news highlight

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  Arrival of new US envoy presents fresh test for alliance SEOUL, July 31 (AJP) - The arrival of a new U.S. ambassador to South Korea would, under ordinary circumstances, have been a routine moment in the long history of the bilateral relationship. He or she would present credentials, offer familiar words about friendship and cooperation, and begin the quiet work of diplomacy. But these may not be ordinary circumstances. Michael Steel's arrival on Thursday has drawn unusual attention here, not so much because she is another Korean-American envoy to July 31, 2026
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  Korea bets on being indispensable in U.S.-China AI rivalry SEOUL, July 30 (AJP) - When the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this week barred new imports of Chinese-made humanoid robots, it marked another escalation in the technology war that began with semiconductors and rare earths. More importantly, it showed that strategic competition has entered the age of physical artificial intelligence — where robots, AI models and communications networks are increasingly treated as national-security assets. For South Korea, the decision also s July 30, 2026
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  Fed, BOJ policy paths may be behind foreign exodus from Korean equities SEOUL, July 29 (AJP) - Foreign investors have sold nearly 20 trillion won ($14.5 billion) worth of South Korean equities this month, including about 10 trillion won this week, extending first-half outflows of roughly 170 trillion won as global investors reposition portfolios ahead of diverging monetary paths in the United States and Japan rather than simply locking in profits after Seoul's year-long rally. The sustained selling suggests global liquidity conditions—not domestic valuat July 29, 2026
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  Heatwave in South Korea isn't bad luck, but a loaded die SEOUL, July 29 (AJP) - South Korea feels more and more like Southeast Asia — tropical humidity, scorching heat, and sudden squalls of rain. The country recorded an average of 7.8 tropical nights between June 1 and July 27, the highest number for the period since nationwide records began in 1973. Its average temperature over the same stretch reached 24.2 degrees Celsius, the second-highest on record. With the Tibetan high-pressure system now settling in above the North Pacific high, the July 29, 2026
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  How South Korea became Asia's AI ETF test case SEOUL, July 28 (AJP) — Not long ago, Nvidia was the trade that defined the artificial intelligence boom. Today, investors are searching for the next AI winner—and using increasingly leveraged financial products to amplify those bets. That search is reshaping not only Asia's semiconductor industry but also its capital markets. As investors crowd into a handful of AI champions, exchanges are racing to launch new products while regulators grapple with where to draw the line between July 28, 2026
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  The East joins the West in the survival game against extreme heat SEOUL, July 27 (AJP) - South Korea joined the global survival game against extreme heat on Monday as temperatures neared 40 degrees Celsius after the monsoon fizzled out, emptying streets and farm fields alike. Children and office workers, farmers and foreign tourists alike searched for clever ways to stay cool, crowding shopping malls, subway stations and other air-conditioned spaces. By 3 p.m., the government raised the national heat crisis alert to "grave," its highest level, and a July 27, 2026
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  When merits break: Will cockroach movement test Asia's youths? SEOUL, July 26 (AJP) - The most remarkable thing about India's Cockroach movement is not that it forced the resignation of a cabinet minister. It is that it began with an insult. When a senior judge reportedly dismissed unemployed young Indians as "cockroaches" and "parasites," Generation Z did something previous generations rarely attempted. Instead of rejecting the slur, they adopted it, transforming a satirical Instagram page into a nationwide movement that ultimately July 26, 2026
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  Asia's Gen Z do not wait for permission anymore SEOUL, July 24 (AJP) - A canceled exam in New Delhi. A social media ban in Kathmandu. A housing allowance in Jakarta. A job quota in Dhaka. None of these, on its own, reads like the beginning of a national crisis. Yet each one sent hundreds of thousands of young people into the streets, and in two of those countries the government did not survive. Something has shifted in how Asia's youngest adults deal with power. The region's leaders are finding out the hard way. The latest lesson is July 24, 2026
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  Borderline Koreans: too able to qualify, too slow to fit SEOUL, July 22 (AJP) - It is 2 p.m., and the lunch rush has cleared at Youth Mungan, a kimchi stew shop in Seoul's southwestern neighborhood of Nakseongdae. A young man moves from table to table, spraying sanitizer and wiping every corner with meticulous care. "Customers sit here," Kim Ji-woo, 27, said sheepishly. "Wiping it perfectly clean puts my mind at ease." He clears plates, relays orders to the kitchen and folds used aprons neatly onto a rack. Closing the dining July 22, 2026