• Seven in 10 Koreans back age limits on children's social media SEOUL, September 01 (AJP) -More than seven in 10 South Koreans favor age-based limits on minors' access to social media, showed a poll that may influence whether Seoul joins governments around the world in tightening restrictions on children's use of social media.
• South Korea sends 44 rescuers to Nepal SEOUL, September 01 (AJP) - An emergency South Korean relief team was set to fly to Nepal late Tuesday to search for nine workers missing since a massive flash flood engulfed a Himalayan valley last week.
• Lee's policy chief bows out and joins reshuffle SEOUL, September 01 (AJP) -President Lee Jae Myung's outspoken policy chief Kim Yong-beom bowed out Tuesday, just two days after surviving a broad reshuffle of the economic team amid mounting pressure over housing policy and controversial single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds.
• Seoul to impose antidumping duties on Chinese butyl acrylate SEOUL, September 1 (AJP) - South Korea will impose antidumping duties on butyl acrylate imported from China for five years starting later this month, the Ministry of Finance and Economy said on Tuesday.
• Unionized workers at Hyundai Motor reach wage deal SEOUL, September 1 (AJP) - Unionized workers at Hyundai Motor have reached a wage agreement for this year, ending months of labor tensions that disrupted production at South Korea's largest automaker.
• LG Energy Solution signs long-term deal with US-led JV SEOUL, September 1 (AJP) - LG Energy Solution (LGES) has signed a long-term supply contract with a U.S. lithium developer, it said on Tuesday.

AJP Briefing

• Seoul toughens crackdown on overcharging eateries SEOUL, September 01 (AJP) - South Korea will suspend restaurants and other food businesses on their first overcharging offense, moving to curb the price-gouging scandals that have battered the reputation of traditional markets such as Seoul's Gwangjang Market. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Tuesday it had revised and promulgated the enforcement decree of the Food Sanitation Act, replacing a corrective order for a first violation with a five-day suspension effective immediately.
• KOSPI reverses early losses as chip gains offset SEOUL, September 01 (AJP) - South Korean stocks reversed early losses Tuesday morning, with the benchmark KOSPI edging higher as gains in Samsung Electronics and SK hynix offset renewed U.S.-Iran tensions, rising oil prices and pressure from higher U.S. Treasury yields. The KOSPI stood at 6,844.90 as of 10:30 a.m., up 0.4 percent from the previous session. The index had fallen as low as 6,732.47 after opening lower before rebounding to an intraday high of 6,857.35, a swing of nearly 125 points

AJP ScaleUP

• Margin debt swells back as investors rotat into KOSDAQ SEOUL, September 1 (AJP) - South Korean margin borrowing rose for a ninth straight trading day and returned to the levels of mid-July as investors migrated to KOSDAQ outperforming the main index since last month. Outstanding margin loans across the two markets stood at 33.34 trillion won ($24.36 billion) as of Aug. 28, up 8.96 billion won ($6.5 million) from a day earlier, according to the Korea Financial Investment Association (KOFIA). The increase was driven by KOSDAQ stocks, where margin b
• Sky Labs cuts IPO price ahead of KOSDAQ debut SEOUL, August 31 (AJP) - South Korean digital healthcare company Sky Labs will make its KOSDAQ debut Friday after setting its offering price at the bottom of its proposed range, with more than 60 percent of institutional orders coming in below the minimum price sought by the company. The company is scheduled to list on Sept. 4 at an offering price of 10,000 won ($7.20) per share, with Korea Investment & Securities serving as the lead underwriter. Retail subscriptions were held on Aug. 26 an

ASIA Insight

• Humanoids can beat Bolt. The harder race starts on the factory floor SEOUL, August 31 (AJP) - A humanoid robot ran 100 meters in 8.64 seconds at Beijing's World Humanoid Robot Games last week, nearly a full second faster than Usain Bolt's world record. Except that it kept going. Tiangong Ultra hurtled past the finish line, slammed into a padded barrier and crashed to the floor in a shower of sparks, leaving staff to rush in with fire extinguishers before the machine was carried away. Impressive as the machines are, much of humanoid robotics still ends w by Kim Dong-young
• Kazakhstan feels familiar. Family duty runs in reverse SEOUL, August 28 (AJP) - Kazakhstan can feel unexpectedly familiar to a Korean visitor. Across Astana, there are faces that at first glance would not look out of place in Seoul. Dark hair, familiar facial contours and gestures of deference toward older people can create fleeting moments of recognition in a country separated from the Korean Peninsula by thousands of kilometers of mountains, desert and steppe. The sense of familiarity runs deeper around the family table. Younger people wait for by Joonha Yoo

AJP Watch

• When the crowd becomes the court SEOUL, August 31 (AJP) - The Korean social media audience can be punishing and unforgiving toward celebrities and public figures. Its frenzied, vindictive pile-ons persist despite tragic casualties such as actor Lee Sun-kyun. The latest target is South Korean YouTuber Park Wi. The controversy began after Park, a wheelchair user who runs the popular YouTube channel Weracle, fell while getting off a KTX train on Aug. 14. A week later, he uploaded CCTV footage showing his wheelchair overturning
• G-Star 2026 launches promotional push with first pop-up store SEOUL, August 31 (AJP) - South Korea's largest gaming exhibition, G-Star 2026, has begun a pre-opening marketing campaign, unveiling a new "Special Pass" bundle and its first-ever pop-up store, as the country's game industry seeks to broaden its appeal beyond core players. The committee announced Monday that it will open the pop-up store from Sept. 1 to 6 at the Hyundai Department Store's Pangyo branch, south of Seoul, marking the first time the annual show has staged such

AJP Focus

• Two Koreas reshuffle military command for very different battles SEOUL, August 31 (AJP) - South and North Korea are reshaping their military leadership at the same time, but for markedly different challenges. Seoul is turning back to a career general to steady an institution unsettled by contentious reforms, while Pyongyang is tightening party control for stronger push into weapons modernization. President Lee Jae Myung's nomination of retired four-star Gen. Kang Shin-chul as defense minister effectively puts a career military officer back in charge afte
• AI windfall buys homes, cars and luxury watches in Korea's chip enclave HWASEONG, August 27 (AJP) - At Lotte Department Store in Dongtan, a saleswoman sizing up a customer offers a pitch that would sound peculiar almost anywhere else. "Your husband makes a lot of money this time. You can afford to treat yourself," she coos. There is no need to specify who the husband works for. Dongtan sits inside South Korea's semiconductor heartland, within commuting distance of Samsung Electronics' chip operations in Hwaseong and Giheung as well as SK hynix I