Ruling party, government pushing for bills that possibly violate basic rights, Constitution

Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae is facing criticism for ordering ministry officials to seek to enact a law to force suspects to disclose the passwords for their mobile phones. The order appears to target Han Dong-hoon, a senior prosecutor currently being investigated in what Choo calls as a typical corrupt relationship between the prosecution and the press. Han is charged with colluding with Lee Dong-jae, a former cable TV news reporter, to pressure a jailed businessman to reveal incriminating in

Protracted woes gripping young job seekers raise concerns about ‘lost generation’

South Korea extended the streak of job losses to eight months in October, amid the prolonged coronavirus pandemic crisis, according to government data released last week. The number of employed people in the country shrank by 421,000 from a year earlier to 27.09 million last month. The jobless rate rose by 0.7 percentage point on-year to 3.7 percent, the highest figure for October in two decades. The number of unemployed people here stood at 1.03 million last month, up 164,000 from a year earli