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

Homeplus asks Meritz to double emergency loan SEOUL, June 12 (AJP) - Embattled hypermarket chain Homeplus asked its largest creditor, Meritz Financial Group, to extend 200 billion won ($131.4 million) in emergency operating funds, saying the 100 billion won loan currently under review falls short of what it needs to survive court-led rehabilitation. Meritz, which had long balked at the retailer's loan requests, signaled a day earlier that it could lend up to 100 billion won — the amount jointly guaranteed by Homeplus' private equity owner MBK Partners. "If only 100 billion won, half the required amount, is provided, we cannot complete the store closures currently under way, and resuming product supply will also become difficult," Homeplus said in a statement. The company said securing the full amount would allow it to streamline stores, normalize product supply and restore supplier confidence, laying the groundwork to implement its rehabilitation plan. Time is running short. The deadline for creditors to approve the rehabilitation plan is July 3, and even with a one-time extension, proceedings must conclude before Sept. 3. The plea comes after Homeplus permanently closed 37 underperforming outlets — about a third of its 104 hypermarkets — that had been suspended since May 10, a move that put about 3,500 jobs at risk. Homeplus has been bleeding cash since filing for court receivership in March last year, the first of South Korea's big three hypermarket operators to do so. Even the roughly 120 billion won expected from the sale of Homeplus Express to a Harim Group affiliate is dwarfed by supplier arrears estimated at about 200 billion won. 2026-06-12 10:53:33
Jensen Huang Discovers 'AI Cake' in South Korea, A Nation with All Five Layers Artificial intelligence (AI) is likened to a five-layer cake, a metaphor frequently emphasized by Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA. During his four-day visit to South Korea, he appeared to discover this 'completed cake' in the country. NVIDIA views AI not as a single product but as a complex structure. The foundation consists of energy, followed by semiconductors, infrastructure that supports and drives the AI models, and finally, the application stage where economic value is generated. Huang believes that the demand across all application stages ultimately reaches the power plants. He asserts that the competition for supremacy in the AI era will hinge on the competitiveness of all five layers. Countries that possess all these layers are rare. China has vertically integrated energy, infrastructure, and applications, while the United States leads in advanced semiconductors and models. In contrast, Huang assesses that South Korea has the potential to fill all five layers. His enthusiasm throughout the tightly packed schedule supports this view. As he concluded his visit on June 10, Huang stated, "Now is your time. You must seize this opportunity." He added, "South Korea is in a very special moment, in a unique position." Building the Foundation with Energy and Infrastructure for AI Huang's agenda began at the bottom layer, focusing on energy and the physical infrastructure above it. However, the core emphasis was on 'cloud' services that provide computational power. SK Telecom plans to build a gigawatt-level AI cloud based on NVIDIA's DSX platform. The first AI factory is set to launch in 2027, providing sovereign and physical AI services domestically. Naver is also embarking on a similar phased expansion, starting with 55 megawatts in the first half of 2027, scaling to 100 megawatts that same year, and reaching 200 megawatts by 2028, ultimately aiming for gigawatt capacity. LG has joined the competition through LG Uplus, which will establish a large-scale AI data center based on NVIDIA DSX to accommodate the latest GPUs and support future AI cloud and GPU services. Its affiliate, LG Energy Solution, is developing an 800V direct current power system to power this initiative. These facilities are not traditional data centers but are referred to by NVIDIA as 'AI factories,' transforming power and data into tokens, the fundamental outputs of modern intelligence. This construction trend extends to the west coast. Huang expressed NVIDIA's willingness to participate in the AI data center project that Hyundai Motor Group is pursuing in Saemangeum. This marks a concrete manifestation of the infrastructure layer, with land, power, and cooling being realized in concrete, forming the physical foundation for the cloud services that SK Telecom, Naver, and LG will sell. Semiconductors: South Korea's Strongest Asset South Korea's position in semiconductors, one layer above, is the most solid. NVIDIA and SK Hynix have established a long-term technological partnership to jointly develop memory across four