• Lee courts Silicon Valley's 'kingmakers' to back Korean startups SEOUL, July 26 (AJP) - President Lee Jae Myung met six of Silicon Valley's most influential venture capital firms on Saturday, urging them to help turn South Korea into an indispensable global hub for innovation and startup investment.
• South Korea swelters through hottest vacation weekend SEOUL, July 26 (AJP) — South Korea's peak summer vacation season opened under suffocating heat on Sunday, with the heat index approaching 38 degrees Celsius across parts of the country's south, prompting heat-related deaths, livestock losses and a mass exodus to beaches and water parks.
• Russia preparing to receive 30,000 more North Korean troops, Zelensky says SEOUL, July 26 (AJP) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that Russia is preparing to deploy another 30,000 North Korean troops to support its war in Ukraine, warning that the deepening military partnership poses a growing security threat beyond Europe. In his nightly address posted on X.
• Korea's Chimaek diplomacy gets a Silicon Valley AI makeover SEOUL, July 26 (AJP) - South Korea's signature chimaek culture — fried chicken and beer — found a Silicon Valley twist on Friday as President Lee Jae Myung clinked Budweiser bottles over burgers and fish and chips with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun.
• Southeast Korea sizzles as heat hotspot spreads beyond 'Daefrica' SEOUL, July 26 (AJP) -South Korea's notorious summer heat is no longer confined to "Daefrica," the nickname long used for the sweltering city of Daegu, as extreme temperatures spread across much of neighboring North Gyeongsang Province in what meteorologists describe as a broader and more persistent heat wave.
• Section 301 cases offer room for negotiation as Korea: KITA SEOUL, July 26 (AJP) -About half of the U.S. trade investigations launched under Section 301 over the past decade ultimately ended with tariffs being suspended or withdrawn through negotiations rather than fully enforced, offering South Korea a potential playbook.

AJP Briefing

• KOSPI leads Asian retreat on oil jitters, capping sidecar-ridden week SEOUL, July 24 (AJP)— South Korean stocks suffered another sharp selloff Friday as surging oil prices driven by escalating Middle East tensions and mounting interest-rate concerns fueled broad risk aversion, sending both the KOSPI and KOSDAQ into sell-side sidecars for a fifth consecutive trading session. The benchmark KOSPI closed at 6,690.62, down 5.72 percent, and the junior KOSDAQ fell 5.32 percent, to 748.22, as foreign and institutional investors accelerated selling despite heavy bu
• Court rejects bid to block wider distribution of box office hit 'The King's Warden' SEOUL, July 24 (AJP) - A Seoul court has rejected a bid to block further distribution of The King's Warden, clearing a legal obstacle to the historical drama's release on streaming services, home video and other platforms. The Seoul Western District Court dismissed an injunction sought by the family of a screenwriter who alleged that the film had copied the script of the 2000s television drama Eom Heung-do. The application was filed against co-producers Onda Works and BA Entertainment,
• Lee departs for San Francisco to begin multi-nation overseas trip SEOUL, July 24 (AJP) - President Lee Jae Myung left for San Francisco in California on Friday to begin a multi-nation overseas trip that will also take him to three South American countries and Germany. During the trip, which will last about 11 days until early next month, he is expected to seek stronger cooperation in artificial intelligence (AI)-related industries, investment and economic partnerships. In San Francisco, the first leg of his trip, Lee will spend two days meeting the heads of
• KAIST, NVIDIA open joint lab to build AI for Korean industry SEOUL, July 24 (AJP) - NVIDIA will pour $300 million into a joint research laboratory with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology to develop artificial intelligence built specifically for the Korean language and South Korea's industries, in one of the largest corporate commitments to AI research at a Korean university. The NVIDIA-KAIST Joint AI Research Lab will be housed at the Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI on the Seoul campus of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science

ASIA Insight

• 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
• Asia's Gen Z do not wait for permission anymore SEOUL, July 24 (AJP) - A canceled exam in New Delhi. A social media ban in Kathmandu. A housing allowance in Jakarta. A job quota in Dhaka. None of these, on its own, reads like the beginning of a national crisis. Yet each one sent hundreds of thousands of young people into the streets, and in two of those countries the government did not survive. Something has shifted in how Asia's youngest adults deal with power. The region's leaders are finding out the hard way. The latest lesson is by Park Sae-jin

AJP Watch

• 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
• Navy tests humanoid robot at ship's wheel in first crew experiment SEOUL, July 24 (AJP) - South Korea’s Navy has tested a humanoid robot as a ship crew member for the first time, putting the machine at the wheel inside a bridge simulator as part of efforts to reduce sailors’ workload and prepare for a shrinking pool of military personnel. The Navy said Friday that the experiment was conducted Wednesday at the Naval Education and Training Command’s ship-handling training facility in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, in cooperation with the

AJP Focus

• 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
• Trump's tariff maze keeps Korea guessing as another deadline looms SEOUL, July 23 (AJP) - For U.S. trading partners—foes and allies alike—it has become nearly impossible to keep up with tariff rates during President Donald Trump’s second term. The levy on South Korean imports has swung from 25 percent to 10 percent, back toward 25 percent, down to 15 percent and then back again to 10 percent — all in little more than a year. The next number could be 12.5 percent. A temporary 10 percent U.S. surcharge on imports from South Korea and mo