• Seoul targets Central Asia minerals at first summit SEOUL, August 04 (AJP) - South Korea is within 40 days of hosting the leaders of all five Central Asian states for the first time, and the government spent Tuesday afternoon checking whether the deliverables it wants on energy and critical minerals will actually be ready.
• SK hynix and SanDisk unveil HBF Blueprint for AI terabyte era SEOUL, August 04 (AJP) - The artificial intelligence boom has a voracious appetite for memory, and the industry’s leading architects just released a new blueprint to keep it fed.
• UPDATE: Korea's July inflation under 3% for the first time in 3 months SEOUL, August 04 (AJP) - South Korea’s consumer inflation slowed to 2.8 percent in July, the first dip under 3 percent for the first time in three months on softer international energy prices coupled with weak domestic consumption, data showed Tuesday.
• US Ambassador Steel presents credentials, formally begins mission in Seoul SEOUL, August 04 (AJP) - The United States Embassy in Seoul has a full ambassador again for the first time in a year and a half after the new envoy Michelle Steel submitted a copy of her credentials to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday afternoon and paid a courtesy call on Foreign Minister Cho Hyun.
• ROK Navy appoints first woman to command major naval vessel SEOUL, August 04 (AJP) - The Republic of Korea Navy has appointed Capt. Bae Sun-young as commanding officer of ROKS Dokdo, making her the first woman to command one of the service’s major vessels. Bae will formally take command of the ship on Wednesday.
• Japan calls South Korea partner, claims Dokdo again SEOUL, August 04 (AJP) - Japan's annual defense white paper describes South Korea as an important neighbor and a partner it should work with on shared international challenges. The same document, published Tuesday, again calls Dokdo.

AJP Briefing

• KOSDAQ continues to outperform KOSPI after tightened rules on leveraged ETFs SEOUL, August 4 (AJP) - South Korea's junior KOSDAQ outperformed the benchmark KOSPI for a third straight session on Tuesday, extending its broad rally. Tighter regulations on single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) reduced trading in chip stocks, broadening gains to biotechnology, robotics and other growth stocks. The KOSDAQ closed at 780.72 points, up 5.88 percent, while the KOSPI gained 1.62 percent to 6,358.95. The latest gain marked the third consecutive session of KOSDAQ o
• Offshore NDF trading behind a third of won's March decline: BOK SEOUL, August 04 (AJP) - Offshore non-deliverable forward trading accounted for an estimated one-third of the won’s depreciation in March, highlighting the influence overseas positions over Korea’s domestic FX market. The impact was about four times greater overnight than during Seoul trading hours, when deeper liquidity and a broader range of transactions diluted the effect of NDF flows. The Bank of Korea on Tuesday released estimates of the impact of NDF trading on the dollar-won

AJP ScaleUP

• NEO Battery Materials to invest $62 million in Gimje battery hub SEOUL, August 04 (AJP) - Canadian battery technology company NEO Battery Materials will invest $62 million to expand a production hub for next-generation batteries used in drones, defense systems and other high-performance applications in Gimje, North Jeolla Province. The company’s Korean subsidiary signed an investment agreement Tuesday with Jeonbuk State and the city of Gimje at its first factory in the Gimje Free Trade Zone. Under the agreement, NEO Battery Materials Korea will invest
• AI startup XIIlab's shares soar as new contract fuels earnings hopes SEOUL, August 4 (AJP) - Artificial intelligence (AI) startup XIIlab saw its shares rise on the junior KOSDAQ on Tuesday. The stock closed at 11,020 won (US$7.93), up 17.23 percent from the previous session, after surging as much as 30 percent during the session to hit the daily price limit of 12,220 won. The rise came after the startup announced that it had signed a contract worth 30.7 billion won with BNINC, an AI infrastructure provider, to supply software for the National IT Industry Promoti

ASIA Insight

• From princesses to students, conscription makes a global comeback SEOUL, August 04 (AJP) - Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, together with growing doubts about U.S. security guarantees, are driving a global revival of military conscription as governments conclude that technology alone cannot supply enough soldiers for a prolonged conflict. Royalty is no exception. Princess Isabella, second in line to the Danish throne, made international headlines on Monday when she reported to a military barracks in Slagelse to begin 11 months of military service, joinin by Kim Hee-su
• US-Japan yen rescue puts 1,400 won back in play, bonds shrug SEOUL, August 03 (AJP) - The blunt yen-defense campaign jointly mounted by Washington and Tokyo has fundamentally shifted the outlook for the Korean won, putting the psychologically important 1,400-per-dollar level back within reach after the currency spent much of the first half trading around 1,500. The same intervention, however, has offered little relief to Korea's sovereign bond market, where heavy government issuance and a hawkish Bank of Korea continue to outweigh improving global con by Kim Yeon-jae

AJP Watch

• AI becomes K-drama ingredient as soaring costs reshape filmmaking SEOUL, August 03 (AJP) - A recent K-drama hit, Agent Kim: Reactivated, had all the ingredients of a blockbuster action sequence — North Korean agents, a former security-service commando, gangsters, explosions and a high-speed chase through a snow-covered tunnel ending in a plunge into icy water. None of it was filmed. The roughly three-minute sequence that fooled audience as an expensive location shoot was generated entirely with artificial intelligence. Described by its creators as the f
• K-pop trains idols for debut, but not for what comes after SEOUL, July 30 (AJP) - If surviving South Korea's fiercely competitive education system seems difficult, try becoming a K-pop trainee. "Once school ends, you go straight to the practice room," one trainee recalled. "There's no time to see friends or even grab something to eat together." For thousands of teenagers, that routine is the price of pursuing one of the country's biggest dreams. K-pop has built one of the world's most sophisticated talent factories.

AJP Focus

• Odds of Korea's back-to-back rate hike fall on softer headline inflation SEOUL, Aug. 4 (AJP) — The surprising stall in South Korea's inflationary run in July has lowered expectations for a back-to-back interest-rate increase by the Bank of Korea this month, although policymakers remain wary of persistent underlying price pressures. Consumer prices rose 2.8 percent from a year earlier in July, slowing from 3.2 percent in June and falling below the 3 percent mark for the first time in three months. Core inflation, which Bank of Korea Gov. Shin Hyun-song has
• HBM war enters new phase as Samsung chases SK hynix SEOUL, August 03 (AJP) - SK hynix remained the clear leader in the game-changing high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market through the first half, but the second half could mark the beginning of a new phase as Samsung Electronics pushes aggressively to close the gap with next-generation HBM4. The rivalry came into sharper focus following the two companies' second-quarter earnings calls on July 29 and July 30, when South Korea's two memory giants used their outlook presentations to lay out comp