NVIDIA platforms encompassing AI infrastructure, personal AI, and physical AI. This memory is designed to align with NVIDIA's computational roadmap rather than simply purchasing off-the-shelf products. After meeting with SK Group executives, Huang told reporters, "SK is our largest memory partner," and added, "We are expanding this collaboration into several new markets." Samsung Electronics marked the other end of his schedule. On the evening of June 9, Huang concluded his visit with a private meeting with Jeon Young-hyun, Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions Division. The two sides reportedly discussed broad cooperation encompassing next-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM), advanced packaging, and foundry manufacturing. After the meeting, Huang returned to a recurring theme throughout his visit. He stated, "The next wave of AI is physical AI, where AI interacts with the physical world." He praised South Korea as a very unique country due to its social and cultural cohesion, noting, "Today, South Korea is a global leader in heavy industry and manufacturing." He added, "South Korea is also world-class in electronics, and interestingly, it ranks among the top in software and AI as well." He emphasized, "Countries excelling in manufacturing and heavy industry tend to be weak in software, and those strong in software often lag in heavy industry, but South Korea excels in all areas. It is a unique situation." AI Models: Homegrown Innovations The next layer, AI models, is often perceived as an area where South Korea relies on imports. However, this visit painted a different picture. NVIDIA and LG AI Research are collaborating to enhance EXAONE, one of South Korea's representative sovereign AI models. LG is training this model using NVIDIA's Blackwell GPU and NeMo framework, showcasing a homegrown model refined on Korean infrastructure. EXAONE is not alone. Naver possesses HyperCLOVA X, deeply rooted in the Korean language, while NC, highlighted by Huang for its technological prowess in gaming, has developed its own VARCO model series. Although many of the accelerators powering these major Korean AI models are foreign, there is a gradual shift toward domestic solutions. Applications: A Passion for Physical AI Above all these layers lies the application stage, which Huang sees as the realm where true economic value is generated and where his enthusiasm was most palpable. Huang stated, "South Korea excels in manufacturing, mechatronics, and AI, and the fusion of these strengths will make robotics and physical AI a major growth driver for the country." NVIDIA's concept of physical AI, particularly in robotics, led to the broadest collaborations during this visit. LG Electronics is considering applying NVIDIA's Isaac GR00T inference model to future home robots, while LG CNS is integrating NVIDIA technology into industrial automation and logistics systems. Doosan emerged as an unexpected beneficiary of this visit. The industrial group supplies advanced electronic materials used in AI accelerators and has established a reciprocal relationship by adopting NVIDIA's platform to develop and train its own robotic systems. Huang highlighted this relationship by throwing the first pitch for the Doosan Bears at Jamsil Baseball Stadium. From Samgyeopsal to Shilla Hotel: A Journey Through the Ecosystem This tour itself reflected the breadth of the ecosystem NVIDIA perceives in South Korea. The itinerary began with a gathering over samgyeopsal and soju in Hongdae, attended by Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group, Koo Kwang-mo, Chairman of LG Group, and Lee Hae-jin, founder of Naver. It continued with discussions on autonomous driving with Chung Eui-sun, Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, memory negotiations at SK Hynix, and concluded with a meeting with Samsung Electronics' semiconductor division at the Shilla Hotel. As Huang prepared to leave Seoul, the 'five-layer cake' had evolved beyond a mere presentation slide. Energy was represented by South Korea's nuclear capabilities and the construction of AI factories, while semiconductors were embodied by SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics. Infrastructure was provided by SK Telecom, Naver, and LG, while models were represented by sovereign AIs like EXAONE and HyperCLOVA X. Applications were evident in various sectors, from autonomous vehicles to factory robots. Huang remarked, "South Korea is collaborating with NVIDIA across all layers of the AI ecosystem, from energy to semiconductors, infrastructure, robotics, and applications." His message to a country long identified solely as a semiconductor powerhouse was broader. South Korea's strength lies not in any single layer of the AI stack but in its rare ability to build nearly every layer independently.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-06-12 09:03:00
