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
  • 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
  • S.Korea swelters as Yangsan hits record 42.5 degrees Celsius
    S.Korea swelters as Yangsan hits record 42.5 degrees Celsius SEOUL, August 02 (AJP) - South Korea buckled under its most brutal heat in more than a century on Sunday, as the southeastern city of Yangsan reached 42.5 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature ever recorded since modern observation began in 1904. The reading, logged at 1:26 p.m., pushed the country past 42 degrees for the first time in 122 years and marked the third straight day that a national record had fallen. Yangsan has now topped 40 degrees for five consecutive days. Other cities in the southeast baked alongside it. Gimhae and the North district of Busan both reached 40.6 degrees, while Gwangyang in South Jeolla province hit 40.3 degrees and Gyeongju climbed to 40.2 degrees. The Korea Meteorological Administration attributed the searing heat to twin high-pressure systems, the North Pacific and Tibetan highs, blanketing the peninsula at once, combined with intense sunshine, a foehn wind effect and Yangsan's basin terrain. As of Sunday, cumulative heat-related illnesses since mid-May reached about 1,781 cases nationwide, including 13 deaths, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Crowds fled to the coast and to water parks, packing beaches such as Busan's Haeundae, where wait times at some attractions stretched to more than three hours. Farmers, meanwhile, hauled water to parched fields and set out ice for livestock, as tens of thousands of poultry and farm animals perished across the south. In the capital, the weather agency upgraded the last remaining district to a heat wave warning at 11 a.m., placing all of Seoul under the alert, while a tropical night advisory entered its ninth consecutive day. The city expanded its response task force to eight teams and checked in on hundreds of vulnerable elderly residents. "With the heat wave dragging on, the risk of harm to citizens from illnesses such as heat stroke is growing," said Choi Jin-seok, head of Seoul's disaster and safety office. "We will operate our response system so that heat measures work without a gap in the field." 2026-08-02 15:35:09
  • Korea seeks emergency power to slash leverage on single-stock funds
    Korea seeks emergency power to slash leverage on single-stock funds SEOUL, August 02 (AJP) - South Korea's financial regulators are moving to arm themselves with emergency authority to unilaterally cut the leverage ratio on single-stock funds, escalating a campaign to tame the wild swings that have gripped the country's stock market. Industry sources say Sunday that the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service they would push an amendment to the capital markets act that would allow authorities to act swiftly to stabilize markets in a crisis. The move follows a punishing bout of volatility fueled by a rush into semiconductor stocks and the leveraged products tied to them. At the heart of the proposed amendment is a legal basis for regulators to directly lower the leverage on single-stock products, now fixed at two times, when markets turn turbulent. Officials are understood to have drawn on the example of Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission, which recently permitted flexible adjustment of leverage on listed products. Regulators are also weighing further trading curbs, including suspensions in cases of unfair trading. In tandem, authorities plan to unify the single-stock leverage investment ceiling at about 20 percent of each account across brokerages, curbing the concentration of funds at particular firms and reining in outsized bets by wealthy investors. Mandatory mock trading, mirroring the futures and derivatives markets, will be added to existing investor education. The market has already cooled sharply. After the basic deposit requirement was tripled to 30 million won ($20,790) from 10 million won on July 31, turnover in the 16 single-stock leverage products, including inverse funds, plunged to about 3 trillion won on the first day, roughly a quarter of the 12.4 trillion won traded the previous session. 2026-08-02 12:36:57
  • Seoul named global youths favorite city for fifth straight year
    Seoul named global youth's favorite city for fifth straight year SEOUL, August 02 (AJP) - Seoul has been named the world's favorite city among younger travelers for a fifth consecutive year, the city government said, extending a run that has burnished the South Korean capital's standing as a global tourism draw. The Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Tourism Organization said Sunday that the city topped the "Favorite Worldwide City" category in the 2026 The Trazees awards, run by U.S.-based travel media outlet Trazee Travel. Dublin, Hong Kong, London and Athens rounded out the top five. The winners were chosen by readers aged 25 to 40 — the business-travel core of the millennial and Gen Z market that the outlet targets. An awards ceremony is scheduled for Sunday in Chicago. For its unbroken run since 2022, Seoul also received a "Quint Status" honor given to repeat winners and entered the awards' hall of fame, according to the city government, which said the recognition reflected a broader shift in how young tourists travel. Where visitors once ticked off famous landmarks, they now chase local, everyday experiences, the city said — sampling K-fashion and K-beauty at Seongsu-dong pop-up stores, tasting street food at Gwangjang Market and hunting for vintage finds in Dongmyo. The music and alley culture of Hongdae and Euljiro, along with urban hikes up Bukhansan Mountain and Achasan Mountain, were also cited as distinctive draws. Foreign visits climbed at several sites last year, led by the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, up 12.1 percent, followed by Achasan at 11.8 percent and about 10 percent gains at Hongdae, Gwangjang Market and other spots, the city said, citing figures from the Seoul AI Foundation. "Building on Seoul's unique lifestyle culture and content, we will grow into the global tourism city that people around the world most want to visit," said Cho Sung-ho, head of the city's tourism and sports bureau, adding that Seoul would expand experience-based tourism and step up its MICE marketing. 2026-08-02 11:44:36
