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 to permanently close 37 suspended stores, putting 3,500 jobs at risk SEOUL, June 04 (AJP) - Homeplus, South Korea's second-largest hypermarket chain, will permanently shut 37 stores it had temporarily closed last month, a move that threatens the jobs of about 3,500 workers, the company told its labour unions. According to industry sources on Thursday, the retailer sent a a notice to the Korea Mart Labor Union's Homeplus branch and a separate general union that it had decided to close the stores, which had been suspended since May 10 due to their low contribution to earnings. The 37 outlets are among 104 hypermarkets operated by Homeplus, which is undergoing court-led rehabilitation after years of mounting debt under private equity owner MBK Partners. Homeplus said it would apply an asset-securitisation support scheme to affected staff and offer voluntary redundancy to employees at managerial level and above, excluding those with less than six months until retirement. But the company cautioned that the payouts hinge on its survival. "The support scheme and voluntary redundancy can only be applied if creditors agree to emergency operating loans and an extension of the rehabilitation process," Homeplus said in the notice. According to the union, about 3,500 people work at the 37 stores, of whom about 1,500 managerial staff are eligible for voluntary redundancy. The unions have warned the closures could trigger a domino effect across the remaining 67 outlets. Homeplus filed in for court receivership in March last year, becoming the first of South Korea's big three hypermarket operators to enter rehabilitation. The crisis traces back to MBK's 2015 leveraged buyout, which saddled the chain with heavy lease and rental burdens that critics say hollowed out its finances. 2026-06-04 17:26:54
Starbucks Korea card spending drops after 'Tank Day' backlash SEOUL, June 04 (AJP) - Estimated credit and debit card spending at Starbucks Korea fell by more than 10 billion won ($6.53 million) last month from April, data showed, as a marketing controversy weighed on the coffee chain. Estimated card spending at Starbucks reached 121.19 billion won in May, down about 13.1 billion won from 134.32 billion won in April, according to Mobile Index on Thursday. The decline deepened in the latter half of the month. Weekly spending slipped from 32.16 billion won during May 11 to 17 to 23.69 billion won during May 18 to 24, when the "Tank Day" controversy erupted, before falling again to 21.46 billion won during May 25-31, the second consecutive weekly drop. The figures cover only estimated domestic card payments and exclude corporate bank transfers, cash, gift certificates, simple payments and in-app transactions, the company said. Demand still held firmer on other channels. As of 4 p.m. on Thursday, Starbucks vouchers ranked first and second in the cafe category on the KakaoTalk Gift platform, led by a 50,000-won e-card voucher. Starbucks Korea triggered the backlash on May 18, the anniversary of the Gwangju Democratic Uprising, by using the term "Tank Day" to promote a tumbler discount event. As criticism spread online, Shinsegae Group dismissed Starbucks Korea's chief executive and issued a public apology. 2026-06-04 16:15:29
Eggs hit by buying limits as South Korean retailers ration supply SEOUL, June 04 (AJP) - South Korea's leading hypermarket chains have capped egg purchases at one carton per customer as prices climb on the back of an avian influenza outbreak, with retailers now weighing the sale of imported eggs for the first time. Emart and Lotte Mart are limiting shoppers to a single 30-egg carton of discounted product through June 10, the retail industry said on Thursday. Both chains are selling their trays as premium domestic grade for about 6,000 won per tray. The promotions are jointly subsidized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs to ease pressure on household grocery bills. Warehouse chain Traders Wholesale Club normally imposes no cap but has begun restricting customers to two cartons depending on store stock. The price surge has been driven by tightening supply in the wake of a highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak. The national average retail price for 30 premium domestic eggs reached 7,472 won the previous day, up 4.1 percent from a month earlier, according to the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation. Brisk demand for cheaper eggs has left Emart's online stock temporarily sold out. Emart and Lotte Mart are now considering selling fresh eggs imported from Thailand under a government scheme to stabilize prices — a first for both chains, which have sold only domestic eggs until now. Rival Homeplus began offering Thai and US eggs in April, while Lotte Super introduced US eggs last month. The government, meanwhile, plans to import a total of 31.23 million fresh eggs this year and will for the first time bring in Brazilian eggs to diversify its sourcing, with domestic production expected to recover from July as laying-hen flocks rebuild. 2026-06-04 14:37:35