Buried beneath Korea's chip boom, refiners fight for survival SEOUL, June 11 (AJP) - Buried beneath South Korea's semiconductor boom is a quieter survival story unfolding in the country's refineries and petrochemical plants. South Korea's economic narrative has been dictated by silicon in recent years. Memory giants have propelled the KOSPI past stock markets in cities such as London and Toronto while joining the exclusive trillion-dollar market-capitalization club. In contrast, some of the country's oldest industrial pillars have been quietly fighting for survival. Korea's refiners and petrochemical producers remain among the world's most sophisticated operators, supplying everything from jet fuel to high-value industrial materials. Yet they have found themselves squeezed between two forces beyond their control: a prolonged Middle East crisis that disrupted their feedstock lifeline and a flood of low-cost Chinese supply that has upended the naphtha-based business model on which the industry was built. It is a reckoning for an industry that has long punched far above its weight. South Korea hosts three of the world's ten largest refineries by single-site capacity, anchored by SK Energy's 840,000-barrel-per-day Ulsan complex and GS Caltex's 800,000-barrel-per-day Yeosu plant. Their facilities boast some of Asia's highest Nelson Complexity ratings, a measure of how much premium product a refinery can extract from each barrel of crude. That engineering prowess, however, has been largely overshadowed by the country's semiconductor euphoria. While chipmakers basked in trillion-dollar valuations, refiners and petrochemical firms endured one of the harshest downturns in decades, exposing the vulnerability of a business model built on scale and commodity production. At the center of the strain sits naphtha, the feedstock so essential to the sector that industry executives often call it their "rice." South Korea imported 237.5 million barrels of naphtha in 2025, more than any other country in Asia. That dependence left the industry acutely exposed when disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz squeezed supplies of the medium and heavy crude grades that generate the richest refining margins. The shock rippled quickly through the market. Daily vessel transits through the strait fell to around 10 from a prewar average of 135, while Brent crude surged toward $94 a barrel. For refiners that import nearly all of their feedstock and sell into an increasingly saturated market, every dollar increase in crude prices became harder to pass on to customers. Then came the second blow. Chinese producers, backed by an aggressive state-supported expansion expected to continue through at least 2028, flooded regional markets with low-cost ethylene and polymers. The result has been a structural glut that hollowed out margins on the very commodity-grade products Korean petrochemical companies were designed to mass-produce. Ethylene, the bellwether of the chemicals industry, tells the story. Prices that once approached $1,400 a ton have fallen below $1,000, erasing the cushion that had long kept aging crackers profitable. Industry analysts expect Chinese capacity growth to outpace demand expansion for years to come. "Without a normalization of the Strait of Hormuz, a sharp rebound in oil prices must be kept in mind at any moment. It may prove temporary, but in petrochemicals, where inventories were relatively thin, a belated rebound began to surface from late May," said Chun Woo-je, an analyst at KB Securities. "Margins long mired in chronic oversupply are now at their highest in four years." Seoul has responded with one of the industry's most sweeping restructuring efforts in decades. The government has urged the country's 10 largest petrochemical companies to reduce naphtha-cracking capacity by between 2.7 million and 3.7 million tons, equivalent to roughly 18 to 28 percent of national capacity. It has also approved a support package worth more than $1.46 billion to help offset electricity, steam and feedstock costs, including preferential power rates below those charged by the state utility. "Unless the war ends on reasonable and viable terms sufficient to reassure shipowners and insurers, it may be extremely difficult for oil prices to return to prewar levels even in the long run," said Chung Tae-hun, an associate research fellow at the Korea Energy Economics Institute. For many companies, the clearest path out of the squeeze runs straight into the sky. Refiners are betting heavily on sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, a low-carbon alternative capable of reducing lifecycle emissions by up to 80 percent while commanding premium pricing under increasingly stringent global decarbonization mandates. SK Energy has installed