• LG Electronics seen posting solid Q2 on AI cooling, auto parts SEOUL, July 06 (AJP) - LG Electronics Inc. is set to deliver another strong quarter Tuesday as the Korean premium home appliance maker finds a robust position in the AI era through cooling systems essential for AI data centers and a resilient auto-parts business.
• South Korea picks Gwangju military airport site for Honam chip cluster SEOUL, July 06 (AJP) - South Korea will build its planned Honam semiconductor cluster on the site of the Gwangju military airport after the government selected the location as the preferred site for the project, the presidential office said on Monday.
• Samsung Electronics awards up to 100% bonus to chip division for first half SEOUL, July 06 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics said on Monday it will pay performance bonuses of up to 100 percent of monthly base salary to employees in its semiconductor division for the first half of the year.
• Seoul high school baseball team seeks forgiveness in Gwangju over May 18 taunts SEOUL, July 06 (AJP) -Kids or not, South Koreans are learning that mockery of historic tragedies comes with serious accountability, as Seoul-based Paichai High School's baseball team traveled to Gwangju on Monday to offer a formal apology.
• Korea's Air Force, SNU launch AI initiative to reshape aerospace warfare SEOUL, July 06 (AJP) - Seeking to accelerate its digital frontline transformation, the South Korean Air Force has partnered with Seoul National University (SNU) to develop three key AI technologies that can be directly deployed in military operations.
• Hyundai's Atlas robot steals show at World Cup halftime SEOUL, July 6 (AJP) - Hyundai Motor has showcased its next-generation humanoid robot Atlas, developed by its subsidiary Boston Dynamics, at this year's World Cup, reflecting the automaker's robotics ambitions.

AJP Briefing

• Even government bonds can bite, South Korea's regulator warns SEOUL, July 06 (AJP) — South Korea's financial regulator on Monday warned that even government bonds, long regarded by many retail investors as one of the safest investments, can generate significant losses if interest rates rise. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) issued the warning as part of its latest investor education campaign on common investment disputes after complaints increased from investors who suffered unexpected losses after buying low-risk bonds, including Korean
• KOSPI slips as investors turn cautious ahead of Samsung's 2Q earnings results SEOUL, July 6 (AJP) - South Korea's benchmark KOSPI surrendered an early gain of nearly 3 percent on Monday and ended lower, as foreign and institutional investors resumed selling ahead of Samsung Electronics' preliminary second-quarter earnings set to be announced on Tuesday, which are seen as a key test of whether last week’s chip selloff was excessive. The index shed 37.01 points, or 0.46 percent, to close at 8,051.33. The retreat masked a split in the chip trade. Samsung Elec
• AI boom lifts KOSPI in H1 but focus shifts to earnings SEOUL, July 6 (AJP) - Artificial intelligence (AI) stocks were South Korea's biggest gainers in the first half of this year, as the AI rally spread beyond semiconductors into infrastructure such as power equipment and cables, according to a Korea Exchange analysis released Monday. Investors now watch whether second-quarter earnings will turn those expectations into results. Top gainers on the country's benchmark KOSPI for the first six months of this year included semiconductor giants S
• Korea's Lee orders speed in "Chip Republic" projects SEOUL, July 06 (AJP) -South Korea's ambition to transform itself into a "Chip Republic" is expected to gain traction as President Lee Jae Myung on Monday ordered officials to fast-track implementation of the country's three AI mega projects, declaring that "speed is everything" in the global race for technological supremacy. "The outcome will depend on who moves faster," Lee said during a public-private review meeting on the projects at the presidential off

ASIA Insight

• Hyundai takes Asia's humanoid race beyond the dance floor SEOUL, July 06 (AJP) - Hyundai Motor reclaimed the 500,000-won threshold Monday, rising 2 percent even as the broader market retreated, after its growing robotics portfolio quietly stole attention from investors otherwise fixated on Samsung Electronics' earnings guidance due the following day. Boston Dynamics' Atlas humanoid robot, owned by Hyundai Motor Group, showcased a series of football-inspired celebrations during halftime of the Brazil-Norway World Cup round-of-16 match at MetLif by Joonha Yoo
• Korea-Japan weak currency coupling tells different stories SEOUL, July 02 (AJP) - For South Korean policymakers battling a persistently weak won, the culprit is relatively straightforward: heavy foreign selling of Korean equities and an insatiable domestic appetite for dollar-denominated assets. The picture is more puzzling in Japan. Despite record foreign buying of Japanese stocks this year, the yen has continued to languish near multi-decade lows, defying the conventional expectation that capital inflows should support a country's currency. The by Kim Yeon-jae

AJP Watch

• World Cup fiasco fells Chung Mong-gyu after 13 years atop KFA SEOUL, July 06 (AJP) - South Korean football lost its most powerful figure Monday, eight days after losing its World Cup. Chung Mong-gyu resigned as president of the Korea Football Association, ending 13 years and five months in charge and completing the collapse that had already consumed his hand-picked national team coach, Hong Myung-bo, whose group-stage failure turned him into a national pariah and has now claimed the man who put him there. The scale of the failure explains the speed of t
• North Korea, DPRK, or Joseon? Seoul's naming dilemma SEOUL, July 03 (AJP) - Defined by its neighbor "hostile state," South Korea is rethinking how to address North Korea. The Unification Ministry said Friday that growing calls to refer to North Korea by its official name are part of a broader process of building public consensus, as a linguistic debate over inter-Korean relations moves from academic and religious circles into the center of national politics. At issue is whether South Korea should continue using the term "North Kor

AJP Focus

• Durability of Seoul's bull questioned as leverage exceeds retail trade SEOUL, July 06 (AJP) — As the KOSPI correction enters a third week, retail investors remain the primary buffer against relentless foreign selling, but much of their firepower is borrowed, raising questions about the durability of Seoul's record-setting bull market. Outstanding margin loans and stock-backed lending averaged a record 61.98 trillion won ($39.8 billion) per trading day during the April-June quarter, exceeding the combined average daily trading value of 52.5 trillion won o
• Bond rally signals sobriety on Korea's economy – weak without chips SEOUL, July 03 (AJP) - From the look of the sovereign bond market in July, South Korea's economy is running solidly on strong exports while inflation, despite energy shocks from the prolonged Gulf crisis, remains broadly contained around 3 percent, suggesting the Bank of Korea may need no more than one additional rate hike from the current 2.50 percent. Compared with the wild swings in equities and the won's slide to near three-decade lows, South Korea's bond market has remained rem