WNMC 26: AI reshapes how news is experienced, not just made, media leaders say in Marseille MARSEILLE, June 03 (AJP) - Artificial intelligence is no longer merely changing how journalism is produced but is rewiring how audiences encounter the news itself, a panel of global media leaders said at the World News Media Congress. South Korea's AJP, an AI-native news agency built for that shift, took its place alongside publishers from India and Germany to argue that the technology is dissolving the old path of search, click and read, replacing it with content that anticipates what readers want before they ask. The session, titled "How AI Is Transforming the News Experience," was moderated by Dmitry Shishkin, a former BBC World Service digital editor and now an independent media adviser, whose long-championed "user needs" model framed much of the discussion. The 77th congress, organized by the World Association of News Publishers and held at the Palais du Pharo from June 1 to 3, drew about 1,000 participants from more than 60 countries, representing over 450 news publishers. Seo Hye-seung, managing editor of AJP and part of the Aju Media Group, opened with a personal story about her 83-year-old mother, who now relies on her smartphone to take her medication and book restaurants. "This is the most ordinary thing that's happening in Korea," Seo said, noting that the country had absorbed broadband, smartphones and now AI faster than almost anywhere. She cited a study finding that more than half of office work in Korea passes through an AI tool at some point each day. Because AJP entered the crowded English-language agency market late, Seo said, it was built to its advantage. "We were built AI-native from the first line of code," she said, adding that reporters with less than two years of experience now produce 5,000-word features and analyses. The group publishes in five languages, she said, filtering selected stories from its Korean flagship through a system called AI Pick that translates them automatically. The automation lifted output in four additional languages tenfold and raised English traffic by about 30%, according to the company. Seo said the shift had freed journalists to seek out audiences rather than wait for them, pointing to the group's saturation coverage of a BTS concert in central Seoul earlier this year. "The new question is who offers the best experience," she said, "because users know best." Sannuta Raghu, executive producer and head of the AI lab at India's Scroll.in, said AI was becoming core infrastructure for what she called "personal, machine-mediated sense-making." Her newsroom, she said, employs about 20 people in a country of 1.4 billion. Five years ago it abandoned the chase for breaking news to focus on context and depth, finding its paying readers among academics and researchers studying South Asia. Rather than compete with chatbots that aggregate answers from many sources, Raghu said, Scroll.in was turning its platform into a "trusted workspace" offering what she termed auditable comprehensiveness. "We are very open about the comprehensiveness gap," she said, describing a system that maps what the newsroom can cover and transparently fills the rest from verified sources such as datasets and government bodies. Markus Knall, chief editor and director of content at Germany's Ippen Digital, struck an optimistic note for community journalism. "This may be the best time for local publishers in the last few years, and AI is the reason," Knall said. He argued that small audiences and high costs, once crippling constraints, had become the sector's biggest opportunity. Ippen runs about 170 local news websites in Germany, he said. On a recent election night, the group published more than 4,000 articles covering some 20,000 communities, output he said no human staff could ever match. But Knall warned against treating AI purely as an efficiency tool, urging newsrooms to chase genuine new scale while reserving human reporters for the trust that underpins democratic life. Astrid Maier, chief deputy editor and head of strategy at German news agency dpa, said the industry was facing not an efficiency story but a wholesale platform shift. "If there weren't any independent news agencies right now in the age of AI, they should be invented right now," Maier said, arguing that verified, fact-committed information was more vital than ever as machines learn to read the structured data inside each news article. She presented DPA-IQ, a trusted information layer launched as a minimum viable product two weeks ago, which lets clients' AI agents pull verified text, images and soon video on demand rather than receiving a constant push down the wire. Maier cautioned that if publishers did not set shared standards for how facts are attributed within such systems, the large technology platforms would set them instead. "Otherwise facts won't matter anymore," she said. The discussion echoed a session a day earlier on the evolution from search optimization toward answer- and generative-engine optimization, where panelists stressed that audiences increasingly meet the news through AI rather than the open web. Across both sessions the underlying message was consistent: while algorithms and platforms keep shifting, the direct relationship between a publisher and its readers remains the enduring source of value. 2026-06-03 18:09:06
