South Korea labor ministry cites early Friday leave, flexible hours as workplace innovation wins The Ministry of Employment and Labor said Wednesday it held a workplace innovation forum to share examples of positive results. The ministry and the Korea Labor Foundation hosted the first "2026 Workplace Innovation Case-Sharing Forum" at 2 p.m. in an event hall at POSCO Tower Yeoksam in Seoul's Gangnam district. Company labor and management representatives, academic experts and consultants attended to discuss ways to advance workplace innovation. The forum series is scheduled to run ei April 23, 2026

HK inno.N Joins “Just Dream” Program to Support Vulnerable Households HK inno.N said Wednesday it will join “Just Dream,” a government-backed program that provides food and daily necessities to vulnerable households, run with the Export-Import Bank of Korea. Just Dream is a support initiative the Ministry of Health and Welfare has been piloting since December last year. Anyone facing livelihood hardship can receive assistance with food and essential goods. HK inno.N signed a four-party agreement Tuesday at the Korea National Council on Social Welfare in April 23, 2026

Prosecutors Indict 4 Corn Syrup Makers, 25 Employees in $10B Price-Fixing Case Prosecutors said they uncovered long-running price-fixing in South Korea’s corn syrup industry, a market they said generates sales in the tens of trillions of won, and indicted dozens of company officials. Investigators said the alleged collusion extended beyond the main product to byproducts, forming what they described as an organized scheme. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office Fair Trade Investigation Division, led by Chief Prosecutor Na Hui-seok, said on the 23rd it indicte April 23, 2026

Callaway Golf Korea Launches Odyssey S2S Tri Hot SB Zero-Torque Heel-Shaft Putter Callaway Golf Korea said Wednesday it is officially launching the Odyssey “S2S (Square 2 Square) Tri Hot SB (Single Bend)” putter in South Korea, combining a heel-shaft structure with zero-torque technology. The company said the model targets golfers who feel uncomfortable with center-shaft, zero-torque putters. By using a familiar heel-shaft setup, it aims to keep a comfortable look at address while delivering the stability and consistency associated with zero-torque designs. The putter April 23, 2026

South Korea Land Prices Rise 0.58% in Q1; Seoul Up 1.10% Land prices nationwide rose 0.58% in the first quarter, extending their upward trend, though the pace eased slightly from the previous quarter. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Real Estate Board said on the 23rd that nationwide land prices have risen for 37 straight months since turning upward in March 2023. The first-quarter increase was 0.03 percentage points lower than the 0.61% gain in the fourth quarter of last year, but 0.08 points higher th April 23, 2026

McDonald’s Korea Doubles Happy Meal Donations for Family Month Campaign McDonald’s Korea is expanding donations linked to its children’s Happy Meal menu item to mark Family Month. The company said Wednesday it will double the amount set aside from Happy Meal sales for about a month, from April 30 through the end of May. The donation per set will rise to 100 won from 50 won. During the campaign, the company will provide donation certificates and stickers to help children better understand and take part in the giving process. On May 24, McDonald’s Korea will April 23, 2026

Korea Transportation Safety Authority wins Interior Ministry award for 'Accident-Free Today' campaign The Korea Transportation Safety Authority, known as TS, said April 23 it won the Minister of the Interior and Safety Award in the safety management category at the Korea Creative Management 2026 awards ceremony held at The Plaza Hotel in Seoul. TS said it received the honor for helping spread a traffic safety culture through its governmentwide “Accident-Free Today” campaign. The agency said it has been running the campaign at major transportation hubs nationwide. Since last year, it h April 23, 2026

Lotte Speeds Turnaround as Jamsil Hub Tops 5 Trillion Won and Southeast Asia Grows Lotte Group’s food, retail and hotel affiliates are leading a recovery in results, the company said. In South Korea, “Lotte Town Jamsil” posted a record by topping 5 trillion won in annual sales for the first time. Overseas, growth has continued mainly in food and retail operations in India, Vietnam and Indonesia. The chemicals business, which has faced a prolonged slump, is accelerating restructuring to protect profitability. Lotte said Thursday that its retail affiliates are continu April 23, 2026

Hyundai Motor posts record Q1 revenue of 45.9 trillion won; operating profit falls to 2.51 trillion Hyundai Motor posted weak first-quarter results as U.S. auto tariffs in its largest export market and rising raw material costs weighed on earnings. Hyundai Motor said in a regulatory filing on the 23rd that its first-quarter operating profit on a consolidated basis was provisionally tallied at 2.5147 trillion won, down 30.8% from a year earlier. Revenue rose 3.4% to 45.9389 trillion won, the highest ever for a first quarter. Net profit fell 23.6% to 2.5849 trillion won. Operating margin April 23, 2026

Google Unveils 8th-Gen TPU Chips, Challenging Nvidia as AI Accelerator Market Shifts Google has unveiled what it called its highest-performing AI-only chips yet at its annual tech conference, taking direct aim at Nvidia’s dominance. Analysts say that as the AI accelerator market diversifies beyond Nvidia, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix stand to gain because they supply the key memory used in those chips. According to the IT industry on the 23rd, Google Cloud on April 22 (local time) introduced two eighth-generation Tensor Processing Units at “Google Cloud Next 2026” i April 23, 2026