Aju Press - Asia News Hub

Journalist

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

Korea opens first industrial insect protein complex SEOUL, September 08 (AJP) - South Korea opened its first industrial-scale insect complex in Chuncheon, a 20 billion won ($14.85 million) facility built to produce up to 1,000 tons of mealworms a year for food and pharmaceutical buyers. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said Tuesday the site in Gangwon Province covers 23,815 square meters and is anchored by a smart factory farm where artificial intelligence and robots watch the larvae and adjust temperature, humidity and feed. Around it stands 33 rental greenhouses that will draw breeding stock from participating farmers, including young growers, and every stage of rearing and processing carries HACCP hygiene certification, a first for insect production in the country. "We want zero waste," said Seok Young-seek, the center's director, in an interview with AJP when the complex broke ground. "Insects aren't just food. Their chitin shells can be used in bioplastics and sensors." Gangwon Province and Chuncheon signed a cooperation agreement at the ceremony with Hanmi Nutrition, a health supplement maker, and insect food company OMO. Both companies plan to develop medical foods and protein ingredients from the site's output. Cabbage and other produce discarded by nearby distribution centers will be fed to the insects, a recycling loop the ministry said should lower rearing costs and disposal bills while cutting carbon emissions. Nationwide insect sales reached 52.8 billion won in 2024, up 11.6 percent from a year earlier. The number of registered insect businesses fell 2.1 percent to 2,949 during the same period, according to the ministry's latest industry survey. AJP Takeaways - South Korea's first insect industry hub opened in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, on Sept. 8, 2026, built with 20 billion won ($14.9 million) split evenly between central and local government funding. - The complex can produce up to 1,000 tons of mealworms annually using AI- and robot-controlled rearing, and is the first Korean insect facility to apply HACCP hygiene certification across the full production chain. - South Korea's insect industry sold 52.8 billion won worth of product in 2024, an 11.6 percent rise from 2023, while registered producers fell to 2,949 from 3,031, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. 2026-09-08 14:00:34
One year in, Korea's humanoid still toddles SEOUL, September 07 (AJP) - KAIROS showed off its dancing skills to a national calisthenics tune on a Seoul stage Monday, but to an audience accustomed to somersaulting and kung fu-performing Chinese humanoids, its wobbly movements and seemingly glued feet hardly drew genuine applause. The performance offered a candid look at how far South Korea has come — and how far it still has to go — little more than a year into a state-backed effort to close the humanoid gap with China and the United States. Four of the six KAIROS units on display performed. Each had to be lowered from hangers holding it upright and worked into a starting posture before it could move. "We started humanoid research a little over a year ago," said Park Dong-il, director of the Advanced Robotics Research Center at the Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM), with a rueful smile. "We got here from nothing, on the software, hardware and AI the institute has built up over a long time." The arms came up to shoulder height and no higher. Each command took a beat to register before the machine began to move, and the joints turned as if they were dry. One unit stood in a white body with hansam on its wrists, the long white sleeves used in talchum, Korea's traditional masked dance, and slowly traced the steps on the beat. Its feet stayed almost firmly on the floor. The audience clapped through every crank and sway, almost as if coaxing the machines along. However feeble the movements looked, nobody in the hall laughed. Humanoid industry leaders are well past that stage. China's Unitree Robotics has demonstrated G1 humanoids performing coordinated kung fu routines and other highly dynamic movements, while Boston Dynamics' Atlas has performed a "Ghost Rabona" — a feint followed by a cross-legged football kick requiring the robot to leave the ground and regain its balance. KAIROS is not there yet, and Park said so plainly. The robot, whose name comes from the Greek word for a decisive or opportune moment, is KIMM's attempt to create a homegrown humanoid platform at a time when physical AI is emerging as the next global technology race. Korea's broader K-Moonshot initiative uses AI to accelerate science and technology development and includes humanoid robots among 12 national missions. The government formally launched the program this year with the goal of doubling research productivity by 2030 and achieving its key missions by 2035. KAIROS itself grew out of work launched in May 2025 by KIMM's Global TOP strategic research group for self-growing AI humanoids. The rationale is straightforward: a country confronting a shrinking workforce does not want to depend entirely on foreign humanoid platforms once robots begin moving from laboratories into factories, logistics centers and eventually homes. KAIROS stands about 170 centimeters