[[WNMC 2026]] AJP Director Seo Hye-seung: 'AI Native News Agency is the Answer' – Korean Model Unveiled in Marseille Seo Hye-seung, the editor-in-chief of Aju Media Group (AJP), participated as a panelist in the session titled "How AI Is Transforming the News Experience" at the 77th World News Media Congress (WNMC) held on June 3 in Marseille, France. The session was moderated by Dmitry Shishkin, a former BBC World Service journalist, and featured media leaders from Germany's Ippen Digital, dpa, and India's Scroll.in. During the discussion, Seo highlighted AJP's strength as a latecomer in the English news agency market, emphasizing that it was designed from the ground up with AI in mind. She explained that Aju Economy produces around 300 articles daily, some of which are selected by their in-house system, 'AI Pick,' for automatic distribution in Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and English. This automation has resulted in a tenfold increase in publication volume for those languages and a 30% rise in English traffic. Seo defined AJP's identity as conveying "Asian substance in English," noting that while language has traditionally been tied to regions, the advent of AI is reversing that trend. "AI is changing not only how news is created but also how readers experience it," she emphasized, stating that readers are the best judges of this transformation. Aju Media Group operates as a multilingual, AI-native media organization, centered around its Korean-language Aju Economy, the English news agency AJP, and the AI Business Channel (ABC), offering international editions in five languages. 2026-06-03 16:18:00
[[WNMC 2026]] How AI is Transforming News Consumption Artificial intelligence is not only changing how news is produced but also how readers experience it. The era of searching for keywords and clicking links is fading, giving way to a time when content is delivered based on predictions of what readers want, even before they ask. On June 3, during the 77th World News Media Congress held at the Palais du Pharo in Marseille, discussions took place in a session titled "How AI Is Transforming the News Experience." The congress, which ran from June 1 to 3, attracted around 1,000 participants representing over 450 media organizations from more than 60 countries. The session was moderated by Dmitry Shishkin, a former digital development editor at BBC World Service and now an independent media consultant. Panelists included Markus Knall, Chief Content Officer and Editor-in-Chief at Ippen Digital in Germany; Astrid Maier, Deputy Editor and Strategy Head at dpa in Germany; Sannuta Raghu, Executive Producer at Scroll.in in India; and Seo Hye-seung, Editor-in-Chief of AJP at Ajou Media Group in South Korea. The central theme of the session was "liquid content," which refers to the concept that a single piece of reporting can change its form based on the context of the reader, reaching them in the appropriate format at the right moment. This contrasts sharply with the traditional model that waits for readers to visit the media outlet. Shishkin's "user needs" model provided the theoretical foundation for this discussion. It starts from the premise that readers do not consume news solely for information. Instead, it categorizes their different intents into four areas: "to know," "to understand," "to feel," and "to do." He emphasized, "Tell the story you want to tell, but frame it from the perspective that adds value for the reader." AI takes this model a step further by analyzing data to determine which readers currently seek understanding or emotional resonance, automatically generating content in the appropriate form. The session also posed the fundamental question: What does it mean to be a news agency in the age of AI? Traditionally, news agencies have acted as wholesalers, producing articles to supply to other media. However, as AI automates translation, curation, and distribution, the boundaries of what agencies can deliver are expanding. In this context, Seo Hye-seung's AJP model stands out. Ajou Media Group publishes content in five languages, including Korean, English, and Chinese, as well as Japanese and Vietnamese editions, all driven by AI. Seo identifies AJP's identity not in the search era but in the AI era. He stated, "In the search era, language was tied to regions, but in the AI era, that formula is flipped. All major language models are fundamentally built around English, and Asia is increasingly described by AI trained on Western data. We have found our role as an Asian English news agency, writing in the language that AI can best understand. This is the 'Asian substance in English.'" Seo explained the paradox of being a latecomer designed as an AI-native. Although AJP is a newcomer in the English news agency market, its foundation built on AI from the start