South Korea Supreme Court backs workers in Dong-A Transport wage suit, orders overtime pay The Supreme Court has largely sided with workers in a wage lawsuit involving Seoul city bus operator Dong-A Transport, a case that helped spark labor unrest in the sector. According to the legal community on Wednesday, the court’s Third Division, with Justice Lee Sook-yeon as the presiding justice, partially overturned an appellate ruling and sent the case back to the Seoul High Court. The top court left most of the lower court’s decision intact, overturning only part of the portion in wh April 30, 2026

BNK Financial Posts 211.4 Billion Won Q1 Net Profit, Up 26.9% on Year BNK Financial Group said Thursday in an earnings disclosure that its consolidated net profit for the first quarter of 2026 totaled 211.4 billion won. The result was up 26.9%, or 44.8 billion won, from a year earlier. The group said higher selling and administrative expenses and weaker noninterest income were offset by steady net interest income and lower credit-loss provisions. By segment, banking net profit came to 175.6 billion won, up 20.6 billion won from a year earlier. BNK Busan Ba April 30, 2026

Korea Fund Assets Near 1,500 Trillion Won in Q1 as Stock Funds and ETFs Surge South Korea’s fund market expanded sharply in the first quarter, with total net assets nearing 1,500 trillion won as inflows concentrated in equity funds and money market funds, and exchange-traded funds posted strong growth. The Korea Financial Investment Association said Thursday in its “2026 first-quarter fund market trends” report that total net assets for public and private funds stood at 1,493.9 trillion won at the end of March, up 117.6 trillion won, or 8.5%, from 1,376.3 trillion April 30, 2026

Samsung Posts Record Q1 Results, but Profits Rely Heavily on Semiconductors Samsung Electronics posted record first-quarter results, but the company’s growing reliance on semiconductors underscored weakness in its device businesses, including mobile, TVs and home appliances. In its finalized earnings release on Wednesday, Samsung said first-quarter revenue rose to 133.9 trillion won and operating profit to 57.2 trillion won, the highest quarterly performance ever recorded by a South Korean company. Most of the operating profit, however, came from the semiconducto April 30, 2026

Kim Gyeong-bae Named President of Korea Craft and Design Foundation Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Choi Hwi-young appointed Kim Gyeong-bae, a professor at Kyonggi University’s Graduate School of Hallyu Culture, as president of the Korea Craft · Design Culture Promotion Agency, effective April 30, and presented him with a letter of appointment. Kim’s term is three years. Kim earned a master’s degree in industrial design from the Royal College of Art in the United Kingdom and has built more than 30 years of experience in the convergence of des April 30, 2026

South Korea Welcomed 4.74 Million Visitors in Q1, Up 123% From 2019; China Led South Korea drew 4.74 million foreign visitors in the first quarter, surpassing pre-COVID-19 levels, with arrivals surging in March as inbound tourism continued to rebound. ◆ Q1 visitors hit 4.74 million; Chinese tourists lead at 1.42 million According to Korea Tourism Organization statistics, cumulative inbound visitors from January to March totaled 4.74 million, up 22.6% from a year earlier. The figure represents a 123.4% recovery compared with the same period in 2019, exceeding pre-pan April 30, 2026

Gwangju to Cover Vacation Fund Share for Small-Firm Workers, a First in South Korea Gwangju Metropolitan City will become the first local government in South Korea to use its own budget to directly subsidize vacation funds for workers at small and midsize companies in the city. The Korea Tourism Organization said it signed a business agreement on Wednesday with the Gwangju city government and the Gwangju Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the “Vacation Plus” program for small-company workers in the region. The program will cover 350 manufacturing workers in Gwangju. April 30, 2026

Business groups say raising retirement age to 65 must include wage system overhaul The government is accelerating plans to raise the mandatory retirement age to 65, and business groups are urging that wage adjustments for workers 60 and older be recognized as an exception to age-discrimination rules. The government says it plans to submit legislation in the first half of the year, but no agreement has been reached on wages or employment arrangements. On the 30th, the Democratic Party’s special committee on extending the retirement age held a meeting with business repres April 30, 2026

Samsung Electro-Mechanics tops 3 trillion won in quarterly sales for first time, sees Q2 growth Samsung Electro-Mechanics said it surpassed 3 trillion won in quarterly revenue for the first time, driven by a surge in artificial intelligence-related demand that lifted sales of high-value products for industrial and automotive uses. The company said the growth trend is expected to continue in the second quarter as well. In a regulatory filing on Wednesday, Samsung Electro-Mechanics reported first-quarter consolidated revenue of 3.2091 trillion won and operating profit of 280.6 billi April 30, 2026

POSCO Holdings posts Q1 operating profit of 707 billion won; POSCO Future M turns profitable POSCO Holdings said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday that it posted first-quarter consolidated revenue of 17.876 trillion won, operating profit of 707 billion won and net profit of 543 billion won. The company said revenue and profit rose from a year earlier despite heightened uncertainty in energy supply chains and financial markets stemming from the war between the United States and Iran. It said losses in its lithium business narrowed sharply as POSCO Argentina began full-scale comm April 30, 2026