tall, weighs roughly 80 kilograms and has 29 degrees of freedom, according to the institute. The version shown Monday is V0.7. V1 is scheduled for April 2027 and V2 for 2030. The six machines are not identical. Each carries a different combination of components, including different reducers and motors, and is designed to test a different role and set of trade-offs, Park said. "We prepared a scenario with unit zero handing me a glass of water as for my dry throat. Technical difficulties barred us from the skit toady," Park said. "Units one, two, three, four — every one of them does something different." The aborted glass-of-water demonstration underscored the size of the challenge. Walking, balancing and moving an arm are only the beginning for humanoids expected eventually to perceive their surroundings, make decisions, manipulate objects and work safely around people. Zhang Byoung-tak, a professor of computer science and engineering at Seoul National University who heads its Humanoid AI Robot Center, opened the forum by arguing that humanoid AI represents the next major wave of artificial intelligence after generative and agentic AI. Generative AI gave machines the ability to understand and produce language and images. Agentic AI moved toward systems capable of setting goals and using tools within digital environments, Zhang said. Humanoid AI takes that evolution into the physical world. It gives intelligence a body capable of perceiving, judging and acting in real environments rather than remaining behind a screen. The global race is accelerating quickly. China has built a broad humanoid hardware ecosystem backed by its enormous manufacturing supply chain, while U.S. companies are pushing advances in AI models and sophisticated robot control. Korea's researchers acknowledge they are trying to catch up rather than defending a lead. Park Chan-hoon, director of KIMM's AI Robotics Institute, has described the effort as a "humanoid one-team" bringing together roughly 20 teams including Seoul National University and LG Electronics to develop an indigenous platform. He has argued that Korea needs to master the technology from "head to toe" rather than rely on foreign systems. KAIROS is intended to become the common platform on which those technologies can be integrated and tested. Ryu Seok-hyun, president of KIMM, and Doosan Robotics Chief Executive Kim Min-pyo also spoke at Monday's event. But the clearest message came at the end of the robots' performances. The researchers who built KAIROS joined the machines on stage, bowed and asked lawmakers and government agencies in the audience for sustained support. "Humanoid development is a race against speed, and we have pulled our schedule forward as far as we can," Park Chan-hoon said. "We need at least 3 billion won ($2.2 million) budgeted, and we will answer it with results." The engineers behind him were dressed head to toe in black T-shirts and jeans. Their robots may still toddle, but their eyes were steady. AJP Takeaways - KAIROS managed a slow dance on a Seoul stage Monday, a modest display beside the acrobatics already demonstrated by Chinese and U.S. humanoids. - Korea began developing the homegrown humanoid little more than a year ago in a bid to build its own hardware, software and physical AI platform. - Researchers say speed is now critical as KAIROS moves toward V1 in 2027 and V2 in 2030. 2026-09-07 17:13:09
Robotics may be the destination for Louisiana steel mill SEOUL, September 07 (AJP) - The $5.8 billion Louisiana mill backed by South Korea's two biggest steelmakers is designed primarily to feed America's auto industry, but its largest customer and investor Hyundai Motor Group has a deeper ambition for the metal — robotics. Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun said Sept. 4 that steel from Hyundai-POSCO Louisiana Steel (HPLS) should eventually find its way into Atlas, the humanoid robot being developed by group-owned Boston Dynamics. "I think we naturally should apply it," Chung said after the mill's groundbreaking ceremony in Donaldsonville, Louisiana. He went further, saying he hoped steel produced there could one day reach rockets made by companies such as SpaceX. The ambition is less of a leap than it sounds. Industry shorthand increasingly describes a humanoid as an electric vehicle standing on two legs. Both depend on batteries, motors, reducers, inverters and controllers, except a humanoid multiplies those systems across dozens of moving joints. Atlas stands 1.9 meters tall, weighs about 90 kilograms and has 56 degrees of freedom across its body. Each moving joint requires its own compact drive system. Reducer gears, splines and shafts need high-strength, durable specialty steel. Motors, meanwhile, depend on stacks of ultra-thin non-oriented electrical steel, from the same family of magnetic steel used in electric-vehicle motors. POSCO says electrical steel accounts for roughly 20 to 30 percent of a motor's manufacturing cost. Only five or six steelmakers worldwide, including POSCO, can stably mass-produce its thinnest high-performance grades. The bigger money sits in the finished robot joint. Actuators combine motors, gears, sensors and control systems to create the joints and muscles of a humanoid. Hyundai Motor Group says the components can account for about 60 percent of robot manufacturing costs. Hyundai Mobis has