has offset the disadvantages of being late to the game. He shared that the 72-year-old founder of Ajou Media Group, Kwak Young-gil, adopted the principles "AI or Die" and "Start now, perfect later" after attending AI lectures at KAIST during the pandemic. Seo emphasized that while AI serves as an auxiliary tool, the role of journalists has become even more crucial. He said, "Our motto is clear: to become journalists that AI can learn from and keep up with. Currently, at AJP, reporters with less than two years of experience are producing in-depth features, interviews, and analytical articles of 5,000 words." In practice, AJP selects a portion of the approximately 300 articles produced daily by Ajou Economic Daily through a system called "AI Pick" for automatic distribution in four additional languages. This automation has increased the publication volume in those four languages tenfold, and English traffic has reportedly risen by 30%. This session naturally connected with the previous day's discussion on "Discovery: How to Rethink Search in the AI Era." While the June 2 session addressed the evolution of search strategies from SEO to AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), the June 3 session looked ahead to a stage where readers experience news even before searching for it. This shift suggests that the long-standing questions in the media industry are changing. Where publishers once asked, "What is the best journalism?" the new question is, "What is the best experience?" However, both sessions emphasized a common message: the fundamentals remain more important than technology. Algorithms and platforms may constantly change, but the direct relationship with readers endures. The third key point was how AI is rapidly expanding the reporting scope of local publishers. Sannuta Raghu from Scroll.in in India has led experiments using AI to cover broader communities with limited resources, demonstrating the significant benefits of automation for resource-constrained local media. AJP shares a similar discovery. A small AI video and essay contest conducted last year in collaboration with the Indian Embassy in South Korea started with a mere $220 marketing budget but garnered about one million impressions, laying the groundwork for building India-focused content. Seo illustrated how the time freed up by AI translates into enhanced reader experiences by referencing the recent BTS concert in Gwanghwamun, which was live-streamed 24/7 for two months, transforming into a platform for the global fanbase 'ARMY' in five languages. He stated, "We cannot wait for readers to come to us. We must seek them out and understand what they want to experience." Ultimately, the session converged on a single conclusion: while AI is shaking up the production, distribution, and consumption of news, the reader remains at the center. Technology is merely a tool, and the goal of 'predictive journalism' is to create content that finds its audience. The panelists, including Seo, shared a vision that regardless of where readers are or what format they desire, stories will be delivered at the right moment, emphasizing that the competitive edge for media in the AI era lies in creating reasons for readers to return. 2026-06-03 16:09:00
WNMC 26: No map in AI age. Newsrooms must chart their own course MARSEILLE, June 03 (AJP) - If there was one message that echoed through the halls on the second day of the World News Media Congress on Tuesday, it was that nobody knows exactly where artificial intelligence is taking journalism. "There is no map," WAN-IFRA AI in Media Lead Ezra Eeman told editors, publishers and newsroom leaders gathered in Marseille. For an industry accustomed to navigating disruption, the statement was both unsettling and liberating. The internet had a roadmap. Mobile had a roadmap. Social media eventually had a roadmap. But artificial intelligence is creating a fundamentally different environment—one in which technology increasingly mediates the relationship between publishers and audiences, while the rules of value creation, distribution and discovery are being rewritten in real time. "That is not how the new world works. The map does not fully explain what's happening now," Eeman said. The challenge facing publishers, he argued, is not simply adopting AI tools. It is learning how journalism survives and thrives when AI becomes the primary interface through which people access information. Charting a Course Without a Map Rather than offering a blueprint, Eeman outlined the choices publishers are already making as they attempt to navigate the uncertainty. Some are taking a defensive approach. According to data he shared, 56 percent of publishers have blocked AI bots from accessing their content. Others are pursuing engagement. Another 31 percent are actively negotiating or striking licensing agreements with AI companies. Neither approach is universally right, Eeman suggested. "It depends on your setup and size." The larger point is that publishers must make deliberate choices about how they participate in the emerging AI ecosystem. Because in a world where AI