NEWS BRIEF

[Anchor Lead]

According to Statistics Korea data, the number of employed people fell to 26.6 million in March, down 195-thousand from a year ago. It's the steepest fall since a drop of 240-thousand recorded in May 2009 during the global financial crisis.
The government launched a working group on Friday aimed at supporting the swift development of vaccines and medicine for COVID-19. The task force will assist a previously formulated group dedicated to supporting related research, licensing and clinical testing.
Korea's top Internet portal Naver whose employees having been working from home since late February amid the pandemic, is seeking to phase out the remote work rule. It will make preparations through the end of this month by employees reporting to work twice a week. Also Kakao Corporation is for the most part maintaining telecommuting with workers coming out to the company just once a week.
Female foreign ministers of 9 countries including South Korea's Kang Kyung-wha held a conference call late Thursday and discussed gender equality and the role of women related to COVID-19 response. Seoul's Foreign Ministry said that Minister Kang expressed concern over social and economic difficulties faced by women and called for global efforts to address the issue.