We start with a big announcement by the South Korean government.
It has revealed it will hike the nation's minimum wage by nearly eleven percent for 2019,... surpassing the eight-thousand won mark for the first time since the system was introduced some three decades ago.
Park Hee-jun has our top story. South Korea's Minimum Wage Commission has set next year's minimum wage at eight-thousand-350 Korean won,... or seven-point-four U.S. dollars an hour.
That's ten-point-nine percent higher than the current rate of seven-thousand-530 won,... which amounts to around six dollars 65 cents.
It means that, from next year,... the minimum monthly salary -- based on a 40-hour workweek -- will be one-point-seven-five million won or 1,540 dollars.
Once implemented, it will be the first time since the system was first introduced in 1988 that the minimum wage has surpassed eight-thousand won.

The decision was made early Saturday through a vote by members of the commission,... after a marathon 19-hour meeting.
But among the commission's 29 members,... only 14 were present-- nine from the general public side, and five from the labor community.
Nine other members representing small businesses boycotted the meeting, to protest the commission's earlier rejection of their proposal to apply different levels of minimum wage,... depending on the business sector and the size of the firm.
They said such a move would protect smaller firms from a sharp uptick in labor costs.

Despite their boycott,... representatives of labor, management and the general public,... continued discussions to meet Saturday's deadline.
The labor side's proposal of eight-thousand-680 won and the general public's eight-thousand-350 won were put to a vote.
The general public's wage earned eight votes,... and was therefore chosen as the minimum wage for next year.
The commission's decision will be finalized by the Ministry of Employment and Labor on August 5th.
Park Hee-jun, Arirang News.