agreed to supply actuators for Atlas and is expected to become a central part of Hyundai Motor Group's effort to localize the robot supply chain in the United States. The group plans to establish U.S. actuator production capacity exceeding 350,000 units annually from 2028 alongside a robot manufacturing system capable of producing 30,000 units a year. More than 25,000 Atlas robots are expected to be deployed across Hyundai Motor and Kia manufacturing facilities, giving the group captive demand as it scales production. Louisiana is where that supply chain touches steelmaking. HPLS is designed to produce 2.7 million tons of steel annually from 2029, including 1.8 million tons of automotive steel and 900,000 tons of general-purpose products. Cars will account for the bulk of the mill's output because automotive steel is what anchors the $5.8 billion investment. Iron ore and natural gas will be used to produce direct-reduced iron, which will be melted with scrap in electric-arc furnaces before being cast into slabs and rolled into hot-rolled, cold-rolled and coated steel. Hyundai Steel says the process can reduce carbon emissions by about 70 percent compared with conventional blast-furnace production. The more specialized grades a humanoid requires sit elsewhere in the Korean steelmakers' portfolios for now. Electrical steel and specialty bar steel are not on HPLS' announced product list, which currently covers hot-rolled, cold-rolled and coated sheets. POSCO's 20 percent stake therefore adds another dimension to the partnership. Hyundai Steel owns 50 percent of HPLS, while Hyundai Motor and Kia each hold 15 percent. Chung has described the tie-up with POSCO as an opportunity to cooperate on future steel materials and next-generation batteries, extending a relationship traditionally centered on automobiles. Boston Dynamics is moving in much the same direction from the other end of the chain. "Every component has been designed for compatibility with automotive supply chains," Atlas General Manager Zack Jackowski said when the production version was unveiled at CES 2026. Boston Dynamics reduced the number of unique components in Atlas as it redesigned the humanoid for mass manufacturing, drawing on the scale and cost discipline of the auto industry. Steelmakers are following those same customers into AI. POSCO aims to increase steel sales to AI-related markets to 1 million tons by 2030 from about 380,000 tons last year, including electrical steel for power equipment and humanoid robots. Hyundai Steel is separately targeting growing demand from AI data centers and power infrastructure, with the company expecting the data-center share of its long-product sales to rise to about 6 percent from roughly 3 percent. Atlas could eventually complete the circle by working inside facilities that produce the materials and machines used to build it. Chung was cautious about how quickly that might happen. "Atlas is intended to do work that is difficult for people," he said, adding that feasibility testing would have to come first. 2026-09-07 13:58:55
South Korea leans on AI boom as consumer recovery lags SEOUL, September 07 (AJP) - South Korea's economy is riding a wave of artificial intelligence investment that has powered exports and factory equipment spending to blistering growth, even as the windfall struggles to reach ordinary households, the state run Korea Development Institute (KDI) said. In its September economic assessment released Monday, the KDI said the recovery remains narrowly anchored to sectors tied to the global AI build-out. Data said that sectors including semiconductors, fabricated metals, electrical equipment and machinery lead the charge while broader consumption limps behind. "The Korean economy continues to improve, led by sectors closely tied to AI-related investment," the institute said. August exports surged 68.7 percent from a year earlier, driven by information and communications technology goods. Semiconductor and computer shipments jumped 216.1 percent and 431.2 percent respectively in daily-value terms as chip prices soared. Equipment investment climbed 24.9 percent in July, fueled by a boom in semiconductor manufacturing gear. Imports of chipmaking equipment accelerated to 96.5 percent growth in August, and domestic machinery orders pointed to sustained demand for the tools that underpin AI infrastructure, the KDI said. Yet the prosperity has proved difficult to spread as retail sales slipped 0.8 percent in July, dragged down by declines in cars, home appliances and communications devices, as real wage growth for workers crawled to just 0.3 percent in the first half of the year. The institute said household purchasing power had recovered only modestly, leaving consumption to improve at a gradual pace. Consumer prices rose 3.1 percent in August, lifted mainly by base effects from telecommunications charges, while core inflation excluding food and energy quickened to 3.4 percent. The KDI cautioned that risks remain elevated, pointing to persistent tensions in the Middle East and lingering uncertainty over U.S. trade policy, both of which continue to cloud the outlook for Korean economy. AJP Takeaways - The Korea Development Institute said South Korea's economy is holding its recovery on the strength of AI-related investment, with semiconductors, machinery and electrical equipment driving output while household consumption lags. - Exports rose 68.7 percent from a year earlier in August and equipment investment climbed 24.9 percent in July, but retail sales fell 0.8 percent as first-half real wage growth reached only 0.3 percent. - The KDI warned that Middle East tensions and uncertainty over U.S. trade policy keep downside risks elevated for an economy concentrated on a single growth engine. 2026-09-07 12:35:34
