2022 Hot Issues

written by 103 Kim Tae Yun, 10421 Lim Hyun Seo, 

10808 Park So Yeon, 20120 Choi Ha Eun, 

20207 Moon Hyeon Ju & 20223 Ha Ye Won

January: Politicians Roar in the Year of the Tiger

In January, candidates for the next presidency started their debates. On January 18th, the candidates debated about labor, the well-being of citizens and about overall social problems. The debate had also invited economic specialists to talk about Korea’s economic prospects.

February: Shining Moments for Korea

Korean athletes started their matches in the Beijing Winter Olympics. They won two gold medals in men’s and women’s short track races by M.J. Choi and D.H. Hwang. Both Choi and Hwang raced in the 1500m track. Korea  also won three silver medals and nine bronze medals.

March: The 20th Presidential Election

The 20th presidential election was held on March 9th, and President Yoon was elected. His term will be five years. He recorded 48.5% of the votes, which was a slight gap from another candidate. Professor Han was nominated as the prime minister.

April: WSG Wannabe Audition Top Ranking Program

On the MBC entertainment show Hang Out with Yoo, there was an audition for the female vocal team WSG Wannabe. During the process of selecting the final members for WSG Wannabe, so many people showed interest because the auditioning members were popular singers or actors in Korea. It topped the ratings for two weeks above all of the Korean programs.

May: Legoland Theme Park in Chuncheon

On Children’s Day, the Legoland theme park opened in Chuncheon. On the first day of its opening, a large crowd of about 10,000 people gathered to play with children. However, it has been embroiled in many controversies due to accidents at ride stops and extremely high prices for visitors.

June: Succeeds in Launching Nuri

The Republic of Korea has successfully test-launched the space launch vehicle Nuri. Nuri was originally scheduled to launch on the 15th, but the launch was postponed to the 21st due to abnormalities in its sensor. This is significant in that Korea has for the first time developed its own space launch capability.

July: Key Interest Rate Raising

The Bank of Korea raised its key interest rate by 0.5% for the first time in the wake of the steep inflation. This is because it was necessary to continuously raise interest rates to prevent high prices from continuing.

August: The Yellow Envelope Act

The Yellow Envelope Act has recently emerged as a hot issue with the political community. The Yellow Envelope Act is a nickname attached to the amendment to the Labor Relations Act. The amendment to the Labor Relations Act is key to restricting companies’ lawsuits for damages related to losses caused by the union strike. As a result, the importance of labor rights is growing.

September: Reducing Old Diesel Vehicles

Daejeon City wants to reduce air pollutants such as fine dust by early scrapping of old vehicles that generate a lot of smoke among diesel cars in operation.

October: Fire in Kakao Data Center

A fire broke out in the underground electrical room of SK C&C and services such as Kakao and Naver were shut down due to a loss of power supply to operate the server. As a result, many people suffered from inconvenience. Kakao’s CEO Nam Gung Hoon resigned.