AJU PRESS ASIA FIRST NEWS AGENCY

Journalist

Kim Dong-young
Kim Dong-young김동영
ReporterSamsung Biologics, CJ CheilJedang, LG Chem, Celltrion, Naver, Krafton, Nexon, Hyundai Mobis etc. & energy, game, food, bio, petrochemical, AI
Kim Dong-young is a bilingual journalist at AJU Press (AJP), covering Korean tech, energy, and bio/pharma.
He reports from the field at events like CES and APEC, runs AJP's YouTube channels,
and is pursuing a master's at Sogang's MOT program. "I try everything in this AI era that can improve yet preserve the facts. Journalism still serves as my core."
Latest by Kim Dong-young
  • Krafton to bring five games, including new PUBG title, to Gamescom 2026
    Krafton to bring five games, including new PUBG title, to Gamescom 2026 SEOUL, August 05 (AJP) - South Korean game publisher Krafton announced it will present five upcoming titles at Gamescom 2026, the industry's largest trade fair, headlined by an unannounced project built on its blockbuster PUBG franchise. The lineup, to be shown from Aug. 26 to 30 at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany, spans internally developed games and second-party publishing projects, underscoring the company's push to broaden beyond the battle royale format that made its name. The unnamed PUBG Studios title will make its global debut at the show. Set in the deep forests and small towns of the Pacific Northwest, it is an action-driven first-person shooter that Krafton said stays true to the franchise's roots while forging a new story with every playthrough. Rounding out the slate are No Law, an immersive open-world FPS from Neon Giant set in the cyber-noir port city of Port Desire; Project Zeta, a multi-team tactical arena game pitting four three-player squads against one another; and Age Twisters, a two-player cooperative adventure that sends a grandfather and granddaughter across a near-future Barcelona. The fifth title, Tarae: The Unbound, is a quarter-view Eastern dark fantasy action RPG drawing on the Buddhist cycle of reincarnation, in which players choose one of six classes to confront a being bent on shattering the order of rebirth. 2026-08-05 10:13:05
  • HMM to open India-East Africa container route in September
    HMM to open India-East Africa container route in September SEOUL, August 05 (AJP) - HMM, South Korea's largest container carrier, said it would launch a new service linking India and East Africa in September, extending the hub-and-spoke network that has become the centerpiece of its expansion strategy. The service announced Wednesday, branded Gulf-India-East Africa (GIA), will connect the Indian gateway ports of Nhava Sheva and Mundra — where cargo from India and Central Asia converges — with Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Mombasa in Kenya. It marks the carrier's second African feeder line under a strategy pursued since Choi Won-hyuk took over as chief executive. The first vessel is scheduled to depart Nhava Sheva in the fourth week of September, with about five container ships of 2,800 twenty-foot equivalent units deployed on the loop. HMM will run the route jointly with China's COSCO Shipping Lines, Singapore's Pacific International Lines and Taiwan's Interasia Lines, and plans eventually to extend the service into the Gulf. The new line complements HMM's existing north and west African route out of Algeciras, Spain, giving the carrier what it called a firm bridgehead across the continent. Kenya and Tanzania, both undergoing steady port and inland-logistics development, rank among East Africa's principal gateways. HMM has said it aims to grow its container fleet to 1.47 million TEU across 166 ships by 2030, and is securing feeder tonnage to work in tandem with its larger ocean-going vessels as shippers increasingly prize schedule reliability and destination reach amid a fractured global supply chain. "This India-East Africa service is an important milestone in extending our hub-and-spoke strategy across the whole of Africa," said an HMM spokesperson, adding that the company would keep building out its network in high-growth markets. 2026-08-05 09:48:17
  • New humanoids break from the two-legged mold