co-processing facilities at its Ulsan refinery and plans to expand its SAF supply network across the Asia-Pacific this year. GS Caltex is building a 500,000-ton annual SAF supply chain centered on an Indonesian biodiesel project, while S-Oil is refining its production processes to secure global certification. The shift is spreading beyond refiners to chemical companies once thought immune to such transformations. LG Chem, crossing from chemicals into fuel production, is constructing a 300,000-ton SAF plant in Daesan scheduled for completion in 2027 — a move that would have seemed unthinkable for a company built on plastics. Diversification extends well beyond aviation. LG Chem is steering toward advanced materials, battery cathodes and environmentally friendly products. Lotte Chemical is investing in super-engineering plastics used in robots and electric vehicles. Hanwha Solutions is expanding into insulation materials and specialty products for the power grids feeding AI data centers. In a twist of industrial fate, many of these companies are now seeking to profit from the same AI-driven boom that eclipsed them. The pressure facing Korea is hardly unique. Across Asia, manufacturing-heavy economies that never enjoyed a semiconductor windfall are struggling with the consequences of higher energy costs and structural oversupply. Japan, once a petrochemical powerhouse, is preparing to retire more than a quarter of its ethylene capacity by 2030. The center of gravity in Asian petrochemicals is visibly shifting. For Korean firms, the calculation is stark. They cannot win a price war fought on volume, nor can they insulate themselves from geopolitical shocks. Their future lies in doing what they have always done best: turning engineering expertise into higher-value chemistry. In an industry increasingly shaped by Chinese overcapacity and Middle East instability, the next chapter will be defined not by scale, but by sophistication. 2026-06-11 15:40:55
Coupang fined record $409 million over massive data breach SEOUL, June 11 (AJP) - South Korea's privacy watchdog slapped e-commerce giant Coupang with a record 624.7 billion won (US$409.3 million) in fines over a data breach that exposed the personal information of about 37.5 million people, a penalty roughly equal to the company's 2025 operating income. The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) imposed 423.6 billion won for the breach itself — the largest fine ever levied in the country for a single data leak — and a further 201.1 billion won for collecting the online activity records of about 11.17 million users without legal grounds. The combined penalty dwarfs the previous record of 134.8 billion won imposed on wireless carrier SK Telecom last year, and effectively wipes out the 679 billion won in operating income that New York-listed parent Coupang posted in 2025. The commission concluded that inadequate basic safeguards, including poor management of authentication signing keys and lax access controls, allowed a hacker — a former Coupang employee — to siphon off data from about 33.22 million member accounts and at least 4.33 million non-members. The tally exceeds by nearly 4 million the 33.67 million figure announced in February by a government-led joint investigation team, after the watchdog counted non-member individuals whose details were swept up through members' address books. The stolen data included the names and email addresses of about 33.05 million members, as well as 63.98 million delivery records belonging to at least 22.37 million members, containing names, phone numbers, home addresses and building entrance passcodes. Order histories of about 58,000 members were also leaked. The regulator additionally imposed a 16.8 million won administrative fine for delayed breach notification and decided to refer the company to investigative authorities, saying Coupang had hindered its probe. It ordered the company to strengthen safeguards, notify affected non-members and guarantee the independence of its chief privacy officer within three months. Coupang apologized for the incident but said it would challenge the decision in court once it receives the commission's written ruling. "We regret that proactive measures taken to prevent secondary damage and explanations based on clear facts regarding last year's data breach were not sufficiently reflected in the commission's decision," the company said in a statement, adding that it expects the facts to be clearly established through legal proceedings. PIPC chairperson Song Kyung-hee said at a briefing that the commission would respond aggressively to any litigation, calling the decision a reasonable one reached after thorough review based on law and principle. The breach, disclosed in late November, triggered an exodus of customers and a political firestorm in South Korea, prompting an