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🎧 Social distancing extended 2 weeks, vaccine pass rule widened

Social distancing measures limiting the number of people in a private gathering to four and imposing a 9 p.m. curfew for restaurants and cafes will be extended for two weeks until Jan. 16. Shown is Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum on Dec. 24 chairing a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting at Government Complex-Seoul. (Yonhap News) Korea.net · Social distancing extended 2 weeks, vaccine pass rule widened By Min Yea-Ji and Lee Jihae The government has extended for two weeks social distancing measures limiting the number of people at a private gathering to four and imposing a 9 p.m. curfew for restaurants and cafes.  The move seeks to reorganize the medical response system and counter the threat of the omicron variant of COVID-19. Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum on Dec. 31 told a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters that he chaired at Government Complex-Seoul, "We need time to prepare before the omicron variant, which is alarmingly contagious, can spread nationwide." "We will extend ongoing social distancing measures for two weeks." Department stores, hypermarkets and large marts, which had been exempt from the vaccine pass rule, were added to the list of places requiring visitors to show such passes.  The new measure will be applied for two weeks from Jan. 3-16. Vaccine passes for youth will be required from March 1, when the spring school semester stars, with a trial period of one month.  Under a "pay first, settle later" format, the government will also compensate small business owners and the self-employed for having to forfeit the year-end peak season due to stronger quarantine measures.  The prime minister said, "This past year was extremely harsh but also a good time to confirm the people's solidarity," thanking the public for participating in social distancing. jesimin@korea.kr

Japan urged to stop UNESCO bid for forced labor mine

The government on Dec. 28 urged Japan to immediately retract its bid to have the Sado mine, where Koreans and POWs were forced to work during World War II, gain UNESCO World Heritage status. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) By Kim Eun-young and Yoon Sojung The government has demanded that Japan immediately retract its bid to have the Sado mine, where Koreans were forced to work during the Japanese colonial period on the Korean Peninsula, for UNESCO World Heritage status. Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Choi Youngsam on Dec. 28 said in a commentary, "The Korean government finds it deeply deplorable that while the Japanese government has not fully implemented the World Heritage Committee's decisions and its own pledge concerning the 'Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution,' Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs has designated the 'Sado mine,' another site where Koreans were forced to work, as a candidate for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List." To get the facilities of its Meiji Industrial Revolution, including Hashima (Battleship) Island, on the list of UNESCO World Heritage, the Japanese government in 2015 admitted to using Koreans and prisoners of war (POWs) as forced workers and pledged to build an information center to inform the world of this and honor the victims, but failed to keep its word. Thus the committee's decision at its 44th session in July expressed "strong regret" over Tokyo's failure to take follow-up measures as promised and urged improvement in its explanation of forced labor "The Korean government will sternly respond with the international community including UNESCO to prevent sites where people were forced to work against their will from being inscribed as a World Heritage site without sufficient explanation of such historical facts," the spokesperson said. Japan forced Koreans and POWs to work at the Sado mine in the island nation's Niigata Prefecture during the Pacific theater (1931-45) of World War II. (Screen capture from mine's official homepage) During the Pacific theater (1931-45) of World War II, approximately 1,200 Koreans were forced to work at the mine to dig for copper and steel to produce war materials. Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs on the same day selected the mine located in Niigata Prefecture as a candidate for UNESCO World Heritage. It will decide whether to submit an application to that end by Feb. 1, 2022. Kyun Jongho, the ministry's director general for cultural affairs, later summoned Kazuo Chujo, director of the Public Information and Cultural Center at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, to the ministry's headquarters in Seoul to lodge a complaint over the issue. eykim86@korea.kr

🎧 7,000 more foreign workers to be allowed entry next year

The government next year will allow 7,000 more foreign workers to enter the country under the "non-professional" (E-9) employee visa to raise the overall number to 59,000. Shown are Uzbek workers on May 14 at a watermelon greenhouse in Yanggu-gun County, Gangwon-do Province. (Yonhap News) Korea.net · 7,000 more foreign workers to be allowed entry next year By Lee Jihae The government next year will raise the number of foreign workers allowed to enter the nation under the "non-professional" (E-9) work visa to 59,000, up from 52,000 this year. The Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Office for Government Policy Coordination (OPC) on Dec. 28 approved during a meeting of the Foreign Workforce Policy Committee a plan on the adoption and management of foreign workers next year, with the higher labor quota as the highlight. In expectation of continued entry and departure problems by foreign workers due to the recent surge in COVID-19's omicron variant, the permissible stays of E-9 holders and those on the "work and visit" (H-2) visa, who are estimated at 40,000 in total number and whose visas were slated to expire between Jan. 1 and April 12, were extended for a year. The number of foreign nationals allowed to work in the country will also increase. Manufacturing companies with under 50 staff that were earlier allowed 20% more foreign staff will continue to enjoy this benefit through next year. In coastal fisheries, the number of foreign crew will be doubled from two to four per vessel. Two foreign workers will also be allowed at small-scale poultry or pork farms, and the number at a paprika cultivation venue will be raised from 20 to 25. International students on the D-2 visa for those pursuing a degree full time or studying under an exchange program can work under an E-9. Those eligible are graduates from Korean universities who unsuccessfully applied for professional employment requiring the "professor" (E-1) or "specially designated activity" (E-7) visa and wish to work under the E-9. To resolve the labor shortage in parcel delivery, food service and lodging, the H-2, a visa normally reserved for ethnic Koreans from overseas, will be available to foreign workers in the three sectors. For parcel delivery, handling land-based cargo will be added to the list of industries granting the H-2 but limited to loading and unloading cargo. In food service and accommodations, in-house cafeterias at public institutions and operation of resort condos and four to five-star hotels will be newly included. From 2023, the process of granting the H-2 to a sector will change from a "positive" approach in which the government names individual industries eligible to grant the visa into a "negative" system that simply announces business lines ineligible for it and the ones not named being eligible. Relatively high-paying sectors with no labor shortage such as finance, research and development, and information and communications will be excluded from granting the H-2. OPC Minister Koo Yun-cheol said, "Considering the quarantine situation including the onsite labor shortage due to the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years and the recent spread of the omicron variant, the government prepared a plan on adopting and managing foreign workers." jihlee08@korea.kr