    New humanoids break from the two-legged mold SEOUL, August 04 (AJP) - A horned, chainsaw-wielding machine that looks less like a factory helper than a creature from Greek myth went viral online this week, the latest sign that the humanoid robot — long imagined as a two-legged mechanical twin of its maker — is quietly shedding the human silhouette that once defined it. The machine, named Threehalves, is being developed by Satyress Robotics, a startup based in Auburn, California. It grafts a humanoid upper body onto a four-legged base, standing about two meters tall, and is built to work in places too dangerous for people, from wildfire fronts to collapsed structures. The company positions it as a force multiplier for skilled workers rather than a replacement. Threehalves is teleoperated, and by the firm's own account it is not yet a functioning robot — the images circulating online are static renders. The design echoes a concept Korean engineers know well: "Centaur," the country's first humanoid, built decades ago at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) with a horse-like lower body rather than legs. Chipmaker Nvidia, whose processors power most humanoids in development, defines them as general-purpose, bipedal robots modeled on the human form and designed to work alongside people. Yet many machines now marketed as humanoids stray far from that description, from wheeled torsos to faceless frames. "The definition of 'humanoid' itself is still unclear," Park Dong-il, director of the Advanced Robotics Research Center at KIST, said in an earlier interview. "There's no ISO standard. We call robots with only an upper body humanoids, and we also call robots with both upper and lower bodies humanoids." Google DeepMind last week unveiled Gemini Robotics 2, a general-purpose AI model that steers a humanoid's whole body — walking, crouching and manipulating objects — rather than the upper half its predecessor was limited to. Meanwhile, South Korea's Robotis has open-sourced its AI Sapiens humanoid platform, releasing hardware designs, source code and simulation assets to cut the months of groundwork that precede AI training. Korea's industrial giants are moving too, and increasingly into defense. Samsung affiliate Rainbow Robotics and Hyundai Rotem jointly developed the RB-01K, a four-legged combat robot set for deployment with the South Korean Army by year-end, as a shrinking pool of conscripts pushes the military toward automation. Four-legged machines like the RB-01K may look nothing like a humanoid, but they lean on the same mechanical DNA. The quasi-direct-drive actuators that give quadrupeds their agile, shock-absorbing legs — pioneered in MIT's Cheetah robots — are now the joints of choice for humanoids as well, and Korean engineers say China vaulted into the humanoid race largely by porting that four-legged know-how onto two legs. Engineers argue Korea's edge lies not in spectacle but in what these machines can eventually do. "The essence of a humanoid robot is what it does for work," said Han Jae-kwon, robotics professor at Hanyang University and chief technology officer of Aei Robot. "Replace dangerous, undesirable labor. Help address the population cliff." Whatever shape the next generation takes — two legs, four, or none — the machines increasingly answer to a common master: the AI learning to move them. 2026-08-04 12:59:01
  • South Korea says AI factories lift factory output, cut defects
    South Korea says AI factories lift factory output, cut defects SEOUL, August 04 (AJP) - South Korea's manufacturers have posted measurable gains from deploying artificial intelligence on their production lines, the industry ministry said, pointing to sharper output and fewer defects across semiconductor, automobile and shipbuilding plants. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Tuesday that its flagship AI Factory initiative has backed the AI transformation of about 170 worksites, and that an inspection of 42 early adopters found productivity had climbed an average of 30.1 percent while defect rates fell 15.5 percent. The results were released ahead of the ministry's second-half briefing to the government, part of a drive it calls M.AX to steer traditional industry toward automation. Individual cases were striking. Surplus Global, which dismantles and recovers parts from used chip equipment, raised productivity by 66.7 percent after weaving AI into its sorting process, while Asan Sungwoo Hitech slashed quality-inspection time for electric-vehicle batteries by 90 percent through an unmanned manufacturing system. In shipbuilding, HD Hyundai Samho lifted productivity by 50 percent after adopting AI-driven autonomous welding for rudder trunks, the ministry said, adding that it now aims to spread such field-tested models to smaller firms that lack the expertise to build their own. The ministry plans to establish 500 AI factories by 2030 and expand its cluster of testbed industrial complexes to 25, alongside developing full-stack facilities that run entire production processes without human intervention. "As gains in productivity and quality have now been confirmed on the ground, we will move quickly to spread these proven models to small and mid-sized firms and regional industrial complexes," Minister Kim Jung-kwan said, pledging support to make the country a manufacturing-AI powerhouse by 2030. 2026-08-04 11:24:36
