SEOUL, November 17 (AJP) - South Korean shares climbed nearly 2 percent on Monday, sustaining momentum across otherwise listless Asian markets after Seoul and Washington finalized a bilateral trade deal that opened new business opportunities for shipbuilders, energy infrastructure firms and defense manufacturers. The KOSPI rose 1.9 percent to 4,089.25, while the small-cap KOSDAQ gained 0.5 percent to 902.67. Semiconductor stocks led the advance. Samsung Electronics rose 3.5 percent

SEOUL, November 17 (AJP) - South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense has formally proposed talks with North Korea to establish a clear baseline for the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), in what would be the first military dialogue between the two sides since 2018. Kim Hong-chul, director of the ministry’s Defense Policy Office, said Monday that North Korean troops have repeatedly crossed the MDL while constructing tactical roads, laying fences and planting mines insi

SEOUL, November 17 (AJP) - The South Korean government said on Monday it had uncovered more than 200 suspicious housing transactions involving foreign nationals over the past year. According to the Real Estate Supervision Task Force, operating under the Prime Minister’s Office, a review of 438 housing transactions involving foreigners between June 2024 and May 2025 found that nearly half — 47.9 percent — showed signs of illegality or regulatory breaches. Offici

SEOUL, November 17 (AJP) - Three out of ten Korean households now own a pet, and the government is considering a standardized payment system for veterinary care to address soaring medical costs and widening price disparities. The move follows mounting public frustration over bills that vary dramatically by clinic and location. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA), the cost of a first-time checkup for a 5-kilogram pet ranges from as low as 1,000

SEOUL, November 17 (AJP) - The Chinese have numbing-hot “mala,” the Mexicans have smoky “salsa,” and the Thai have sweet-spicy “sriracha.” But the enduring winner in the global chili-sauce canon is South Korea’s “buldak” — a magical blend of concentrated sweetness and addictive burn that has pushed its maker, Samyang Foods, to the top of the KOSPI’s food sector and made the stock almost unreachable for ordinary investo

SEOUL, November 17 (AJP) - Hyundai Motor said Monday it will supply 30 Staria multi-purpose vehicles for the Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. The vehicles will be used to transport delegates during the Nov. 22-23 summit, which is expected to draw leaders from the G20 member nations as well as representatives from the European Union, African Union, United Nations, International Monetary Fund and World Bank. This year’s agenda centers on themes of solidarity

SEOUL, November 17 (AJP) - Korean shares in chipmaking, utilities, defense, energy infrastructure and shipbuilding climbed 1 to 5 percent on Monday, refueling the KOSPI's run while most Asian markets stayed lethargic on expectations of active cross-border ventures following a newly signed memorandum of understanding between Seoul and Washington that caps months of delayed talks on a broader trade and tariff deal. The electronically signed MoU positions South Korea not merely as

SEOUL, November 17 (AJP) - Eastsoft, a South Korean AI services company, said Monday that its research on multilingual automatic dubbing has been accepted for presentation at EMNLP 2025, one of the field’s leading conferences. The company’s study introduces an end-to-end dubbing framework that uses large language models to synchronize translated audio with the timing and rhythm of the original video — a longstanding challenge for automated dubbing systems, whic

SEOUL, November 17 (AJP) - KAIST said on November 17 that its researchers have developed a way to look inside a light-based quantum computer almost like taking a CT scan. The idea is to make the machine’s hidden operations visible so researchers can understand how the device actually works. Light-based quantum computers use many small light signals that interact and become tangled with one another. This tangling makes the machines powerful, but it also makes them very hard t