South Korea U-turns on 69-hour working week after youth backlash
Protests from the country’s millennials and generation Z prompted the president, Yoon Suk-yeol, to reconsider. Yoon, who was elected president in 2022 with support from disaffected young men, is hoping his People Power party will attract the youth vote in elections for the national assembly next year.Yoon visits Japan, seeking to restore ties amid N Korea threat
The plan has been met with fierce opposition from the former forced labourers, who are continuing to demand direct payments and an apology from Japan. Opposition politicians meanwhile have condemned it as “submissive diplomacy”.Gallup opinion poll earlier this week also showed that nearly 60 percent of South Koreans are opposed to Yoon’s proposal because it does not require a new apology and reparations from Japan. The poll also showed that 85 percent of South Koreans believed the current Japanese government was not remorseful about its colonial rule.
President Joe Biden called Yoon’s proposal a “groundbreaking new chapter of cooperation and partnership between the US’s closest allies”.
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