• Korean retail investors reload on risk at home, abroad SEOUL, August 15 (AJP) - South Korean retail investors are edging back into risk after July's market washout, with brokerage cash returning above 100 trillion won, margin borrowing rising for a seventh straight session and traders piling back into a triple-leveraged U.S. semiconductor fund.
• Korea's trade representative sacked, raising speculations SEOUL, August 15 (AJP) -South Korea abruptly dismissed its top trade negotiator on Saturday, leaving the command post for talks with Washington vacant as Seoul confronts fresh U.S. tariffs pressure to accelerate a $350 billion investment commitment and other unresolved trade disputes.
• Sogang University latest to report data breach in Korea SEOUL, August 15 (AJP) -Sogang University has become the latest South Korean institution to report a data breach, adding to a series of cyber incidents that have exposed vulnerabilities across the country's corporate, government and education systems.
• Grammys rethink Asian pop award after BTS pullout SEOUL, August 15 (AJP) - The Recording Academy is reconsidering its newly created Asian pop Grammy category after criticism that separating music by geography and language could marginalize Asian artists, a backlash amplified by BTS's decision to sit out next year's awards.
• Chey divorce returns to court, buying time on record payout SEOUL, August 15 (AJP) —South Korea's biggest divorce settlement is heading back to the Supreme Court, giving SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won more time to raise the 944 billion won ($669 million) in cash he has been ordered to pay his former wife while deferring immediate pressure on his corporate holdings.
• Korea widens nuclear export push from rules to SMRs SEOUL, August 15 (AJP) - South Korea is widening its nuclear export strategy beyond building reactors, seeking to package regulatory know-how with its manufacturing and construction muscle as it targets newcomer markets in Southeast Asia and a rapidly forming global supply chain for small modular reactors.

AJP Briefing

• Foreigners lift KOSPI while other Asian market quiet SEOUL, August 14 (AJP) -Foreign money kept buying Seoul for a fifth straight session Friday, but this time the leadership came from telecom and automakers rather than the two chipmakers that drove both the market's first-half rally and its July collapse. The KOSPI closed at 6,977.94, up 164.60 points, or 2.42 percent, ending the week 11.5 percent higher and edging back toward the 7,000 level it surrendered a month ago on July 13. Foreign investors bought a net 3.04 trillion won ($2.14 billi
• Ottogi second-quarter net profit falls 2.7% as margins tighten SEOUL, August 14 (AJP) - Ottogi, one of South Korea's largest food manufacturers, announced that its second-quarter net profit fell 2.7 percent from a year earlier, as rising costs squeezed margins even though sales climbed on the back of instant noodles and stronger overseas demand. According to regulatory filings released Friday, net profit for the April to June period came to 33.2 billion won ($23.4 million). Revenue rose 4.6 percent to 943.8 billion won and operating profit edged up 0.

AJP ScaleUP

• Satellite antenna maker jumps 41% in KOSDAQ debut SEOUL, August 13 (AJP) — Shares of South Korean satellite communications equipment maker KNS Inc. surged on their KOSDAQ debut Thursday, trading more than 40 percent above their initial public offering price. The stock was trading at 15,480 won ($10.93) as of 2:37 p.m., up 40.73 percent from its IPO price of 11,000 won. It more than doubled to an intraday high of 24,600 won before giving back some of the gains. The strong debut comes as the company expands from commercial maritime equi
• Shares of chip parts maker jump on strong Q2 earnings SEOUL, August 12 (AJP) - Shares of semiconductor parts maker Wonik QnC rose on Wednesday after it posted a more than twofold increase in second-quarter operating profit from a year earlier. Its shares closed 5.31 percent higher at 31,750 won (US$22.44). The gain came as consolidated operating profit jumped 119.1 percent from a year earlier to 30.9 billion won ($21.8 million) for the period between April and June, according to its preliminary earnings report released the same day. Revenue also

ASIA Insight

• MASGA gets liftoff with drones with Washington's push  SEOUL, August 14 (AJP) - Washington's push to rebuild strategic industries at home while reducing dependence on China is creating new openings for South Korean companies in two seemingly different sectors: shipbuilding and drones. The latest U.S. moves point to a broader strategy of tapping production capacity from trusted allies where American industry cannot immediately meet demand, while using tariffs, investment and procurement rules to steer strategic supply chains away from China. Fo by Kim Hee-su
• Why North Korean leader keeps putting his daughter in spotlight SEOUL, August 14 (AJP) - In one of the world's most closed societies like North Korea, what matters may lie in what happens before a successor is ever named. For decades, the isolated country's hereditary Kim dynasty has shown that power is not simply passed down when the previous leader dies. It has to be prepared, groomed and carefully managed to prevent any chaos. That process now appears to be underway for current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's daughter Ju-ae. In recent years by Lee Hugh

AJP Watch

• Colonial ghosts haunt Korea's celebrity descendants SEOUL, August 14 (AJP) — Actress Hayoung thought she was telling a family story. Speaking on television about coming from four generations of doctors, she proudly recalled a great-grandfather who had studied Western medicine in Japan, opened one of Seoul's early Western-style clinics and, she said, treated Emperor Gojong. Soon, internet users were digging through colonial-era records. They identified the relative as Ahn Sang-ho, whose name appeared in organizations associated with co
• Korea still looks cheap on paper. Why doesn't it feel that way? SEOUL, August 13 (AJP) - South Korea can still look remarkably cheap to someone arriving from New York or Berlin. For Koreans earning and spending in won, it increasingly does not feel that way. Years of rising prices have made more spending discretionary as household incomes struggle to keep pace, squeezing what remains after necessities. Yet for visitors earning dollars or euros, a restaurant bill or cab fare in Seoul can still look like a bargain. A three-course meal for two at a mid-range

AJP Focus

• Is the Seoul stock party over or just cooling down? SEOUL, August 14 (AJP) — South Korea's KOSPI has rebounded after a heavy crash in July. But the crazy roller-coaster ride has shifted to a duller plateau, with the main drivers quietly taking a back seat. The benchmark index flirted with 7,000 Friday, rebounding more than 30 percent from its late-July intraday low of 5,262.77. Yet trading activity and cash on standby remain well below the levels seen during the market frenzy in June. The ebb is evident. Investor deposits — cas
• China cracks memory club, but harder test looms SEOUL, August 14 (AJP) - China's heavily government-backed chipmakers are breaking into the once-exclusive global memory club, with Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC) vaulting into the world's top three NAND flash suppliers for the first time. But just as China closes the gap in manufacturing scale, artificial intelligence is moving the industry's profit pool toward a harder target. YMTC captured 14 percent of global NAND bit shipments in the second quarter, overtaking Japan