SBS News

Morning News Briefing: Next Year's Budget Set at Over 800 Trillion Won with Full Support for National Universities in Regional Areas 1. The government and the ruling Democratic Party have decided to set next year's budget at the 800 trillion won level, an increase of more than 10% compared to this year's general budget of 729.9 trillion won. SBS Aug 25, 2026 2:16 PM

Contact Lens Direct Purchases Illegal: 108 Cases of Fraudulent Ads Flagged The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced that as a result of inspecting illegal online distribution and fraudulent advertisements for contact lenses, it identified 108 posts violating the Medical Devices Act and requested the relevant authorities to block access to them. SBS Aug 25, 2026 2:02 PM

Record 110,000 Graduates Apply for September CSAT Mock Exam, Peak 'Social Studies Run' Seen The Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation , the agency overseeing the CSAT, announced that the number of applicants for the September mock evaluation reached 500,128, an increase of 11,785 from the June mock evaluation. SBS Aug 25, 2026 1:56 PM

Oh Se-hoon Proposes Tancheon Site Instead of Yongsan Park: "At Least 10,000 Units Possible" Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has proposed the Tancheon Water Reclamation Center as an alternative site to the government's housing supply plan for Yongsan Park. SBS Aug 25, 2026 1:56 PM

Climate Ministry Discusses Renewable Energy Procurement Solutions with Samsung, SK Hynix, and Others Advanced industries such as semiconductors and AI data centers require massive amounts of stable electricity while simultaneously facing demands to implement "100% Renewable Energy" and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. SBS Aug 25, 2026 1:36 PM

"The Scariest Review... Please Do Something About It," Chaos Erupts Everywhere Finally, I hear that the review self-employed people fear the most is when customers leave only a star rating without any explanation. SBS Aug 25, 2026 1:34 PM

Hannam-dong 'Emperor Residence' and 10 Billion-Won Villa for Chairman... Suspected of 1.9 Trillion Won Tax Evasion The National Tax Service has launched tax audits into 50 companies where the family members of controlling shareholders were found to have privately used high-end corporate housing. SBS Aug 25, 2026 1:31 PM

Superintendents Strongly Oppose Local Education Subsidy Reform, Vow Collective Action Superintendents from 16 regional offices of education across the country have launched collective action in opposition to the abolition of the internal tax linkage system for local education finance subsidies. SBS Aug 25, 2026 1:17 PM

NEC Special Counsel to Recommend Candidates for Assistant Special Counsels Today, Accelerating Launch Preparations Lee Tae-han, the special counsel investigating the shortage of ballots during the June 3 local elections, announced that he plans to recommend candidates for assistant special counsels to the presidential office by this afternoon . SBS Aug 25, 2026 1:11 PM

Former High-Ranking Police Officer in CIO's 1st Case Receives Significantly Reduced Sentence in Appeal The core charge of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials' "first-ever self-initiated" case has been overturned as not guilty. SBS Aug 25, 2026 1:08 PM