  • Samsung slips into the red as LGs appliances hold the 1 trillion won line
    Samsung slips into the red as LG's appliances hold the 1 trillion won line SEOUL, August 02 (AJP) -South Korea's two largest electronics makers saw their consumer appliance businesses move sharply apart in the first half of 2026, as LG Electronics posted a second straight quarter of profit above 1 trillion won ($693 million) while Samsung Electronics slipped into the red. The operating profit gap between the two firms' comparable home appliance, television and air-conditioning operations came to about 990 billion won in the first quarter and 1.15 trillion won in the second, industry data showed Sunday, even as their combined revenue in those segments ran at broadly similar levels. LG's home appliance, TV and eco-solution divisions together booked 14.92 trillion won in second-quarter revenue and 1.14 trillion won in operating profit, holding above the trillion-won mark after a similar showing in the prior quarter. Samsung's television and appliance operations, by contrast, swung to a 10 billion won operating loss from a 200 billion won profit, despite revenue edging up to about 14.5 trillion won. Both companies faced the same headwinds of softening consumer demand, heavier logistics costs and rising memory-chip prices, but analysts said differences in business structure drove the split. The gap was seen widest in home appliances, a fixed-cost-heavy manufacturing business where factory utilization and cost competitiveness swing profitability sharply when demand weakens. The two firms struck contrasting tones on their July 30 earnings calls. Samsung said premium and AI product sales lifted revenue but rising component costs eroded margins, while LG credited expanded appliance and premium TV sales, a richer high-value-added product mix, cost improvements and one-off tariff refunds for its gains. LG's second-quarter business-to-business revenue rose 5 percent from a year earlier to 6.5 trillion won and subscription revenue climbed 5 percent to 660 billion won, while its AI data center cooling business drew orders topping 600 billion won in the first half, underscoring the portfolio shift that has separated the two rivals' fortunes. 2026-08-02 10:36:43
  • AI coding tools thin out junior developer ranks, Gartner warns
    AI coding tools thin out junior developer ranks, Gartner warns SEOUL, August 02 (AJP) - Hiring of entry-level software developers has fallen sharply as companies lean on artificial-intelligence coding tools to handle routine work, a shift that research firm Gartner warned that could drain the industry's future talent pool. Employment of software developers aged 22 to 25 has dropped by about 20 percent from its late-2022 peak, according to a Stanford University Digital Economy Lab study of payroll records, coinciding with the arrival of ChatGPT and a wave of AI-assisted coding tools. Separate research from the Linux Foundation found entry-level roles bearing the brunt of AI-driven hiring cuts. Yet the premise that developers are merely coders is a flawed one, the data suggests. A study of Microsoft engineers by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers found that writing and reading code occupies just 15 percent of a developer's workday, with the remainder spent on collaboration, planning, review and testing. AI-generated code has also proven far from turnkey. In the 2025 State of Web Development AI survey, 76 percent of developers said they rewrite more than half of the code the tools produce, citing verification and error detection as their toughest challenges. Trimming junior ranks carries a hidden cost, as senior engineers absorb the maintenance and oversight that juniors once handled. Engineering-intelligence firm Jellyfish found that 46 percent of engineering managers expect developer burnout to worsen as a result, while the average COBOL specialist — a scarce, legacy skill — now commands about $115,000 a year, a sign of how thinning supply drives compensation higher. Analysts argue the remedy is to elevate junior roles rather than eliminate them, shifting new hires toward testing, validation and system-level judgment while handing them explicit ownership of reviewing AI output. Cheaper AI-enabled prototyping, they add, makes junior-led "tiny teams" a fast route from raw productivity to business results. "Slowing junior-level hiring could lead to significant pitfalls, including inhibiting knowledge transfer, restricting the internal talent pipeline, and limiting recruitment to more expensive and competitive senior roles," said Aliyah Camacho, a principal analyst at Gartner. The firm predicts that by 2028, organizations relying on AI to cut junior roles will hollow out their own software engineering talent pipeline, ultimately stalling the innovation those cuts were meant to accelerate. 2026-08-02 09:34:05