systems increasingly summarize, interpret and distribute information, ownership and control matter more than ever. "Without control, no market. No ability to capture value," Eeman warned. For decades, publishers competed for audience attention. Today they are also competing for their place within AI systems that may become the dominant gateway to information. From Ingredient to Destination Eeman argued that one of the greatest dangers facing publishers is becoming accessory. The challenge is not to fall into an ingredient, but survive as the destination. As AI systems generate answers, summaries and recommendations, journalism risks being reduced to an ingredient inside someone else's product. If publishers merely supply content to AI systems, they risk losing audience relationships, subscription opportunities and revenue streams. If they create distinctive experiences, services and products that users actively seek out, they remain relevant regardless of how information is distributed. The future, Eeman argued, will favor organizations that understand emerging AI behaviors and adapt accordingly. "Understand AI habits, avoid commodity, master scarcity, grow your own intelligence, serve the agents." The message reflected a growing consensus that abundance makes uniqueness more valuable. "Market favors exclusive, specific and authenticity." In a world flooded with AI-generated content, original reporting, trusted brands, expertise and human judgment become strategic advantages. Learning While Moving What made the discussion notable was that no speaker claimed to have solved the problem. Instead, leaders from some of the world's largest news organizations described their own efforts to navigate uncertainty. Fabrice Bakhouche, chief executive of SIPA Ouest-France Group, acknowledged that publishers are still trying to understand what AI will mean for their organizations. "The impact on roles, processes and management is only beginning to emerge," he said. "There is no clear picture on impact." His response has been to encourage experimentation while avoiding paralysis. "Bottom-up approaches are relevant," he said, cautioning against becoming "too conservative." Rather than waiting for certainty, organizations must learn through action. Building the Aircraft While Flying At British 24-hour broadcaster Sky News, the challenge is equally complex. Managing Director Jonathan Levy described an industry facing "constant, simultaneous and accelerating" disruption. Quoting former Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron, Levy called this period "head-spinning change in media consumption." Sky's answer has been to embrace innovation while maintaining its core journalistic mission. "We must deliver trusted journalism and simultaneously build the aircraft while in flight," Levy said. The organization is pursuing a premium, video-first future while continuing to cover breaking news around the clock. For Levy, successful navigation depends on leadership that acknowledges uncertainty rather than pretending certainty exists. "Honesty, leadership in transition, not pretending to have answers." The objective is not to eliminate uncertainty but to create enough confidence for organizations to move forward. Building the Scaffolding At Reuters, AI strategy leader Jane Barrett described a different approach to charting a course. Rather than focusing primarily on technology, Reuters has concentrated on building structures that allow experimentation without sacrificing trust. She outlined three layers of what she called "scaffolding." The first is editorial: governance committees, updated guidelines and clear rules governing AI use. The second is technological: approved tools, data security protections and content safeguards. The third is psychological: creating a culture where experimentation is encouraged and failure is accepted as part of learning. "Failure is learning," Barrett said. Her observation that "10 percent is about AI, 20 percent about technology, 70 percent about people and processes" captured a theme repeated throughout the day. The challenge is not simply deploying AI. It is helping organizations adapt to a new reality. Following Signals, Sharing Failures Perhaps the most revealing part of Eeman's presentation was his acknowledgment that the industry remains in the early stages of transformation. "No publisher has a map," he said. Instead, organizations are navigating through experimentation, observation and collaboration. The goal is not to discover a single correct route but to learn from one another's successes and mistakes. "Sharing signals, failures." 2026-06-03 09:58:25