Krafton steers India bet toward AI, robotics SEOUL, September 07 (AJP) - Krafton will invest an additional $250 million in India over the next three to four years, pushing beyond mobile gaming into artificial intelligence, the company said after its founder met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The move deepens a push that already runs through a South Korean consortium as Krafton earlier this year joined internet giant Naver and asset manager Mirae Asset to launch the $670 million Unicorn Growth Fund, an India-focused vehicle backing growth stage startups in AI, software and deep tech. The fresh pledge, separate from that fund, lifts Krafton's total planned direct investment in India to $500 million. Krafton has quietly built a substantial Indian startup portfolio, backing around 18 companies, of which only a handful are gaming studios, with bets spanning audio platform Kuku FM, streaming platform Loco and storytelling service Pratilipi. Krafton Chairman Chang Byung-gyu, who met Modi on Sept. 4, cast the outlay as a durable wager on Indian talent. "India is a major market with outstanding talent across gaming, technology and innovation," Chang said, adding that the investment reflected long-term confidence in the country's digital economy. The bet dovetails with warming ties between Seoul and New Delhi, which in April unveiled an "Korea-India Digital Bridge" to anchor cooperation in AI and semiconductors and pledged to nearly double bilateral trade to $50 billion by 2030. Korean heavyweights from Samsung Electronics to HD Hyundai have been widening their footprint in the fast-digitizing economy. Alongside the capital, Krafton is building local capacity, having acquired Pune-based Nautilus Mobile, maker of the Real Cricket franchise, and launched the KIGI Academy training program with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. AJP Takeaways - Krafton will invest an additional $250 million in India over the next three to four years, expanding beyond mobile gaming into artificial intelligence, robotics and deep tech, and lifting its total planned direct investment in the country to about $500 million. - The commitment builds on the $670 million Unicorn Growth Fund that Krafton launched with Naver and Mirae Asset to back growth-stage Indian startups, and follows the "Korea-India Digital Bridge" that South Korea and India unveiled in April 2026 to deepen cooperation in AI and semiconductors. - Krafton has backed around 18 Indian companies, most of them outside gaming, including audio platform Kuku FM, streaming platform Loco and storytelling service Pratilipi, and has acquired Pune-based Nautilus Mobile while launching the KIGI Academy training program with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. 2026-09-07 09:50:50
CJ CheilJedang chases Asia growth with Singapore lab SEOUL, September 07 (AJP) - CJ CheilJedang is racing to win Asia-Pacific food makers over to its fermented seasonings, opening a Singapore technical center as South Korea's largest food company bets on cutting salt and additives to drive its next wave of overseas growth. The facility announced Monday, located in Singapore's Biopolis research cluster, is the company's fifth Global Technical Center after sites in South Korea, Chicago, and the Dutch city of Wageningen. It anchors the firm's technical support for food manufacturers across the fast-growing region. At the center, CJ CheilJedang develops ways to fold its seasoning lines, including TasteNrich, CJ TIDE and the Add-Mi nucleotide solution, into customers' products and helps bring them to market. The company said it will lead with its premium TasteNrich brand to court major clients in nearby countries and lift regional sales. TasteNrich is a fermented natural seasoning made from cane sugar and other plant-based materials without artificial additives, and can trim sodium and other additives in food while preserving taste. "Through the Singapore Global Technical Center, we can now collaborate more closely with customers across the Asia-Pacific region," said a CJ CheilJedang spokesperson, adding the company would offer solutions that satisfy both health and taste. AJP Takeaways - CJ CheilJedang opened its fifth Global Technical Center in Singapore's Biopolis research cluster, following facilities in South Korea, Chicago and Wageningen, the Netherlands. - The South Korean food maker is leading its Asia-Pacific expansion with TasteNrich, a fermented seasoning made from cane sugar and other plant-based materials that cuts sodium without sacrificing taste. - The site opened with a ceremony on Sept. 1 attended by Singapore's Economic Development Board and South Korean Embassy officials, followed by client showcases through Sept. 4. 2026-09-07 09:27:04
