Tsaka Locations: Papua New Guinea, Enga Province, Yambali

☆ Bus Crash in Indonesia Kills 11, Including Students, After Graduation Celebration
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-12 | by ( Jin Yu Young | More About Jin Yu Young | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A bus carrying students and teachers returning from a graduation celebration crashed in Subang, Indonesia, on Saturday evening, killing at least 11 people, many of them students. The crash occurred around 6:45 p.m. as the vehicle was returning from a hilly resort area in Bandung to Depok, West Java, the authorities said. While the cause of the accident was still under investigation on Sunday, the West Java police said that the bus had sped out of control on a downhill road and crashed into multiple vehicles. An initial investigation revealed that the bus was apparently not fit for the road and had malfunctioning brakes. There were 61 passengers aboard, according to the police, who said that nine people died at the scene and two died later in a hospital.

Organizations: West Java Locations: Subang, Indonesia, Bandung, Depok, West Java

☆ At the Home of BTS, Turmoil Over a Rising K-Pop Star
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-12 | by ( Jin Yu Young | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The video had none of the hallmarks of K-pop. But it included screenshots of chats between two power players in the industry and instantly became the talk of the K-pop world. It was the live broadcast of a two-hour emotional tell-all delivered last month by Min Hee-Jin, the producer of NewJeans, arguably today’s hottest K-pop act. She had called a news conference to dispute accusations of corporate malfeasance by her employer, Hybe, the K-pop colossus behind BTS. And it has cast a cloud over Hybe’s relationship with a rising star, NewJeans, while its biggest act, BTS, is on hiatus.

Persons: Min Hee, Jin, NewJeans, —

☆ Airline Agrees to Pay $79 Million After Selling Tickets for Canceled Flights
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-06 | by ( Jin Yu Young | More About Jin Yu Young | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Qantas, Australia’s national airline, said on Monday that it had reached a deal with the country’s consumer watchdog to pay the equivalent of $79 million for selling thousands of tickets to flights that it had already canceled. The airline said in a statement that the payments, totaling 120 million Australian dollars, would resolve a lawsuit that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission filed against Qantas over the issue last year. The commission accused the airline of advertising and selling tickets for more than 8,000 canceled flights from May 2021 through July 2022. The commission said Qantas had known that the flights would never take off, and that tickets remained available for an average of over two weeks after the flights were canceled — in some cases, for as long as 47 days. Qantas said it expected to pay 20 million Australian dollars in compensation to more than 86,000 of its customers, as well as a fine of 100 million dollars, subject to court approval.

Organizations: Qantas, Australia’s, Australian Competition, Consumer Commission

☆ Teenager Fatally Shot by Australian Police After He Stabbed a Man
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-05 | by ( Jin Yu Young | More About Jin Yu Young | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The police in Perth, Australia, fatally shot a 16-year-old boy who had stabbed a man in a parking lot and who officials said had been on their radar for suspicion of having extremist tendencies. Members of the public had also alerted the police that the teenager was wielding a knife, and officers were dispatched to the scene. A mass stabbing in a shopping mall in Sydney killed six people and injured at least a dozen on April 13. On Saturday in Perth, the two officers who arrived to confront the teenager drew their tasers and a firearm, Commissioner Blanch said. They tried to convince him to drop his knife, but he did not comply and rushed at one of the officers.

Persons: Col Blanch, Blanch Organizations: Police Locations: Perth, Australia, Western Australia, Sydney

☆ Frustrated South Koreans Blame President in Standoff With Doctors
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-01 | by ( Jin Yu Young | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Eun Sung injured her right thumb in a fall in March and needed surgery to fix a torn ligament. But scheduling one has been difficult even though she lives in one of the most developed nations in the world, South Korea. For more than two months, South Korea’s health care system has been in disarray because thousands of doctors walked off the job after the government proposed to drastically increase medical school admissions. But one thing has changed: Public opinion has turned against the government of President Yoon Suk Yeol. A majority of respondents in a recent poll said that the government should negotiate with the doctors to reach an agreement quickly or withdraw its proposal.

Persons: Eun Sung, ”, Sung, Yoon Suk Locations: South Korea, Seoul

☆ 2 Police Officers Are Killed in Shootout Near Syracuse, N.Y.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-15 | by ( Jin Yu Young | More About Jin Yu Young | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Two police officers were killed in a shootout on Sunday evening as they investigated a stolen vehicle in an upstate New York town near Syracuse, the authorities said. The two officers were investigating a parked vehicle in Salina, N.Y., when a suspect shot at them, Syracuse Police Chief Joseph L. Cecile told reporters early Monday morning. Several people were shot in the ensuing shootout, including an officer from the Syracuse Police Department, a sheriff’s deputy from Onondaga County and one male suspect, the police said. Those three were later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Earlier in the evening, around 7 p.m.., two Syracuse officers tried to stop what they had determined to be a suspicious vehicle, but the driver drove off, the police said.