Korea sees 80% of summer crude secured as Mideast war strains supply SEOUL, June 02 (AJP) - South Korea expects to secure most of the crude oil it needs for August by next month, the energy minister said, seeking to quell fears of a supply crunch as the Middle East war drags into its fourth month. Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan told a cabinet meeting chaired by President Lee Jae Myung that projected August crude volumes were climbing steadily and would reach the mid-80 percent range of normal levels during July, the 95th day of the conflict. From May to July, the country secured 86 percent of its usual crude and 83 percent of its naphtha, holding a stable course, the minister said. Naphtha plant utilization stood at about 75 percent as of late May, close to the prewar level of 80 percent. "We have already secured replacement volumes to last through the end of this year," Kim said of natural gas supplies, after Qatar's recent declaration of force majeure on liquefied natural gas shipments stirred concern. The government turned to the United States and Southeast Asia to plug the gap. Markets had feared an August squeeze should the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a chokehold on Korea's Middle East crude, persist into the peak summer demand season. The International Energy Agency had also warned that supply disruptions and seasonal demand could push the oil market into a danger zone in July and August. With no clear date for safe passage through the strait, the ministry extended its strategic stockpile swap scheme through this month from an earlier April-to-May window. Under the scheme, the government lends out reserve crude once a refiner proves it has sourced oil abroad, then recoups the barrels when replacement cargoes arrive. About 21 million barrels have been swapped and are now being repaid in stages. Supplies of medical materials such as intravenous-fluid packaging, syringes and surgical gloves remained at normal levels, the ministry said, while helium, hydrogen bromide and aluminum wheels feeding the semiconductor, auto and shipbuilding industries showed no signs of disruption. 2026-06-02 16:10:59
Samsung Heavy wins $2.8 billion FLNG order in North America SEOUL, June 02 (AJP) - Samsung Heavy Industries announced it has won an order to build one floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) production unit for a North American client, in a deal worth 4.33 trillion won ($2.85 billion). The South Korean shipbuilder said Tuesday through regulatory filings that construction will begin once the client issues a notice to proceed, with delivery scheduled for July 2030. It did not name the buyer. FLNG units are vast offshore vessels that extract, chill and store natural gas at sea, freeing producers from the cost and delay of building pipelines and onshore export terminals to reach remote gas fields. Demand has firmed as buyers in Asia and Europe hunt for supply to bridge the shift away from coal. Samsung Heavy is a dominant player in the niche, having built Royal Dutch Shell's Prelude, the world's largest FLNG facility. The company said it has secured seven of the 11 FLNG units ordered worldwide to date, giving it a 64 percent share of the global market. The contract lifts Samsung Heavy's order tally this year to 28 vessels worth $8.3 billion, or about 60 percent of its $13.9 billion annual target, the company said. Its commercial vessel arm has booked $5.0 billion, 88 percent of target, on the back of 13 LNG carriers, two very large ethane carriers, four very large gas carriers, two container ships and six crude tankers. The offshore division, including the latest FLNG award, has won $3.3 billion in orders, or 40 percent of its $8.2 billion goal for the year. Shares of Samsung Heavy Industries traded at 27,800 per stock at 3:08 p.m., 0.91 percent higher than the day before. 2026-06-02 15:11:06
Naver Cloud, Nvidia expand alliance to build global AI factories SEOUL, June 02 (AJP) - Naver Cloud is teaming up with Nvidia to build artificial intelligence factories around the world, deepening a relationship that until now centered largely on the supply of graphics processing units. The South Korean cloud unit said on Tuesday it would broaden the partnership into a strategic technology alliance spanning AI infrastructure, models, services and physical AI, moving well beyond a conventional buyer-supplier arrangement. Naver Cloud Chief Executive Kim Yu-won outlined the plan at Nvidia's cloud partner summit in Taiwan, where he positioned the company as a full-stack player covering everything from infrastructure to applications. "Our partnership with Nvidia goes beyond a simple GPU supplier-and-customer relationship," Kim said. "It is a strategic decision to develop AI technology together and expand the global AI ecosystem." Under the deal, Naver Cloud will draw on Nvidia's open Nemotron 3 large language model to sharpen its own HyperCLOVA X model, while the two firms jointly research model optimization and core technologies. They also plan to help governments and local companies build sovereign AI models tailored to individual markets. The tie-up surfaces ahead of a meeting in South Korea between senior Naver and Nvidia executives, at which the companies are expected to disclose a concrete execution plan for the AI factory venture. Raj Mirpuri, vice president for Nvidia's global AI cloud and infrastructure, said the collaboration would let customers across Asia and beyond tap the chipmaker's integrated platform to build sovereign, industrial and enterprise AI. 2026-06-02 11:03:36