  • South Korea breaks ground on $1.7 billion AI computing center
    South Korea breaks ground on $1.7 billion AI computing center SEOUL, August 03 (AJP) - South Korea broke ground on a national artificial intelligence computing center in the country's southwest, launching a flagship project meant to secure the vast computing power its ambitions in the technology increasingly demand. The Ministry of Science and ICT held the groundbreaking ceremony on Monday at the Solaseado data center park in Haenam, South Jeolla Province, marking the formal start of construction on a facility that will draw about 2.5 trillion won ($1.74 billion) in investment through 2028. The center will house 15,000 graphics processing units by 2028 to train and research large-scale AI models, the ministry said, positioning the site as a national hub for the scarce chips that underpin advanced AI development. "Just two years ago we were worrying about securing GPUs, but now is the moment for Korea to leap forward as a leading player in the AI market," said Bae Kyung-hoon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT. Bae described the center as a "token factory" that would export a token-based economy to the world. A consortium led by Samsung SDS, the sole bidder in a public tender held last autumn, was selected to build and run the complex, with partners including Naver Cloud, Kakao, KT and Samsung Electronics. The group launched a public-private joint venture, Korea AI Computing Center, in June to oversee operations. Samsung SDS said the facility would support the full arc of AI development, from building industry-specific models to large-scale training and inference, and pledged discounted access for startups, smaller firms and academic researchers. How much of the computing capacity will be reserved for public-sector users has not yet been decided. The government aims to complete the center by 2028, though the consortium plans to bring some computing resources online as early as 2027 using an existing Samsung SDS data center to meet early demand from industry and academia. 2026-08-03 16:09:29
  • Shift Up defends AI-made music video after gamer backlash
    Shift Up defends AI-made music video after gamer backlash SEOUL, August 03 (AJP) - South Korean game developer Shift Up has defended a promotional music video created with generative artificial intelligence after players in Korea and abroad criticized its use of the technology and the quality of the finished product. The studio on July 31 released the song "Wanna be in LOVE" and an accompanying music video on social media, previewing a soundtrack for its forthcoming title "Stellar Blade: Blood Rain." The clip shows the game's protagonist, Evie, singing before a microphone and roaming a neon-lit science-fiction city. Most of the video's scenes were generated by AI, and fans seized on the uncanny, stilted quality of the character's movements, expressions and transitions, deriding the result as "AI slop." The criticism was sharpest among Western gamers hostile to generative AI, some of whom argued that letting software rather than artists produce the video was wrong in itself. Others contended that heavy corporate reliance on AI had helped drive up the cost of gaming PCs and consoles, leaving players to bear the burden. Kim Hyung-tae, Shift Up's chief executive and a prominent former game illustrator, rejected the complaints. Responding on X to a fan who urged him to use the studio's own artists instead of "soulless AI slop," Kim said the character had been "created from head to toe by our talented artists and modelers through more than a year of dedicated work," adding that the AI merely rendered and presented data, designs and craftsmanship his team had built. Kim, who has openly championed generative AI and used it aggressively in his work, gave no indication the studio would change course. 2026-08-03 15:10:46
  • Hyundai Steels Q2 profit slides 43% on year despite quarterly rebound