Persons: Joseph L, Cecile Organizations: Syracuse Police, Syracuse Police Department, Syracuse Locations: New York, Syracuse, Salina , N.Y, Onondaga County

☆ Israel Faced a Sophisticated Attack From Iran
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-14 | by ( Jin Yu Young | More About Jin Yu Young | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The weapons Iran used on Saturday can travel much farther, and some of them can travel much faster. Still, Israel said that nearly all of the missiles and drones that Iran fired were intercepted, many with help from U.S. forces. In Saturday’s attack, 185 drones, 36 cruise missiles and 110 surface-to-surface missiles were fired toward Israel, according to Israeli military officials. It has a range of more than 1,200 miles — plenty to reach Israel from Iran. In recent decades, Iran has largely been focused on deterrence, long-range missiles, drones and air defenses.

Persons: Israel, Fabian Hinz, Jeffrey Lewis Organizations: Hamas, Islamic, Fajr, International Institute for Strategic Studies, Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, International Security, U.S . State Department Locations: Iran, Israel, U.S, Iraq, Yemen, Berlin, United States, Vietnam

A Palestinian man inspecting damage on Saturday after Israeli settlers attacked the village of Al Mughayir, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The Israeli military announced on Saturday that it would bolster its forces in the West Bank with additional companies and police. Israeli settlers, some of them armed, entered the villages, the official added, and there were reports that they had opened fire. At one point, “rocks were hurled” at Israeli soldiers, leading them to open fire in response, the Israeli military said. Last February, an attack by Israeli settlers devastated the Palestinian town of Huwara in the northern West Bank.

Persons: Al Mughayir, Binyamin Achimair, Yesh Din, Abu Aliya —, Amin Abu Aliya, Binyamin’s, Naser Dawabsheh, “, ”, Na’asan Na’asan, Shaul Golan, Golan, Biden, Binyamin, Abu Aliya, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Yair Lapid, ” Mr, Na’asan Organizations: West Bank ., West Bank, United Nations, Duma Locations: Al, Palestinian, Ramallah, torching, East Jerusalem, Gaza, Al Mughayir, “, Israel, Huwara, West Bank

☆ As Doctors’ Walkout Drags On, Some South Koreans Are Losing Patience
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-04 | by ( Jin Yu Young | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Six weeks after thousands of residents and interns at South Korean hospitals walked off the job, frustration is rising. Nurses have taken on duties usually performed by physicians, and military doctors have been deployed to public health centers. The young doctors who walked out in February to protest that plan say it wouldn’t solve the health care system’s problems. But many people are also exasperated with the doctors, despite the exalted position that physicians hold in South Korea’s hierarchical society. Critics accuse them of trying to protect their elite status, and their income, by keeping the number of doctors low.

Persons: Yoon Suk Yeol, Critics Organizations: South, Hospitals, Nurses

☆ The Key Bridge was named after the national anthem’s author.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Jin Yu Young | More About Jin Yu Young | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed after being struck by a cargo ship early Tuesday, was named after the American lawyer who wrote the lyrics of the national anthem. When the bridge opened, The New York Times reported that construction costs had totaled $141 million, which is roughly $735 million in today’s dollars. More than 12.4 million passenger and commercial vehicles crossed the bridge in 2023, according to a Maryland state government report. Francis Scott Key was believed to be near the site of the future bridge in 1814 when he observed the British bombardment of Fort McHenry, where he served as quartermaster, during the War of 1812. After the bridge opened to the public, parts of it underwent renovation several times, including a $14 million project in 1986 to repair damage, improve safety and restore the bridge’s appearance.

Persons: Francis Scott Key Organizations: The New York Times Locations: Baltimore, Maryland, Patapsco, Fort McHenry, Fort M’Henry, British

☆ South Korea Moves to Suspend Licenses of Thousands of Protesting Doctors
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Jin Yu Young | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The South Korean government on Monday said that it was moving to suspend the licenses of thousands of doctors who walked off the job nearly two weeks ago, threatening to escalate a dispute that has shaken the nation’s health care system. The announcement came after thousands of physicians, nurses and medical professionals took to the streets on Sunday, rallying with banners that read: “Doctors are not criminals! For more than a month, young doctors have been in a high-stakes dispute with the government over the future of health care in the country. Nearly 10,000 interns and residents, about a tenth of all doctors in the nation, have walked off the job, with most ignoring a Thursday deadline to return to work. On Monday, the government said it would begin to suspend the licenses of around 7,000 of those doctors.

