Yonhap News Summary

The following is the second summary of major stories moved by Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday.

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(LEAD) Moon calls for win-win effort to avoid layoffs due to coronavirus

SEOUL -- President Moon Jae-in emphasized the need Wednesday for a win-win approach to keep job cuts at bay amid the prolonged coronavirus-led economic crisis, which he describes as the worst since the 1997 financial meltdown.

"The precondition for overcoming the crisis is not restructuring but maintaining employment," he said during a meeting with a group of hotel executives and workers at Grand Walkerhill Seoul, a five-star hotel in eastern Seoul

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(LEAD) Top court rules in favor of pregnant employees in unsafe work environments

SEOUL, April 29 (Yonhap) -- In a key ruling that acknowledged the risks of unsafe work environments on a fetus, South Korea's top court on Wednesday ruled in favor of nurses who claimed their children's congenital heart defects should be covered by workplace accident compensation.

The Supreme Court ordered the Seoul High Court to review its decision that the nurses were not eligible to receive government compensation given to workplace accident victims.

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(LEAD) Telegram chat room accomplice indicted for leaking personal data

SEOUL -- A former social service agent was indicted Wednesday for allegedly leaking personal data to the key suspect in a high-profile sexual blackmail ring on the messaging service Telegram.

The 26-year-old, surnamed Choi, was indicted and detained on charges of breaching the Personal Information Protection Act and leaking personal data to unauthorized people, according to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office.

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(LEAD) S. Korea mulls further support for virus-hit airlines

SEOUL -- South Korea is considering further financial support for airlines hit by the coronavirus outbreak on the condition that they push for self-help measures and keep their workforces, the transport ministry said Wednesday.

Last month, the government announced it would inject 300 billion won (US$250 million) into the country's seven low-cost carriers (LCCs). Two full-service carriers also demanded emergency financial aid from the government.

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(LEAD) LG Electronics forecasts weak Q2 earnings after stellar Q1 performance

SEOUL -- LG Electronics Inc. on Wednesday delivered strong first-quarter earnings results on the back of its home appliance and TV businesses, but the company expected its bottom line in the current quarter to worsen as the novel coronavirus pandemic will significantly weigh down demand for its products.

South Korea's No. 2 tech firm said it logged a net profit of 1.08 trillion won (US$886 million) in the January-March period, nearly double its net income of 578 billion won a year earlier.

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Four workers killed in Icheon construction site fire

ICHEON -- Four workers were killed in a fire that broke out at a warehouse construction site in Gyeonggi Province Wednesday, fire authorities said.

The fire started at the construction site in Icheon, 80 kilometers southeast of Seoul, around 1:32 p.m., according to firefighters. Three other workers were reported injured.

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