emergency ministerial meeting and months of parliamentary scrutiny of the country's largest online retailer. Coupang has already set aside 1.69 trillion won in compensation vouchers for affected customers, a charge that pushed the company to a 354.5 billion won operating loss in the first quarter — its first quarterly loss since turning profitable in late 2022. The fine, which must be booked in the quarter it is imposed, makes a second consecutive quarterly loss all but inevitable. The penalty's scale stems from South Korea's revenue-linked fine system, under which the regulator can impose up to 3 percent of related sales depending on the gravity of violations. Coupang's Korean unit generated about 45.5 trillion won in revenue last year, far above SK Telecom's 17 trillion won. 2026-06-11 14:07:15
Naver launches local merchant AI campaign in Busan, timed to BTS concert SEOUL, June 11 (AJP) - Naver began rolling out its first "Local Ground" campaign in the southern port city of Busan, extending the AI-driven growth tools it built online to brick-and-mortar merchants in regional commercial districts. The inaugural campaign runs from Tuesday to Saturday and draws in 104 small and mid-sized stores across busy quarters including Jeonpo-dong, Yeongdo and the Bosu-dong secondhand bookstore alley, the company said. Naver is helping the shops adopt AI-based ordering and payment tools, among them QR ordering and an integrated offline terminal called Npay Connect, while also producing short-form video to showcase the merchants to visitors. The timing is deliberate. With BTS staging global concerts in Busan on June 12 and 13, Naver is sharpening features for foreign users, who can verify their identity with a passport to access its maps, reservation, ordering and payment services and translate storefront signs and menus through its Papago app. The company also held a "Local Meetup" on Wednesday, gathering about 200 staff and local business owners to discuss the role of regional diversity in the AI ecosystem and to share growth cases and AX strategies through its Place, shopping and advertising teams. "Busan is a dynamic city where its own character and culture breathe vividly through every neighborhood and alley," said Hwang Soon-bae, who leads Naver's Impact Synergy group, adding that it was all the more meaningful to launch Local Ground there. 2026-06-11 11:11:33
LG CNS, LX Pantos to deploy humanoid robots at logistics hub SEOUL, June 11 (AJP) - LG CNS and logistics firm LX Pantos have signed a memorandum of understanding to introduce humanoid and shuttle robots at a major distribution center, as South Korea's IT services industry accelerates its push into physical artificial intelligence. Under the agreement announced Thursday, the two companies will deploy an integrated robot automation system at LX Pantos' MegaWise Cheongna center. The setup envisions shuttle robots retrieving outbound goods from warehouse shelves while wheeled humanoid robots receive and load items onto automated sorting equipment before dispatch. LG CNS will train the robots using LX Pantos' logistics operation data, leveraging its PhysicalWorks Forge platform for robot learning and PhysicalWorks Baton for integrated fleet management. The humanoid hardware will draw on robots built by Dexmate — a Silicon Valley startup LG CNS invested in this past March. Park Sang-kyun, senior vice president and head of LG CNS's telecommunications and distribution services division, said the collaboration was "a proof-of-concept project applying diverse robots and learning and operations platforms to logistics environments," adding the company aims to raise productivity and operational efficiency at the site alongside LX Pantos. The two companies plan to open a tech driven logistics lab — a dedicated demonstration space for the automated workflow — in the second half of this year. They also intend to commercialize logistics robot solutions for external clients once the pilot matures. 2026-06-11 10:33:35
POSCO Holdings to test direct lithium extraction in US SEOUL, June 10 (AJP) - POSCO Holdings will build and operate a demonstration plant in the United States to extract battery-grade lithium more quickly and efficiently, the South Korean steelmaker said, marking the first such venture abroad by a Korean company. The company announced Wednesday it had agreed with Australian resources developer Anson Resources to construct the direct lithium extraction (DLE) demonstration facility in Green River, Utah, with POSCO overseeing design, construction and operation, and Anson supplying the site, infrastructure and brine. The plant is targeted for completion in 2027, with technical validation using actual brine to be finished by 2028, laying the groundwork for commercial production, POSCO said. DLE recovers lithium economically from low-concentration brine, offering higher recovery rates and shorter production times than conventional evaporation ponds. POSCO has been developing the technology since 2016. The project is the first overseas test of POSCO's proprietary process and a foothold for expanding its lithium business in North America, where automakers and battery firms are racing to secure supplies of the metal. "This demonstration is a strategic investment to secure next-generation technology early and seize the global lithium market," POSCO Holdings President Lee Ju-tae said, adding that the company would strengthen its competitiveness in North America and beyond. 2026-06-10 17:18:03
