NEWS BRIEF

[Anchor Lead]

Exports fell 23.6% year-on-year to 8.7 billion dollars during the first ten days of August, according to data by the Korea Customs Service. The on-year drop was 2% for the first ten days of July, indicating a ten fold jump in export decline this month.
Seoul City will provide support to those in special types of employment such as freelancers who are bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 fallout. The city will provide a maximum 5 million loan per person for 3 years at a low interest rate of 3% to workers who can't subscribe to employment insurance and thus not able to receive unemployment benefits. Seoul explained such loan assistance is the first of its kind by a local government.
Companies who sold medical products with unproven health effects have been caught by authorities. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety conducted inspections on online sites selling portable ultrasonic inhalers since June and found 150 cases of wrongful advertising. Access to these sites are now blocked. Ultrasonic inhalers are authorized medical devices used to transform liquid medicine into gas form for injection into a person's lungs.