• Lisa Su gets a head start on Nvidia as AMD brings AI rivalry to Seoul SEOUL, October 07 (AJP) - AMD Chair and CEO Lisa Su had her own Jensen Huang moment in Korea on Wednesday, hosting a day for gamers and rubbing shoulders with the country’s science minister and business tycoons.
• Can the Korean won stay resilient through year-end? SEOUL, October 7 (AJP) — The South Korean won has held steady for more than a month after a volatile year despite heavy foreign stock selling, renewed Korean investment overseas and advance government payments tied to U.S. investment — offering relief to Koreans planning overseas trips or financing education abroad.
• South Korea defense chief wants to scrap military exemption program SEOUL, October 07 (AJP) - South Korea’s defense minister said Wednesday the country should gradually scale back and ultimately abolish special military service arrangements for elite athletes and artists amid controversy fueling debate over fairness in the conscription system following the Asian Games.
• SK Energy, HD Hyundai Oilbank face cartel review SEOUL, October 07 (AJP) - SK Energy and HD Hyundai Oilbank allegedly colluded on fuel prices for about four years, capitalizing on the energy instability from geopolitical developments, South Korea's Fair Trade Commission said Wednesday.
• LG Electronics Q3 profit up 13.5% on year, down 50.5% on quarter SEOUL, October 07 (AJP) - LG Electronics kept up double-digit annual growth in the third quarter, although halved from from the April-June period, as the South Korean premium household appliance maker pushed its B2B business in vehicle electronics and coolants to ride on the AI boom, according to its disclosure Wednesday.
• South Korea ups depopulation zones to 92 as Seoul's pull grows SEOUL, October 07 (AJP) -South Korea has added three localities to its list of depopulation zones, bringing the total to 92 as the country struggles with a shrinking population and the growing concentration of people and jobs around Seoul.

AJP Briefing>

• KOSPI slides nearly 2% as Samsung earnings caution weighs SEOUL, October 07 (AJP) — South Korean stocks fell nearly 2 percent Wednesday, extending losses for a second session as heavy foreign selling hit semiconductor shares and investors turned cautious ahead of Samsung Electronics' preliminary third-quarter earnings due Thursday. The benchmark KOSPI closed at 6,803.90, down 1.98 percent from the previous session. The index opened 1.11 percent lower at 6,864.25 and briefly reversed into positive territory in morning trading before renewed
• BOK taps market, FX experts for senior posts SEOUL, October 7 (AJP) — The Bank of Korea named two career officials with extensive financial-market and international finance experience to senior posts Wednesday, appointing Choi Young-joo as deputy governor and selecting Yoon Kyoung-soo as its next chief economist. Choi, currently director general of the Financial Markets Department, will oversee international finance and cooperation for a three-year term beginning October 8. He joined the Bank of Korea (BOK) in 1997 and spent much o

AJP ScaleUP

• KOSDAQ cybersecurity stocks surge as bank hacks raise AI attack concerns SEOUL, October 6 (AJP)— South Korean cybersecurity stocks surged Tuesday as a series of attacks on financial institutions and concerns over the possible use of artificial intelligence (AI) in hacking fueled expectations for stronger security spending. AhnLab, one of the country’s largest cybersecurity companies, which provides software and services to protect computers, networks and cloud systems, jumped 15.58 percent to close at 89,000 won ($65.50) on the junior KOSDAQ. Genians, an
• Humanoid maker Aei Robot moves to mass production SEOUL, September 30 (AJP) - Aei Robot will spend 40 billion won ($29.5 million) on its first plant for mass-producing humanoid robots, the Ansan city government said. The company signs the agreement Wednesday at Hanyang University's ERICA campus in Ansan, south of Seoul, with the Gyeonggi Free Economic Zone Authority, the university and the city government. Construction of the three-story building, which will span about 10,000 square meters, begins in November and is due to finish in Octob

ASIA Insight

• Silver glitters: stocks lift wealth of the gray in Korea, U.S., Japan SEOUL, October 07 (AJP) — Older generations on both sides of the Pacific — seemingly the last to have enjoyed an era of abundant liquidity and cheap borrowing — are benefiting from asset inflation, helping fuel consumer spending this year despite geopolitical risks and elevated interest rates. In South Korea, investors aged 60 and older accounted for 40 percent of individual investors’ domestic stock profits in the first half despite representing less than a third of tra by Ryu Yuna
• Once the buyer, now the suitor: AMD's Lisa Su due back in Korea SEOUL, October 06 (AJP) - For decades, the semiconductor industry’s pecking order was relatively straightforward: chip designers and system companies called the shots, while memory makers competed to supply them. The artificial intelligence boom is starting to turn that relationship on its head. AMD Chair and CEO Lisa Su is due in South Korea this week, seven months after her previous visit in March, as the U.S. chipmaker seeks the advanced memory and manufacturing partnerships needed to by Candice Kim

AJP Watch

• K-drama, K-pop — and now Hangeul joins the K-wave SEOUL, October 07 (AJP) - A decade ago, learning Korean was a way to catch the nuances of K-drama dialogue and song lyrics. Today, foreigners are learning it to enter universities, build careers and make a life in Korea. Few can dispute the global ascent of Korean pop culture as K-everything fills social media feeds. All three seasons of Netflix’s “Squid Game” occupy the top three spots on the platform’s all-time ranking of non-English television series. Its first seas
• Energy-poor, tech-rich Korea must link renewables with storage: IRENA chief SEOUL, October 02 (AJP) - South Korea, an energy-poor but high-tech powerhouse, must pair renewables and hydrogen with storage technology to power its advanced manufacturing economy, a senior international energy expert said. “Korea has strong technological and industrial capabilities to advance its energy transition,” Francesco La Camera, director-general of the International Renewable Energy Agency, said in an email interview with AJP. “The priority is to mobilize those capa

AJP Focus

• South Korea is a de facto abolitionist state – or is it? SEOUL, October 07 (AJP) - Fifty-two people remain on death row, growing old under sentences the state has left unfulfilled for nearly three decades. Their average age is 58.7. Among them are serial killers Yoo Young-chul and Kang Ho-soon, who killed 20 and 10 people, respectively. As the World Day Against the Death Penalty approaches on Oct. 10, South Korea remains caught between its long suspension of executions and a public largely unwilling to abandon them. A September survey commissioned b
• Are Korea's financial defenses ready for an AI hacker army? SEOUL, October 06 (AJP) - The chain of security breaches has become a pratfall for South Korea's vaunted IT industry and digital banking sector, raising questions over whether their firewalls and other defenses are ready for hackers armed with autonomous AI agents. The attackers probed the sector's side doors — loan-broker lookup pages, staff support systems and other services outside the main customer-facing platforms. They kept testing until several gave way. At least six banks