    Hyundai Steel's Q2 profit slides 43% on year despite quarterly rebound SEOUL, August 03 (AJP) - Hyundai Steel, South Korea's second-largest steelmaker, revealed that its second-quarter operating profit tumbled about 43 percent from a year earlier. According to regulatory filings released Monday, the steelmaker posted an operating profit of 57.7 billion won ($40.3 million) for the three months ended June, down 43.3 percent from a year earlier. Net profit came in at 12.1 billion won, while revenue edged up 2.7 percent on year to 6.11 trillion won. The picture brightened against the previous quarter, with operating profit surging more than fourfold from a weak first quarter and sales climbing 6.4 percent. Yet the first-half tally told a starker story as cumulative operating profit fell 11.2 percent from a year earlier to 73.4 billion won, leaving the company well behind its 2025 pace. Hyundai Steel struck an upbeat tone, attributing the sequential gains to firmer shipments of bar and shaped-steel products and higher prices. "Profitability is expected to improve as construction conditions gradually recover in the second half, buoyed by expanding investment in advanced domestic industries," the company said, adding that borrowings had risen temporarily on its new U.S. mill investment. Looking ahead, the company said it would chase demand tied to data centers, next-generation nuclear plants and semiconductor fabrication facilities, having already won orders to supply steel for seven new data-center projects this year. Shares of Hyundai Steel traded at 24,500 won per stock at 2:34 p.m., 7.21 percent lower than the previous session. 2026-08-03 14:43:12
  • Lee maps Koreas AI supply chain from Silicon Valley to Latin America
    Lee maps Korea's AI supply chain from Silicon Valley to Latin America SEOUL, August 03 (AJP) - President Lee Jae Myung returned to Seoul on Monday from an 11-day trip that broadened South Korea's AI supply chain map to Latin America, securing commitments on rare earths, copper, lithium and crude oil needed to underpin the country's ambition of becoming an artificial intelligence powerhouse. The tour effectively connected both ends of the AI ecosystem. In San Francisco, Lee sought partnerships with Nvidia, Broadcom, OpenAI and Anthropic to strengthen Korea's position in AI chips, models and data centers. In Brazil, Chile and Argentina, he pursued the minerals and energy needed to keep those AI factories running, linking Silicon Valley's computing power with Latin America's resource wealth. Each stop targeted a strategic bottleneck. In Chile, the world's largest copper producer and holder of the biggest known lithium reserves, Lee signed a critical minerals partnership and agreed with President Jose Antonio Kast to revive the Korea-Chile Free Trade Commission, dormant since 2015. "I am confident that we can create remarkable synergy through cooperation in various areas, including not only the distribution and utilization of critical minerals but also advanced manufacturing and the defense industry, if our two countries join forces," Lee said in Santiago, citing the joint venture between Korea's LS and state miner Codelco. Copper has become indispensable for AI infrastructure, wiring power grids, transmission networks and hyperscale data centers, while lithium remains central to batteries for electric vehicles, energy storage systems and electronics. The International Energy Agency projects global copper supply will fall roughly one-quarter short of demand by 2035 because of declining ore grades and lengthy mine development, while lithium is also faces tightening supplies as refining remains heavily concentrated in China. Brazil addressed another vulnerability. Lee and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva adopted a joint statement on critical minerals, including rare earths, of which Brazil possesses an estimated 21 million tons—the world's second-largest reserves. Rare earth elements are essential for permanent magnets used in electric vehicles, industrial robots, wind turbines and advanced defense systems. Their strategic value has risen sharply since China, which dominates about 60 percent of global mining and 90 percent of refining, tightened export controls last year. Argentina completed the resource map. Holding the world's fourth-largest lithium reserves and vast shale oil resources, the country signed a lithium memorandum covering exploration, extraction and processing while opening a new supply route for crude oil. South Korea imported a trial cargo of about 880,000 barrels of Argentine crude this year and plans to begin regular purchases from 2026 as it seeks to reduce dependence on Middle Eastern supplies. "This lays the practical groundwork to broaden our crude import lines, concentrated in the Middle East, toward South America," National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac said in Buenos Aires. The resource diplomacy built directly on the first leg of Lee's trip in San Francisco, where he unveiled the San Francisco AI Declaration, describing South Korea as an "irreplaceable core nation in the global AI