• Korea's rate hikes lift delinquency risks for indebted homebuyers: BOK SEOUL, September 07 (AJP) -South Korea’s base rate has yanked up to 3.00 percent from 2.50 percent through two consecutive hikes after staying unchanged for more than a year and may rise further given the central bank’s inflation-focused bias, raising delinquency risks for highly leveraged mortgage households.
• Coupang dispute to loom over Korea-U.S. ties beyond midterms SEOUL, September 07 (AJP) -South Korea’s dispute with e-commerce giant Coupang is likely to loom over ties with Washington beyond the U.S. midterm elections as concerns over Seoul’s regulation of American technology companies have taken root across party lines.
• 'Possible Love' stirs Venice sensation with 6-minute ovation SEOUL, September 07 (AJP) - Lee Chang-dong's "Possible Love" emerged as one of the early sensations of the Venice Film Festival after drawing a six-minute standing ovation and rave reviews, putting the Korean auteur's first feature in eight years among the closely watched contenders for the Golden Lion.
• Prosecutors seek 27-year prison term for octogenarian JMS cult leader SEOUL, September 7 (AJP) - Prosecutors on Monday sought a 27-year prison sentence for cult leader Jung Myung-seok on charges of raping and sexually assaulting female followers.
• S. Korea, US, Japan launch Freedom Edge without US carrier SEOUL, September 07 (AJP) - South Korea, the United States and Japan began their annual Freedom Edge exercise Monday near Jeju Island, with the five-day multidomain drill set to run without a U.S. aircraft carrier for a second straight year.
• USD/KRW spikes as NPS reportedly halts FX hedging SEOUL, September 07 (AJP) - The South Korean won abruptly reversed direction Monday after testing a near two-year high against the U.S. dollar, following a report that the National Pension Service (NPS) had suspended foreign-exchange hedging activity.

AJP Briefing

• Won gains sharply, Korean bonds end broadly steady SEOUL, September 07 (AJP) - The South Korean won strengthened sharply Monday but gave back part of an early rally, while Korean government bond yields ended broadly steady despite higher global rate expectations. The won strengthened 9.9 won from the previous session to close daytime trading at 1,340.5 per dollar, compared with Friday's 1,350.4. The currency strengthened as far as 1,334.7 earlier in the session. It was its strongest level since Oct. 4, 2024, and the dollar-won rate later r
• Memory trade lifts Seoul and Tokyo, leaves Shanghai flat SEOUL, September 07 (AJP) - Northeast Asia's stock markets moved Monday in near proportion to how much memory chip exposure each one carries. Seoul's KOSPI jumped 4.6 percent, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose 2.1 percent, and the composite index in Shanghai, where banks and oil producers dominate the weighting, finished virtually unchanged. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index, or KOSPI, closed at 6,995.39, its biggest one day gain since August 20 and 4.61 points short of the 7,000 level it

AJP ScaleUP

• ROBOTIS surges 22% on Goldman Sachs' 630,000-won target SEOUL, September 4 (AJP) — Shares of South Korean robotics company ROBOTIS jumped more than 22 percent Friday after Goldman Sachs rated the stock a buy and set a 630,000-won target price, citing strong demand for its robot actuators. Its shares closed at 304,500 won ($225), up 22.54 percent from the previous session's close of 248,500 won, according to Korea Exchange data. The stock opened at 267,000 won and fell as low as 265,000 won and climbed as high as 315,000 won during the sess
• Sky Labs doubles on KOSDAQ debut SEOUL, September 04 (AJP) - South Korean digital healthcare company Sky Labs doubled from its initial public offering (IPO) price on its KOSDAQ debut Friday after briefly surging to nearly three times the offering price. As of 2:20 p.m., shares traded at 20,000 won ($14.40), double its 10,000 won offering price. The stock opened at 8,500 won and fell as low as 8,200 won. It later climbed to an intraday high of 28,750 won, 187.5 percent above the IPO price. The sharp reversal made the company o

ASIA Insight

• Seoul's Hormuz dilemma puts Tokyo on notice SEOUL, September 07 (AJP) - The heat from Washington is rising on Seoul to contribute to reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and Tokyo is increasingly feeling it too as Japan braces for the possibility that it could be next in line for a U.S. call to act. South Korea has yet to decide whether to send military assets to the strategic waterway, but the Trump administration has become increasingly explicit in demanding support from an ally heavily dependent on Middle Eastern energy. The dilemma is be by Kim Hee-su
• Will America risk New York for Seoul? SEOUL, September 03 (AJP) - U.S. President Donald Trump wants to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and ordered scale-back in U.S.-South Korea military drills that anger Pyongyang and cost Washington heavily, reigniting a long-running question in Seoul: Should South Korea arm itself with nuclear weapons? Once taboo, the idea is gaining broader public acceptance. Sixty-five percent of South Koreans support the country possessing nuclear weapons, while 30 percent oppose it, according to the la by Lee Jung-woo

AJP Watch

• One year in, Korea's humanoid still toddles SEOUL, September 07 (AJP) - KAIROS showed off its dancing skills to a national calisthenics tune on a Seoul stage Monday, but to an audience accustomed to somersaulting and kung fu-performing Chinese humanoids, its wobbly movements and seemingly glued feet hardly drew genuine applause. The performance offered a candid look at how far South Korea has come — and how far it still has to go — little more than a year into a state-backed effort to close the humanoid gap with China and the
• Cabinet reshuffle turns into political headache for South Korea's Lee SEOUL, September 04 (AJP) - The roster for President Lee Jae Myung’s 2.0 reshuffle has generated a rumpus before the nominees even arrive at South Korea’s legislative confirmation hearings, denting the already fragile popularity of the presidency. According to the latest Gallup Korea poll, 40 percent of respondents positively assessed Lee’s job performance, while 51 percent gave a negative assessment. The positive rating was the lowest since he took office, while the negative

AJP Focus

• Robotics may be the destination for Louisiana steel mill SEOUL, September 07 (AJP) - The $5.8 billion Louisiana mill backed by South Korea's two biggest steelmakers is designed primarily to feed America's auto industry, but its largest customer and investor Hyundai Motor Group has a deeper ambition for the metal — robotics. Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun said Sept. 4 that steel from Hyundai-POSCO Louisiana Steel (HPLS) should eventually find its way into Atlas, the humanoid robot being developed by group-owned Boston Dynamic
• Chip windfall finally arrives on the FX front SEOUL, September 04 (AJP) - The South Korean won is looking entirely different from the first half, closing at its strongest level in 14 months Friday as a swelling current-account surplus increasingly offsets heavy overseas equity investment and other capital outflows, giving authorities room to absorb a reported $20 billion in dollars from SK hynix's landmark U.S. share sale without reversing the currency's rally. The dollar fell 8.9 won to close Friday's daytime trading at 1,350.