Persons: ”, Lee Haeju Organizations: South, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital

☆ What to Know About the Doctor Protests in South Korea
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Jin Yu Young | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For more than a week, procedures at some of the largest hospitals in South Korea have been disrupted because thousands of medical interns and residents walked off their jobs. The dispute started in early February, when the government proposed admitting more students to medical schools to address a longstanding shortage of physicians in South Korea. The doctors then took to the streets to the protest the plan, threatening to strike or quit their jobs. Trainee doctors — who are a crucial part of large hospitals — started submitting their resignations on Feb. 19. As of Wednesday, nearly 10,000, or about 10 percent of all doctors in the country, had done so, according to government data.

Persons: ’, ’ pushback, — Locations: South Korea

☆ South Korean Doctors Walk Out, Protesting Plan to Increase Their Ranks
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-19 | by ( Jin Yu Young | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Hundreds of interns and residents at major South Korean hospitals walked off the job on Tuesday, disrupting an essential service to protest the government’s plan to address a shortage of doctors by admitting more students to medical school. While South Korea takes pride in its affordable health care system, it has among the fewest physicians per capita in the developed world. The protesters, who are doctors in training and crucial for keeping hospitals running, say the shortage of doctors is not industrywide but confined to particular specialties, like emergency care. They say the government is ignoring the issues that have made working in those areas unappealing: harsh working conditions and low wages for interns and residents. Surveys have found that in a given week, doctors in training regularly work multiple shifts that last longer than 24 hours, and that many are on the job for more than 80 hours a week.

Locations: Korea

☆ The Antitrust Enforcers Aimed at Big Tech. Then Came the Backlash.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Jin Yu Young | Daisuke Wakabayashi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The South Korean government unleashed a wave of panic across the internet industry: The country’s antitrust regulator said it would enact the toughest competition law outside Europe, curbing the influence of major technology companies. The Korea Fair Trade Commission, with the backing of President Yoon Suk Yeol, said in December that it planned to make a proposal modeled after the 2022 Digital Markets Act, the European Union’s landmark law to rein in American tech giants. This bill also seemed to target South Korea’s own internet conglomerates just as much as the Alphabets, Apples and Metas of the world. The commission said the law would designate certain companies as dominant platforms and limit their ability to use strongholds in one online business to expand into new areas. After a furious backlash from South Korean industry lobbyists and consumers, and even the U.S. government, the Fair Trade Commission said it would delay the bill’s formal introduction to solicit more opinions.

Persons: Yoon Suk Yeol Organizations: South, Korea Fair Trade, ., Fair Trade Commission Locations: Europe, South

☆ For Families of Itaewon Crowd Crush Victims, Verdicts Are a Bittersweet Win
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( Jin Yu Young | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Bereaved relatives of the victims of a deadly 2022 crowd crush in South Korea expressed mixed emotions this week after three former police officers were convicted of destroying evidence connected to the episode, in which nearly 160 people died in Seoul. Dissatisfaction over the slow pace of the inquiry and the perceived leniency of the sentences was mingled with relief that someone, at last, had been held to account. Though others have been indicted, these officers are the first people to be convicted of any crime related to the episode. The verdicts were an unexpected win for the victims’ family members, who had waited more than 15 months and were starting to lose faith that anyone would ever be held responsible. “It was a long wait, but it’s a meaningful outcome in that the court has clearly outlined where the police went wrong,” said Lee Jeong-min, the head of an association for the bereaved families.

Persons: ”, Lee Jeong Locations: South Korea, Seoul

☆ If It Isn’t Perfect, Is It Still K-Pop?
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-30 | by ( Jin Yu Young | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

What comes to mind when you hear the word “K-pop”? Is it the global boy band phenomenon BTS, wearing studded jackets and dancing in perfect sync? Or the girl group Blackpink, performing at Coachella in trendy fashions and perfectly curled hair? “Give me some more bass,” said Omega Sapien, a vocalist with electric-green hair and grills, swaying his hips and grunting to the beat. The studio was cluttered with art, vinyl records, dumbbells and other odds and ends.

Persons: ”, Omega Sapien Organizations: Coachella Locations: Seoul

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