news highlight

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  South Korea is a de facto abolitionist state – or is it? SEOUL, October 07 (AJP) - Fifty-two people remain on death row, growing old under sentences the state has left unfulfilled for nearly three decades. Their average age is 58.7. Among them are serial killers Yoo Young-chul and Kang Ho-soon, who killed 20 and 10 people, respectively. As the World Day Against the Death Penalty approaches on Oct. 10, South Korea remains caught between its long suspension of executions and a public largely unwilling to abandon them. A September survey commissioned b October 7, 2026
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  Are Korea's financial defenses ready for an AI hacker army? SEOUL, October 06 (AJP) - The chain of security breaches has become a pratfall for South Korea's vaunted IT industry and digital banking sector, raising questions over whether their firewalls and other defenses are ready for hackers armed with autonomous AI agents. The attackers probed the sector's side doors — loan-broker lookup pages, staff support systems and other services outside the main customer-facing platforms. They kept testing until several gave way. At least six banks October 6, 2026
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  Korean investors turn to Japan on weak yen and AI boom SEOUL, October 2 (AJP) — South Korean retail investors are increasingly looking across the Korea Strait as a stalling market at home and volatile U.S. bond prices turn their attention to Japan’s weak yen and expanding opportunities in the AI supply chain. South Korean investors bought $4.65 billion worth of Japanese stocks in the first nine months of 2026, up 94 percent from $2.40 billion a year earlier, according to the Korea Securities Depository (KSD). Purchases of U.S. shares r October 2, 2026
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  Drone pratfalls expose gap in Korea's battlefield testing SEOUL, October 02 (AJP) - South Korea builds machines that patrol the depths, fly faster than sound and power entire cities. Yet at its military showcases, drones have lately struggled with something more basic: staying in the air. In just over five weeks, two loitering munitions plunged into the sea after launch from a Navy warship, six of 17 demonstrations faltered at a Defense Ministry technology showcase, and a small target drone fell from the sky during a nationally televised Armed Forces October 2, 2026
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  KOSPI enters fourth quarter fighting to reclaim 7,000 SEOUL, October 01 (AJP) — Much of the KOSPI’s early-year exuberance has fizzled out as 2026 enters its final quarter, with thinning trade, volatile bond markets and monetary tightening cooling the leveraged bets that helped propel its rally. After taking nearly five years to climb from 3,000 to 4,000, the benchmark swept past successive milestones to breach 9,000 in June. Now, 7,000 has become a resistance level, raising the question of how long the next breakthrough will take. The October 1, 2026
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  For young Koreans, subscriptions make more sense than ownership SEOUL, September 30 (AJP) - A recent Samsung Electronics sales pitch for newlyweds in Cheongdam, a high-end shopping district in southern Seoul, was unusual: the familiar lineup of refrigerators, washing machines and TVs was missing. Instead, the household appliance giant was selling a subscription package: kitchen and living room appliances bundled with care services and tailored to the size of a couple’s first home. The pitch reflected a changing calculation among younger South Koreans September 30, 2026
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  Samsung Q3 income to top $70 bn: consensus SEOUL, September 29 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics is expected to extend its milestone-setting earnings streak in the quarter ended September, eyeing a three-month operating profit of more than 100 trillion won ($70 billion) as the global memory boom rolls on. A recent one-month consensus compiled by financial data provider FnGuide puts July-September operating profit at around 106 trillion won, topping the previous quarterly record of 89.5 trillion won set just three months earlier. Revenue is pr September 29, 2026
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  South Korea's unequal starting lines for love and connection SEOUL, September 28 (AJP) - Young South Koreans are becoming more homebound and even reclusive, and a new study points to an educational divide in their social connections in a society still heavily preoccupied with university diplomas. Young adults without a four-year university education and those from outside Seoul showed weaker social connections across several measures, according to a National Assembly Futures Institute (NAFI) study based on a nationwide survey of 5,185 people aged 19 to 3 September 28, 2026
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  AI giants go straight to memory makers SEOUL, September 23 (AJP) - The artificial intelligence boom is beginning to reshape not only how memory chips are used, but who buys them. OpenAI and Anthropic are expected to begin purchasing memory directly from manufacturers in 2027 as leading AI developers take greater control over the chips and data centers that power their models, according to an industry report. The shift could create a new class of direct customers for Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, which have traditionally supplie September 23, 2026