A few recent interesting stories from Korea Times:
“Wealthy Koreans are twice as happy with life as non-rich: bank report”: https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/biz/2024/04/175_373483.html

“Constitutional Court strikes down inheritance rule mandating portions to siblings”: https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2024/04/251_373471.html

“Oceans minister promises to stabilize local seaweed supply as gimbap prices soar
Posted”: https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2024/04/419_373466.html

A translated interview with Son Sukku: https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20240327050638

I only watched a few minutes of this sweetly awkward Viki event with MSM and KDW: https://www.soompi.com/article/1650074wpp/watch-wedding-impossible-stars-moon-sang-min-and-kim-do-wan-showcase-perfect-brotherly-chemistry-in-live-interview-with-viki?utm_source=viki&utm_medium=newsmodule-container-ios&utm_content=40397c&utm_campaign=soompi_news_module

https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20240317050113

“An overwhelming majority of 93.9 percent of survey respondents also answered that the decline in total birth rates is a “social problem,” with most of the respondents citing the “difficulty in combining work and childcare” as the cause of the decline in birth rates.
Another report, released by the Korean Women’s Development Institute, highlights the significant caregiving burden shouldered by women, even in double-income households, where they spend an average of 11.69 hours per day caring for their children.
According to the report \”Study on the Reorganization of Social Care from a Gender Perspective,\” this exceeds the 7.76 hours contributed by childcare centers like daycare and kindergartens, the 4.71 hours contributed by fathers, and the 3.87 hours contributed by the child’s grandparents.
The total number of hours put in by the child’s mother for childcare was around 2.5 times more than the number of hours put in by the child’s father, according to results found by the institute after breaking down the parents’ day into 30-minute chunks and analyzing how working parents care for their children before and after work.
The KWDI concluded that the burden of childcare before and after work mostly fell on the mother, as mothers provided 60 to 80 percent of care for children between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. while fathers put in 10 percent during the same period.
As the workday progressed, the burden of childcare shifted to childcare centers or the child’s grandparents but went back to the child’s mother at the end of the day. As of 6 p.m. on a weekday, the share of childcare was distributed as 55.2 percent for the child’s mother, while only 20.2 percent went to the child’s father.
“The care of infants and young children, regardless of whether they are working or not, is predominantly provided by the child’s mother, clearly indicating gender inequality in the division of childcare,” said KWDI in its report.
“To alleviate the burden of care concentrated on mothers, the working environment must be structured to allow both childcare and work to balance out on each other and a reliable level of public care should also be established.””

I wish more people would care to ask why this young man died instead of commenting on the relationships of celebs:
https://www.soompi.com/article/1649159wpp/voice-actor-lee-woo-ri-passes-away-at-a

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/28/world/asia/k-pop-suicide-goo-hara.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

Parts of her life seemed straight out of a KD. Sad and haunting

Korean dramas have long been written and viewed by women, Hwang said over the phone. (In 2018, the country’s Broadcast Writers’ Union estimated that 94.6% of TV screenwriters are women.) But as a result of the “feminist reboot,” she added, women feel solidarity with one another and are more empowered to express their concerns about gender issues, with stories addressing these topics particularly resonating with female audiences”.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/korean-dramas-changing-representation-women/index.html

“In real life, however, South Korea’s women face significant barriers to equality, and have reported issues with sexual harassment, outdated gender stereotypes and other forms of discrimination in male-dominated workplaces. The country ranked 99th out of 146 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2022 Global Gender Gap Index. OECD data found that South Korean women earn an average of 31.1% less than men (the worst gender wage gap of any OECD country). Feminism, meanwhile, remains an extremely divisive topic”.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/korean-dramas-changing-representation-women/index.html