supply chain." Korean companies and their U.S. partners also announced semiconductor cooperation plans that the presidential office valued at about $950 billion. The four-stop tour reflected Seoul's evolving AI strategy: securing not only chips and software partnerships but also the minerals, electricity and energy supplies required to sustain AI infrastructure over the long term. The agreements reached in Latin America, however, remain largely memorandums of understanding and letters of intent. Their ultimate value will depend on whether they translate into long-term mineral offtake agreements, stable crude imports and commercial investment that strengthens South Korea's place in the global AI supply chain. 2026-08-03 14:23:51
  • S-Oil returns to profit in second quarter on firm refining margins
    S-Oil returns to profit in second quarter on firm refining margins SEOUL, August 03 (AJP) - South Korea's S-Oil swung to a second-quarter operating profit as robust refining margins and record lubricant spreads outweighed a sharp drop in crude prices. According to regulatory filings released Monday, operating profit came in at 965.0 billion won ($674.2 million) for the three months ended June, reversing a year-earlier operating loss of 344.0 billion won. Revenue climbed 40.9 percent from a year earlier to 11.34 trillion won, lifted by elevated oil prices, while net profit reached 514.6 billion won, against a loss of 66.8 billion won in the same period of 2025. The rebound came even as operating profit fell 21.6 percent from the first quarter, when a one-off inventory gain had padded the refining division's earnings. The company said the lubricant business delivered its highest-ever quarterly operating profit, cushioning much of that decline. "Refining margins rose sharply as the supply of oil products tightened," the company said, pointing to strained global inventories. Crude prices held high through most of the quarter before tumbling in late June, when the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz was temporarily lifted. S-Oil expects firm market conditions to persist into the second half, citing global crude and product stocks that sit near the bottom of their five-year range. The refiner said tight refined-product supply should continue, driven by summer driving demand, heatwave-fueled power generation, Russian export curbs and disruptions at Middle Eastern facilities. The company added that its Shaheen petrochemical project remains on track for commercial operation in early 2027, following test runs in the second half of this year. Shares of S-Oil traded at 120,500 won at 10:00 a.m., 5.34 percent lower than the previous session. 2026-08-03 10:03:11
  • New US envoy Steel tours Seoul landmarks after taking up post
    New US envoy Steel tours Seoul landmarks after taking up post SEOUL, August 02 (AJP) - Michelle Steel, the new U.S. ambassador to South Korea, has visited a string of Seoul's most recognizable sites in the days since taking up her post, in an early effort to underscore her personal ties to the country as its first Korean American woman to hold the role. Steel marked the start of her tenure by raising the American flag alongside the embassy's Marine Security Guards, calling it "a symbolic and meaningful start" to her time as envoy to the Republic of Korea. Steel toured Namdaemun Market on Saturday, sharing photographs on X of herself and her husband, attorney Shawn Steel, posing outside the market and holding hotteok, a Korean griddle pancake, alongside a vendor. "Returning to Namdaemun Market after so many years brought back so many memories," Steel wrote. "It is wonderful to rediscover Seoul — a city that is both familiar and new to me." A day earlier, she posted a photograph taken before the statue of King Sejong at Gwanghwamun, saying the monument reminded her of Korea's legacy of innovation and leadership. Born in Seoul in 1955 to a family displaced from the North, Steel emigrated to the United States in 1975. She went on to serve on California's Board of Equalization, as an Orange County supervisor and as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and is seen as close to President Donald Trump and the party's mainstream. Her arrival on Thursday filled a post that had stood vacant for about a year and a half. Fluent in Korean, she is expected to help reinforce the alliance by bridging the sensibilities of both nations. Steel, a devout Christian, also attended Sunday worship at Youngnak Presbyterian Church in central Seoul, a congregation founded by refugees from the North that her own displaced parents once attended, according to local media reports. 2026-08-02 16:15:56