Kakao first-ever strike spares users but unnerves investors SEOUL, June 10 (AJP) - The chat platform through which most South Koreans communicate and work, along with its cab-hailing, payment and navigation services, operated normally Wednesday despite a four-hour walkout by about 600 workers, or roughly 15 percent of the workforce, near the headquarters of Kakao. The first strike in the platform operator's 20-year history left flagship services untouched but rattled investors, sending Kakao shares lower and exposing tensions that could complicate the company's push into artificial intelligence. Two days earlier, a very different scene had played out in Pangyo, often dubbed South Korea's Silicon Valley. Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang stood inside Naver's 1784 headquarters, linking arms with founder Lee Hae-jin and pledging to build gigawatt-scale AI infrastructure together. The two scenes, unfolding in the same week and in the same technology hub south of Seoul, highlighted the diverging fortunes of South Korea's twin internet giants as the AI race reshapes the country's technology landscape. Kakao's union staged a partial strike from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., including a one-hour lunch break, marking the first industrial action since the 2006 founding of IweLab, the predecessor to Kakao. Union members marched about 800 meters from Kakao's Pangyo office to a nearby building along Daewangpangyo-ro, condemning what they described as management failures and demanding stronger job security and a more transparent compensation system. The walkout followed the collapse of a second round of mediation at the Gyeonggi Regional Labor Relations Commission in late May, giving the union legal grounds to strike. Despite the protest, KakaoTalk, which serves about 40 million monthly users, as well as Kakao Map and Kakao Pay, continued to operate without disruption. The company said most core services are highly automated and that essential personnel remained on duty throughout the walkout. Investors nevertheless reacted cautiously. Shares of Kakao fell 3.4 percent to 38,150 won, while Kakao Games lost 1.28 percent to 8,510 won. KakaoBank ended 1.43 percent up at 24,750 won. Analysts said the lack of immediate service disruptions should not obscure longer-term risks. Automated systems can keep platforms running under normal conditions, but traffic surges, unexpected outages, major software updates and cybersecurity incidents still require rapid responses from experienced engineers. A prolonged labor dispute could also slow product development and delay new feature rollouts. The labor unrest comes at a delicate moment for Kakao as it seeks to reposition itself around AI. That challenge stands in stark contrast to the momentum enjoyed by rival Naver. During his visit Monday, Huang firmed up plans for a global AI factory centered on Naver's Gak Sejong data center. The facility is scheduled to begin operating with 55 megawatts of capacity in the first half of 2027 before expanding to 200 megawatts by 2028. "If this plan is realized, Naver will become a company 10 times bigger than it is today," Huang said, describing Naver as a cloud company with global-scale potential. Naver ranks as the 22nd-largest company on the benchmark KOSPI with a market capitalization of about 35 trillion won as of Wednesday. Kakao trails at 53rd place with a market value of around 16 trillion won. The Nvidia chief's endorsement capped a year of strong momentum for Naver. The company posted record annual revenue of roughly 12.1 trillion won ($7.9 billion) last year, driven by AI-related monetization and commerce growth. It also joined Nvidia's Nemotron alliance for open frontier AI model development. AMD chief executive Lisa Su visited Naver in March to deepen cooperation on graphics processing units. Kakao, too, enjoyed an AI-driven rally until growing employee discontent over compensation and restructuring began to overshadow the narrative. The company forged a strategic partnership with OpenAI in February last year and followed with a separate alliance with Google this year, betting that its unrivaled user base rather than infrastructure would be