• Starbucks regains top spot in Korea after Tank Day scandal SEOUL, October 11 (AJP) - Card spending at Starbucks in South Korea climbed back to first place among coffee chains in September, five months after a promotion that recalled the bloody 1980 crackdown in Gwangju set off a nationwide boycott. Starbucks Korea took in an estimated 121.08 billion won ($90.1 million) in credit and debit card payments last month, according to Mobile Index, a data service run by IG
• Nvidia's Huang wins top US science medal SEOUL, October 10 (AJP) - Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang received the National Medal of Science, the highest U.S. honor for scientists and engineers, the White House said Thursday (local time). President Donald Trump presented the medal at the “Science: A New Golden Age&r
• Holiday crowds flock to Busan's stranded shark SEOUL, October 10 (AJP) - Holiday crowds packed Busan's North Port on Saturday, the second day of a three-day Hangeul Day weekend, to catch a glimpse of Bukang, an endangered shark that has stayed in a narrow waterfront canal for 23 day
• Seoul's envoy to Kyiv returns home in POW row SEOUL, October 10 (AJP) - South Korea’s ambassador to Ukraine, Park Ki-chang, returned to Seoul on Saturday morning, the Foreign Ministry said, two days after the government recalled him over Kyiv’s refusal to apologize for discl
• Developer shutters AI tool tied to Korean bank hacks SEOUL, October 10 (AJP) - ARTEX, a Chinese AI penetration-testing tool linked to a string of breaches at South Korean banks, is going closed-source and will receive no further updates, its developer said. “Given the misuse of the tool, the ARTEX project will no longer be updated and will be converted to closed source,” the developer, known as Autumn
• Big firms take 77% of Korean pharma profits SEOUL, October 10 (AJP) - Eight large companies captured about 77 percent of operating profit at South Korea’s listed pharmaceutical and biotech firms in the first half, while smaller rivals sank deeper into the red, according to the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization. The eight posted a combined operating profit of 2.12 trillion won ($1.58 billion) in January to June, ou

AJP Briefing>

• Korean stocks slide 2.6% despite Samsung's record earning SEOUL, October 08 (AJP) — South Korean stocks fell nearly 3 percent Thursday as heavy foreign and institutional selling dragged down major semiconductor shares, even after Samsung Electronics forecast record quarterly operating profit. The benchmark KOSPI closed at 6,625.93, down 2.62 percent from the previous session. The index opened slightly higher at 6,808.68 but reversed course as selling accelerated through the afternoon. Foreign investors sold a net 1.99 trillion won ($1.49 billio
• Korea to test tokenized government bonds in 2027 SEOUL, October 8 (AJP) — South Korea plans to test tokenized government bonds next year, whiled the the International Monetary Fund (IMF) worried a hasty shift could amplify liquidity shocks. The Bank of Korea (BOK) and IMF on Thursday jointly held a forum on “Scaling Tokenization: New Efficiencies, New Vulnerabilities,” a chapter of the fund’s October Global Financial Stability Report. “The Bank of Korea and the government are collaborating to launch a pilot prog

AJP ScaleUP

• Hot Stock: Hanmi shares reverse sharply after obesity drug approval SEOUL, October 08 (AJP) - Shares of Hanmi Pharm and its holding company Hanmi Science fell sharply in late-morning trading Thursday, reversing gains sparked by regulatory approval of Korea's first domestically developed GLP-1 obesity drug. Hanmi Science dropped 7.23 percent to 53,900 won after climbing as high as 68,200 won earlier in the session. The stock had surged 13.94 percent in after-hours trading Wednesday to 66,200 won following news of the approval. Hanmi Pharm fell 9.7 percent t
• 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

ASIA Insight

• South Korea rethinks military privileges as medals collide with fairness SEOUL, October 08 (AJP) - Military service has long been one of South Korea’s most unforgiving tests of fairness, with disputes over who serves and who does not capable of ending public careers. Now the government is revisiting a decades-old system that allows selected athletes and artists to pursue their careers instead of entering regular military service, as a shrinking recruitment pool adds urgency to longstanding questions over privilege. Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul told a parli by Kim Hee-su
• 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

AJP Watch

• Dating shows seek a new spark as romance alone loses its pull SEOUL, October 8 (AJP) — South Korea’s latest dating show does not begin in a villa, on an island or over a candlelit dinner. It begins in the outfield. On streaming platform TVING, “Love at First Hit” pairs fans of rival baseball teams for dates at live Korea Baseball Organization games. Mutual choices lead to romance, while a one-sided choice earns the person chosen a season ticket. Contestants may leave with love, baseball tickets or neither. The pairing appears to
• 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

AJP Focus

• Samsung's staggering profit windfall masks deepening business imbalance SEOUL, October 08 (AJP) - It all began humbly in 1975, with women in protective head coverings bent over workstations assembling integrated circuits for LED wristwatches. More than half a century later, Samsung Electronics has become the world’s largest vendor of memory chips powering everything from smartphones to sprawling AI data centers and turning factory output into profits on a scale unprecedented among the world's technology companies. The scale of that transformation is capt
• 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