Naver deepens AI factory push in Brookfield talks SEOUL, September 04 (AJP) - Naver is accelerating its bid to build one of Asia's largest artificial intelligence computing hubs. Founder and board chair Lee Hae-jin met Brookfield Asset Management Chief Executive Bruce Flatt in Seoul on Thursday to review progress on a gigawatt-scale AI factory backed by up to $60 billion in investment. The two met at Naver's 1784 headquarters in Seongnam, south of Seoul, to advance a project the company is pursuing with Nvidia to construct AI factories, facilities that bundle AI chips, servers, networking and software to train and run large models. Brookfield, which manages more than $1 trillion in assets, has committed up to $9 billion to the first 200-megawatt phase. "We aim to combine Brookfield's expertise in infrastructure investment with Naver's AI capabilities to lead the global AI infrastructure market," Lee said. Flatt said Brookfield would act as more than a capital partner, helping with equipment procurement and customer acquisition, according to Naver. The company said the partnership would continue through later phases of the project, which requires $60 billion in total to reach 1 gigawatt. The financing marks the clearest sign yet that Naver intends to fund the full 1-gigawatt build-out, a scale that would rank among the region's most ambitious data-center undertakings. Lee and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unveiled the AI factory plan in Seoul in June, and the Naver chief joined Samsung Electronics and SK Group leaders for a roundtable with Huang near Silicon Valley in July. AJP Takeaways - Naver and Brookfield Asset Management met in Seoul to advance a gigawatt-scale AI factory that Naver is building with Nvidia, part of a decade-long expansion of the South Korean firm's computing infrastructure. - Brookfield, which manages more than $1 trillion in assets, has committed up to $9 billion to the project's first 200-megawatt phase, completing the full 1-gigawatt facility requires $60 billion. - The buildout follows Naver's earlier data centers, Gak Chuncheon, opened in 2013, and the 270-megawatt Gak Sejong campus, opened in 2023, and ties into a partnership unveiled by Lee Hae-jin and Jensen Huang in Seoul in June 2026. 2026-09-04 15:51:28
'AI for All' race begins with SKT, Kakao, KT plans SEOUL, September 04 (AJP) - South Korea's push to homegrown artificial intelligence in daily life gathered pace, as three telecom and internet consortiums led by SK Telecom, Kakao and KT unveiled competing plans to launch "action-oriented" AI services before year-end. The Ministry of Science and ICT presented its rollout preparation plan at a kickoff meeting at the Korea Press Center in Seoul. Each group showed prototypes and video demonstrations of assistants that move beyond answering questions to handling tasks such as searches, applications, and payments on a user's behalf. The Kakao consortium said it would deliver a general chatbot and public-sector AI agents through familiar channels such as KakaoTalk and voice calls, drawing on domestic models including Kakao's Kanana and LG's Exaone. The consortium plans to build a platform that completes tasks within a single conversation, later expanding to personal agents and an open agent marketplace. The KT consortium introduced "Ieum," a real-time search-based agent linking specialized services across about 10 fields spanning public administration, education, and shopping. It runs on an AI operating platform called Token Factory that integrates domestic models with graphics and neural processing chips to route each query to the best-suited model. SK Telecom said its service would carry users from identity verification through application and payment, adding phone and text-based agents so people who struggle with mobile apps or websites can still tap the technology. "The ultimate goal of the AI for All project is for new homegrown AI services to settle naturally into people's daily lives," Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon said, urging the consortiums to pool their efforts toward a launch this year that opens a fresh domestic market for AI firms. AJP Takeaways - SK Telecom, Kakao and KT consortiums unveiled plans on Sept. 4 to launch homegrown "action-oriented" AI services in South Korea before the end of 2026, under the government's AI for All project. - The services, built on domestic models including Kakao's Kanana and LG's Exaone, aim to handle searches, applications, bookings and payments for users, with KT's "Ieum" agent linking specialized services across about 10 fields. - Deputy Prime Minister Bae Kyung-hoon said the goal is for the services to settle into daily life, calling on the consortiums to meet the year-end launch target. 2026-09-04 11:42:12