its pathway into the AI era. That strategy has shown early signs of traction. ChatGPT for Kakao, which integrates OpenAI's chatbot into KakaoTalk, attracted about 8 million users by the end of last year, roughly four times the level recorded a quarter earlier. Its partnership with Google, centered on the Kanana AI service within KakaoTalk, remains in the early stages. Industry observers say the differing partnerships reflect the strengths each company brings to the AI ecosystem. Naver's large-scale data center infrastructure has attracted chipmakers seeking computing capacity, while Kakao's daily interactions with much of South Korea's population appeal to AI model developers looking for distribution. Still, analysts argue Kakao's AI initiatives have yet to materially improve the metric that matters most for a platform company: user engagement. "For these services to meaningfully improve the user experience and stand apart from global rivals, agentic commerce must ultimately be realized, with the agent recommending products, taking the lead and completing transactions within the platform," said Lee Jun-ho, an analyst at Hana Securities. Chief executive Chung Shin-a, whose term was extended by two years in March, has promised to build an agentic AI ecosystem around KakaoTalk while targeting revenue growth of more than 10 percent and an operating margin of 10 percent this year. Yet Wednesday's walkout suggests her most immediate challenge may lie closer to home. Before Kakao can convince investors that its AI transformation will pay off, it must first convince the employees expected to build it. The labor dispute also appears far from over. Following Wednesday's rally in Pangyo, the union announced plans to stage a companywide "Log-off Day" on June 29, during which employees will simultaneously sign out of internal work systems as part of an escalating pressure campaign against management. While the first strike in Kakao's history left customer-facing services untouched, a prolonged standoff could increasingly affect development schedules, product launches and the company's ability to execute its AI strategy at a time when the gap with rival Naver appears to be widening. 2026-06-10 15:23:03
Seoul picks 15 firms in AI unicorn drive SEOUL, June 10 (AJP) -South Korea has selected 15 promising artificial intelligence and digital firms for a state-backed program aimed at turning them into globally competitive "unicorns," the science ministry said. The Ministry of Science and ICT presented Wednesday certificates to the chosen companies at a ceremony at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul, marking the seventh year of its ICT unicorn fostering program. Run with the National IT Industry Promotion Agency and partners including the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, the Korea Exchange and Seoul Guarantee Insurance, the scale-up scheme has supported a cumulative 104 firms to date. An analysis of 45 companies that took part between 2023 and last year found they generated 15.4 billion won ($10.1 million) in overseas sales last year alone, up 40 percent from a year earlier. Their combined headcount rose 8.6 percent to 2,306, with about 58 percent of staff aged 34 or younger. This year's cohort spans AI, cybersecurity and digital health, and includes chip designer Rebellions alongside Neurocle, MoveAWheeL and Honeynaps. Many graduated from earlier ministry start-up initiatives such as the K-Global Project. Each firm will receive tailored support to enter two foreign markets, drawing on the ministry's overseas bases for customer outreach and investor matching, while the credit fund will offer working-capital guarantees of up to 5 billion won per company over three years. 2026-06-10 14:38:02
Kakao workers stage first walkout in company history over bonus dispute SEOUL, June 10 (AJP) - Kakao's labor union launched the first partial strike in the company's history, escalating a standoff with management over performance bonuses. The walkout ran from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with an hour-long midday break on Wednesday, amounting to about four hours of stoppage. Union members marched through the company's Pangyo branch in Seongnam, south of Seoul. Workers at five entities — the main Kakao corporation, Kakao Pay, Kakao Enterprise, DKTechin and XLGames — joined the action after wage talks collapsed and mediation broke down. At the heart of the conflict lies the bonus structure, with the union demanding payouts worth about 10 million won, or 13 to 14 percent of last year's operating profit, while opposing the inclusion of restricted stock units. Management has argued the demands would place a heavy burden on the company's finances. Shares of Kakao traded at 38,450 won per stock at 10:20 a.m., 2.66 percent lower than the previous day. 2026-06-10 10:23:12