• Large-scale K-pop festival planned for launch next year with global ambitions SEOUL, July 27 (AJP) - A large-scale K-pop event will be held late next year as part of a program unveiled on Monday by the presidential committee for promoting Exchanges in South Korean Popular Culture.
• South Korea enters peak heat wave after monsoon fades SEOUL, July 27 (AJP) -South Korea plunged into its most intense heat wave of the summer on Monday as the seasonal monsoon effectively came to an end, pushing heat indices above 38 degrees Celsius in parts of the country and prompting the government to raise its highest-level heat emergency alert.
• How AI redrew the chip map and put Korea at its center SEOUL, July 27 (AJP) -The generative artificial intelligence boom has not simply created another semiconductor supercycle. It has redrawn the geography of the global chip industry.
• Silicon Valley VC courtship lifts KOSDAQ on hopes for startup capital SEOUL, July 27 (AJP) — President Lee Jae Myung's Silicon Valley outreach to some of the world's most influential venture capital firms gave South Korea's startup-heavy KOSDAQ a lift on Monday, even as enthusiasm surrounding his AI diplomacy over the weekend failed to spill over to the broader stock market.
• Ex-President Yoon's 2022 campaign statements ruled false SEOUL, July 27 (AJP) - A South Korean court on Monday sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years, after finding him guilty of making false statements during the campaign that carried him to the presidency in 2022.
• Incheon airport braces for summer rush with nearly 4 million travelers SEOUL, July 27 (AJP) -South Korea's main gateway is preparing for one of its busiest summer holiday periods on record, with nearly 3.8 million passengers expected to pass through Incheon International Airport over just 17 days as inbound tourism continues to rebound.

AJP Briefing

• KOSPI rebounds as AI bets outweigh China memory threat SEOUL, July 27 (AJP) — South Korean stocks rebounded Monday after investors looked past the blockbuster debut of Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT and instead focused on fresh artificial intelligence (AI) partnerships, allowing chip shares to recover from early declines. The benchmark KOSPI closed at 6,755.75, up 0.97 percent after reversing an early decline triggered by more than 2 trillion won in foreign selling. The junior KOSDAQ outperformed, rising 2.22 percent to 764.86. The session o
• Korea's AI chip ETF frenzy poised to spread to Tokyo SEOUL, July 27 (AJP) —The chip-linked leveraged ETF frenzy that turned South Korea into a proving ground for AI-fueled speculative trading is poised to spill over to Japan. U.S. asset managers are seeking to launch the first single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds tied to Japanese chipmaker, modeled after single-stock instruments on Samsung Electronics and SK hynix to ride on the AI chip fever. According to Bloomberg on Monday, U.S. firms including Kogi Strategies, GraniteShares
• Record dollar deposits lift Koreans' foreign currency holdings by $1 bn in June SEOUL, July 27 (AJP) -South Koreans increased their foreign currency deposits by more than $1 billion, or the largest in in four months in June, driven by hefty semiconductor export proceeds and rising funds parked for overseas stock investments. Resident foreign currency deposits at domestic banks reached $113.33 billion at the end of June, up $1.08 billion from a month earlier, according to data released by the Bank of Korea on Monday. The balance was the highest since February. The increase
• Lee's approval rating falls again, remains below 50% for six weeks SEOUL, July 27 (AJP) - President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating fell for another week, according to a survey by pollster Realmeter released on Monday. In its survey of more than 2,500 adults nationwide last week, 46.3 percent of respondents said Lee was doing well, down 2.1 percentage points from the previous week. Slightly more respondents or 49.5 percent disapproved of his performance, while 4.2 percent remained undecided. Lee's approval rating has now remained in the 40 percent ran

ASIA Insight

• The East joins the West in the survival game against extreme heat SEOUL, July 27 (AJP) - South Korea joined the global survival game against extreme heat on Monday as temperatures neared 40 degrees Celsius after the monsoon fizzled out, emptying streets and farm fields alike. Children and office workers, farmers and foreign tourists alike searched for clever ways to stay cool, crowding shopping malls, subway stations and other air-conditioned spaces. By 3 p.m., the government raised the national heat crisis alert to "grave," its highest level, and a by Lee Jung-woo
• When merits break: Will cockroach movement test Asia's youths? SEOUL, July 26 (AJP) - The most remarkable thing about India's Cockroach movement is not that it forced the resignation of a cabinet minister. It is that it began with an insult. When a senior judge reportedly dismissed unemployed young Indians as "cockroaches" and "parasites," Generation Z did something previous generations rarely attempted. Instead of rejecting the slur, they adopted it, transforming a satirical Instagram page into a nationwide movement that ultimately by Seo Hye Seung

AJP Watch

• Korea's middle-aged dads find an unlikely superhero in 'Agent Kim' SEOUL, July 27 (AJP) - As South Korean companies quietly push employees toward early retirement, millions of middle-aged office workers have found an unlikely superhero in a timid bank manager who secretly used to be one of the country's deadliest intelligence operatives. The latest hit K-drama "Agent Kim Reactivated," known in Korean as Kim Bu-jang, wrapped up its 10-episode run Sunday after becoming one of the year's biggest television successes. But its strongest following
• Love, legacy and the price of a chaebol divorce SEOUL, July 26 (AJP) -There is no shortage of Korean dramas built around chaebol heirs falling in love against the odds. Real life has produced stories just as compelling — except that the endings are often written not by scriptwriters but by judges. Record 944 billion won ($680 million) divorce award involving SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and former wife Roh Soh-yeong last Friday has added another chapter to the small club of Korea's most consequential corporate breakups, where fa

AJP Focus

• Why Nvidia needs Korea as much as Korea needs Nvidia SEOUL, July 27 (AJP) - When Jensen Huang toured Seoul last month, Nvidia's chief executive said he had found a full five-layer AI cake in South Korea. Over the weekend, he stayed true to that discovery, emerging as both the biggest customer and investor in that cake. Nvidia placed itself at the center of South Korea's all-out AI push as Huang headlined the government-hosted AI summit in San Francisco before joining President Lee Jae Myung and Korea's business leaders for a relaxed w
• Won breaks from yen as SK hynix dollar flows reshape FX outlook SEOUL, July 24 (AJP) - "Excess volatility is undesirable." That identical message from the U.S. Treasury Department applied to both the South Korean won and Japanese yen in its latest semiannual currency report to Congress, even as it kept both countries on its monitoring list. Treasury said recent depreciation pressures were not in line with South Korea's strong economic fundamentals and reiterated that foreign-exchange intervention should be reserved only for episodes of excess