HD Hyundai Heavy Skips KDDX Batch II Concept Bid, Focuses on Next Design Phase HD Hyundai Heavy Industries has again declined to bid for the concept design of the KDDX Batch II program, drawing attention as competition intensifies for South Korea’s next-generation destroyer project. Shipbuilding industry officials said Thursday that HD Hyundai Heavy did not participate in either of the two recent tenders for the KDDX Batch II concept design. Under current rules, if a tender fails twice, the government can sign a private contract with the sole bidder, increasing the April 23, 2026

Uijeongbu mayoral hopeful Kim Won-gi faces plagiarism allegations over Ph.D. thesis Kim Won-gi, a Democratic Party of Korea preliminary candidate in the Uijeongbu mayoral race in Gyeonggi province, is facing allegations that he plagiarized his Ph.D. dissertation. If the claims are confirmed, they could expand into questions about his qualifications and ethics. According to reporting by Aju Business Daily on Wednesday, Kim’s 2011 doctoral dissertation, submitted to the graduate school of Konyang University, showed a 22% plagiarism rate in the plagiarism-checking program April 23, 2026

Retail Trading and Wealth Management Lift Korean Brokerages as IB Lags With earnings season getting underway, South Korea’s securities firms are expected to post sharply improved first-quarter results, driven mainly by retail businesses such as brokerage trading and wealth management, analysts say. A stock-market rally has boosted trading value, which feeds directly into fee income. Investment banking, by contrast, has grown more slowly, reinforcing a shift in profit engines from IB to retail, according to market watchers. As of the 23rd, FnGuide estimates April 23, 2026

Analysts See SK Hynix Bonuses Averaging 600 Million Won per Employee Next Year SK Hynix posted more than 37 trillion won in operating profit in the first quarter, and an analysis said the company’s average performance bonus paid early next year could exceed 600 million won per employee. Yonhap Infomax said on the 23rd that a consensus of 17 securities firms that issued reports over the past month forecast SK Hynix’s 2026 revenue at 301.1965 trillion won and operating profit at 227.8154 trillion won. Based on that outlook, the pool for the company’s profit April 23, 2026

Dandadan Juicy Gyoza Izakaya to Open First Thailand Store in Bangkok in Late July Restaurant operator NATTY SWANKY Holdings Co., based in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, said on the 22nd that its subsidiary Dandadan will open its first store in Bangkok, marking the brand’s first overseas location. The gyoza izakaya, branded as “Dandadan of Juicy Gyoza Dumplings,” is scheduled to open in late July. The store will be on the fifth floor of Cloud 11, a large mixed-use complex in eastern Bangkok, in a rooftop garden area. The shop will cover 100 square meters. As in Japan, the signat April 23, 2026

SK hynix unveils HBM4 roadmap at TSMC symposium, deepening AI memory partnership SK hynix used a technology event hosted by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest foundry, to lay out a detailed roadmap aimed at strengthening its lead in next-generation high-bandwidth memory, or HBM. The company said it took part in the “TSMC 2026 Technology Symposium” held April 22 (local time) in San Jose, California, where it presented development progress on sixth-generation HBM and its next-generation packaging capabilities. SK hynix highlighted HBM4, a ke April 23, 2026

KOCHAM Honorary Chairman: Korea’s Technology and Vietnam’s Workforce Are Inseparable President Lee Jae-myung’s official visit to Vietnam, joined by Samsung and other major South Korean conglomerates, is widening the scope of strategic cooperation between the two countries, Vietnamese media reported. Areas under discussion range from high-speed rail and nuclear power to semiconductors and artificial intelligence, as both sides pursue a 2030 goal of $150 billion in bilateral trade. Vietnam’s Tuoi Tre reported that Hong Sun, honorary chairman of the Korean Chamber of Commerce April 23, 2026

Han Dong-hoon Says He Will Not Leave Busan’s Buk District Ahead of By-Election Bid Han Dong-hoon, former leader of the People Power Party who is running as an independent in the by-election in Busan’s Buk District A constituency, said on April 23 that he would “never leave” Buk District. In a handwritten message posted to social media, Han called Buk District “the start of my politics and my hometown,” and said he would show “Han Dong-hoon-style politics” there. “I have never left this place, and no one sent me here,” he wrote, adding that he would “laugh tog April 23, 2026

South Korea Says No Supply Disruptions Yet for Health, High-Tech Materials; Backup Imports Ready The South Korean government said key industries have not yet seen disruptions in supplies of critical raw materials despite growing concerns that a prolonged war in the Middle East could rattle global supply chains for health care, medical and advanced industries. Officials said they will move quickly to secure alternative import sources if problems emerge. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said it reviewed supply conditions by sector during a “Middle East war response headquarte April 23, 2026

Seoul Expands Floor-Area Ratio Relief to Station-Area Long-Term Lease Housing Redevelopment Seoul is expanding its policy to ease baseline floor-area ratio limits to include station-area long-term lease housing projects, raising expectations that redevelopment zones with approved plans can improve feasibility by reducing required rental housing shares. The city said April 23 that station-area long-term lease housing sites already designated as redevelopment zones and with plans finalized will apply the eased baseline floor-area ratio at the later integrated review stage. Under April 23, 2026