World-OKTA meets in Santiago to revive small Latin American chapters SEOUL, September 04 (AJP) - The World Federation of Overseas Korean Traders Associations, known as World-OKTA, convened a gathering in the Chilean capital this week to shore up its smaller branches across Latin America. The meeting, hosted by the group's Santiago chapter, drew regional officers and branch presidents from across the continent, along with South Korean Ambassador to Chile Kim Hak-jae and other local dignitaries. "Latin America is a land of opportunity, but the sheer distances between countries make it hard for members to meet often," Santiago chapter president Han Bong-rae said in an opening address, expressing hope the gathering would translate shared experience into concrete business. Delegates reviewed the strain on several under resourced chapters and weighed inclusive ways to draw dormant members back, agreeing that a unified regional event could help rebuild networks and tighten organizational bonds. Participants floated pairing a next-generation trade school with a regional business convention in Santiago in mid-2027, an event envisioned to host about 200 to 300 people. The program also featured a lecture on Latin American economic trends by a KOTRA trade official and a talk on deploying artificial intelligence in business, as attendees examined how fast-shifting conditions and emerging technology are reshaping trade in practice. Founded in 1981, World-OKTA is the largest economic body representing ethnic Koreans abroad, linking Korean business figures across 157 chapters in 76 countries to promote exports and overseas expansion for South Korean firms. AJP Takeaways - World-OKTA convened its 2026 gathering for small Latin American chapters in Santiago, Chile, on Sept. 3, 2026, bringing together regional officers and branch presidents to address falling membership and weakening ties across the continent. - Delegates weighed pairing a next-generation trade school with a regional business convention in Santiago in mid-2027, an event envisioned to draw about 200 to 300 participants. - Founded in 1981, World-OKTA is the largest economic organization representing ethnic Koreans abroad, linking business figures across 157 chapters in 76 countries to support South Korean exports and overseas expansion. 2026-09-04 11:42:02
Seoul draws line on labor strikes over profit and capex SEOUL, September 03 (AJP) -South Korean unions can no longer strike over demands for bonuses pegged to a share of operating profit or over opposition to new plants, under government guidelines that side with employers as labor unrest spreads across the country's largest companies. The guidelines shown Thursday follow the so-called Yellow Envelope Act, the revised Trade Union Act that widened the grounds for bargaining and industrial action. They also come after a year in which labor activism spread beyond South Korea's traditionally union-heavy auto, shipbuilding and manufacturing sectors into semiconductors and information technology, as workers sought a larger share of windfall profits generated by the global AI boom. Samsung Electronics narrowly averted an 18-day strike in May after agreeing to a special bonus pool equivalent to 10.5 percent of semiconductor operating profit. At SK hynix, where workers last year secured bonuses funded by 10 percent of operating profit, production workers in August rejected a new wage agreement amid disputes over how the payouts would be made. The trend has spread into IT. Kakao workers staged the company's first-ever strike in June and later took coordinated leave after demanding that roughly 13 to 14 percent of operating profit be distributed as performance incentives. The ministry said demands that curb the rights of shareholders and others or that hinge on a mere possibility of changing working conditions fall outside that scope. At issue are demands popularized by a pay dispute at Samsung Electronics, where the union sought a bonus pegged to a percentage of operating profit. The ministry said such demands may be negotiated voluntarily but cannot trigger mediation or a lawful walkout. Operating profit is earned before interest, taxes and dividends and funds research and capital spending, the ministry said, and carving it out first for bonuses could fundamentally restrict a company's freedom to operate. Bonuses fixed as a share of salary or a flat sum remain open to bargaining. "Large-scale projects such as new plants take a long time from announcement to actual operation, so their impact on working conditions is uncertain in the early stages," the ministry said, adding that a possibility of future transfers alone does not create a duty to bargain. The measures will fall into the chip plants to be built in the Honam region, where Samsung's umbrella union sought to make the new plant a bargaining item over staff redeployment. Bargaining becomes mandatory only once layoffs, restructuring or transfers are confirmed and changes to working conditions are objectively expected. The same test applies to the introduction of artificial intelligence and new technology, such as Hyundai Motor Group's deployment of the Atlas robot. Employers who reject such demands will not be deemed to have committed unfair labor practices, the ministry said, and labor authorities may recommend that unions soften unreasonable claims or face administrative guidance akin to a court dismissal. AJP Takeaways • South Korea's Labor Ministry issued binding guidelines on Sept. 3, 2026, barring unions from making profit-linked bonus demands or opposition to new plant construction the basis for mandatory bargaining or legal strikes. • The guidelines interpret the revised Trade Union Act, known as the Yellow Envelope Act, and target disputes raised at Samsung Electronics over operating-profit bonuses and a planned chip plant in the Honam region. • Employers refusing such demands will not be found to have committed unfair labor practices, and the National Labor Relations Commission may direct unions toward administrative guidance rather than granting the right to strike. 2026-09-03 16:05:34