Monday, Aug 17, 2026
  • Trump orders cut to US-S. Korea joint military drill SEOUL, August 17 (AJP) - Hours before South Korea and the United States opened their largest annual exercise, United States President Donald Trump said he had ordered the Pentagon to substantially reduce joint military drills on the peninsula, pointing to his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump wrote on Truth Social that he was not happy the United States had agreed long ago to take p
    Trump orders cut to US-S. Korea joint military drill
  • Rain eases South Gyeongsang drought but triggers landslide alerts SEOUL, August 16 (AJP) - South Gyeongsang province saw as much as 114.5 millimeters of rain on Sunday, easing a punishing stretch of heat and drought, even as torrential downpours in mountainous areas prompted heightened landslide warnings and scattered flooding. The Korea Meteorological Administration
    Rain eases South Gyeongsang drought but triggers landslide alerts
  • Chey seeks stock-cash mix in $666 million divorce, ex-wife holds out for cash SEOUL, August 16 (AJP) - SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won balked at a court order to hand his former wife 944 billion won ($666.3 million) in cash because the two sides could not agree on how the record divorce settlement should be paid. Chey, 65, proposed settling part of the award with SK shares alongside cash, but Roh Soh-yeong, 65, the director of the Art Center Nabi and
    Chey seeks stock-cash mix in $666 million divorce, ex-wife holds out for cash
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ASIA Insight>

MASGA gets liftoff with drones with Washington's push  SEOUL, August 14 (AJP) - Washington's push to rebuild strategic industries at home while reducing dependence on China is creating new openings for South Korean companies in two seemingly different sectors: shipbuilding and drones. The latest U.S. moves point to a broader strategy of tapping production capacity from trusted allies where American industry cannot immediately meet demand, while using tariffs, investment and procurement rules to steer strategic supply chains away from China. Fo
MASGA gets liftoff with drones with Washingtons push 
Why North Korean leader keeps putting his daughter in spotlight Why North Korean leader keeps putting his daughter in spotlight SEOUL, August 14 (AJP) - In one of the world's most closed societies like North Korea, what matters may lie in what happens before a successor is ever named. For decades, the isolated country's hereditary Kim dynasty has shown that power is not simply passed down when the previous leader dies. It has to be prepared, groomed and carefully managed to prevent any chaos. That process now appears to be underway for current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's daughter Ju-ae. In recent years

AJP Focus>

Is the Seoul stock party over or just cooling down? SEOUL, August 14 (AJP) — South Korea's KOSPI has rebounded after a heavy crash in July. But the crazy roller-coaster ride has shifted to a duller plateau, with the main drivers quietly taking a back seat. The benchmark index flirted with 7,000 Friday, rebounding more than 30 percent from its late-July intraday low of 5,262.77. Yet trading activity and cash on standby remain well below the levels seen during the market frenzy in June. The ebb is evident. Investor deposits — cas
Is the Seoul stock party over or just cooling down?
China cracks memory club, but harder test looms China cracks memory club, but harder test looms SEOUL, August 14 (AJP) - China's heavily government-backed chipmakers are breaking into the once-exclusive global memory club, with Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC) vaulting into the world's top three NAND flash suppliers for the first time. But just as China closes the gap in manufacturing scale, artificial intelligence is moving the industry's profit pool toward a harder target. YMTC captured 14 percent of global NAND bit shipments in the second quarter, overtaking Japan

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