AJU PRESS ASIA FIRST NEWS AGENCY

Journalist

Kim Dong-young
Kim Dong-young김동영
ReporterSamsung Biologics, CJ CheilJedang, LG Chem, Celltrion, Naver, Krafton, Nexon, Hyundai Mobis etc. & energy, game, food, bio, petrochemical, AI
Kim Dong-young is a bilingual journalist at AJU Press (AJP), covering Korean tech, energy, and bio/pharma.
He reports from the field at events like CES and APEC, runs AJP's YouTube channels,
and is pursuing a master's at Sogang's MOT program. "I try everything in this AI era that can improve yet preserve the facts. Journalism still serves as my core."
Latest by Kim Dong-young
  • When AI talks markets: Three chatbots, one Samsung question, and the $620 bet behind it
    When AI talks markets: Three chatbots, one Samsung question, and the $620 bet behind it SEOUL, June 21 (AJP) - The world has always found curious ways to talk about the future. Sometimes the storyteller is a philosopher, sometimes an economist. In 2026, a new narrator has joined them: artificial intelligence. Claude, Gemini and ChatGPT — three large models built by three rival labs — were each handed the same question. A Wall Street analyst has put an 850,000-won target on Samsung Electronics. What to make of it? What stands out is not that the three reached wildly different answers. It is that, reasoning along separate paths, they arrived at a strikingly similar place. The question was never simply whether Samsung's share price would rise or fall. It was where Samsung will stand in the age of AI. The number was real. Mehdi Hosseini, a senior analyst at the U.S. investment firm Susquehanna, set a target of 850,000 won on Samsung Electronics, a call that surfaced via Bloomberg in early June and drew global attention. Samsung was trading near 349,000 won at the time. The figure implied more than a doubling — and it landed while most domestic brokerages were clustered in the 500,000-to-600,000-won range. The basis for the target had not been fully disclosed, which only sharpened the debate. But the number mattered less than the logic behind it. Three paths up the same mountain Claude fixed on Samsung's sheer production capacity. SK hynix may lead the HBM market today, the argument ran, but the eventual winner of the AI era is whoever can supply vast quantities of memory reliably. Technology can be chased; capacity cannot be conjured overnight. Samsung's manufacturing footprint, among the largest on earth, remains a formidable weapon. Gemini zoomed out from the single company to the whole cycle. Data-center construction is racing ahead across the U.S., China, Europe, Japan and the Middle East at once. Just as steel boomed when the railways were laid and telecoms boomed when the internet spread, the reasoning went, the proliferation of AI should lift the entire memory industry. ChatGPT framed it as a contest for AI supremacy. Many treat Nvidia as the center of the revolution — not wrong, but incomplete. GPUs alone do not make AI work. They need HBM, DRAM and SSDs, and the firm able to supply most of that is Samsung. On this reading, 850,000 won is not a price on today's earnings but a price on tomorrow's AI hegemony. Three different routes, one summit: the ultimate winner of the AI build-out is not merely whoever makes the chip, but whoever supplies the infrastructure. What the number actually means People tend to read a stock price as a fact about the present. History suggests it is usually a bet on the future. Microsoft in the 1980s, Amazon in the 1990s, Apple in the 2000s — in each case the market moved before the consensus did, pricing in a world that did not yet exist. The 850,000-won case for Samsung belongs to the same family. It is not a verdict on the company as it is, but an act of imagination about Samsung in 2030, in 2035. If Samsung captures the HBM4 market, restores its foundry competitiveness and establishes itself as a core supplier to AI data centers and physical AI, 850,000 won is not an impossible number. If those conditions fail, it is a mirage. The number is only an outcome. What matters is the force that produces it. History has always defied common sense It is easy to forget that, barely 40 years ago, Korea's chip industry was no match for Japan's. NEC, Toshiba, Hitachi and Fujitsu ruled, and even the U.S. struggled against the Japanese advance. Few imagined a Korean firm would one day dominate global memory. Samsung did it anyway. Chairman Lee Kun-hee's instruction to "change everything except your wife and children" was not a slogan but an obsession with quality. Samsung overtook Japan and became number one. History tends to move that way — the impossible becomes real, and the obvious collapses. When Wall Street floats 850,000 won, it is not naive optimism; it is memory of what Samsung has done before. What Samsung still has to do Sober assessment leaves a long to-do list. First, HBM. If data is the crude oil of the AI era, HBM is the engine that refines it, and SK hynix holds the edge today. Samsung must prove itself in HBM4 to justify the bull case. Second, foundry. TSMC is already the world's strongest. Catching up demands not only technology but the return of customer trust — winning back the likes of Qualcomm, Nvidia, AMD and Apple. Third, talent. The chip war is, in the end, a talent war, and the AI era rewards engineers who span design, packaging, software and algorithms. Fourth, physical AI. Until now AI lived on a screen. Next it becomes the robot, the autonomous vehicle, the smart factory — and demand for silicon explodes. To be a true winner, Samsung must evolve from a memory company into an AI hardware platform. Templeton's warning, Buffett's plain truth Markets always carry risk. The investor John Templeton is widely credited with the observation that bull markets are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism and die on euphoria. People believed in permanent prosperity before 1929, in eternal internet growth before 2000, in ever-rising home prices before 2008. The cycle repeated each time. Templeton's point was to stay coldest when the market runs hottest. Warren Buffett tells a simpler version of the same story: invest in businesses you understand, with a durable advantage and able management, at a sensible price — and be fearful when others are greedy, greedy when others are fearful. The lesson is not to be swept along by the crowd. For anyone weighing the 850,000-won case, the point is the same. The number is not what counts. Whether Samsung is genuinely recovering its edge in HBM, foundry and AI infrastructure — that is the heart of it. A story about people buying the future The 850,000-won case is not really a stock story. It is a question about where Korea will stand in the AI revolution. The three chatbots analyzed the future each in their own way; Wall Street offered a number; investors talk in dreams. In the end, though, the market is settled by the cold realities of technology, earnings and innovation. Technology builds hope, management realizes it, results prove it — and the share price follows behind. So the real meaning of Samsung's 850,000-won case does not lie in a price target. It lies in a single question: can Korea's flagship company, once again, challenge for the summit at the center of an industrial revolution? The answer will be written not by Wall Street, and not by AI, but by Samsung itself — in the history of technology and innovation it has yet to write. 2026-06-21 18:10:29
  • S.Korea seeks site for second spaceport to meet launch demand
    S.Korea seeks site for second spaceport to meet launch demand SEOUL, June 21 (AJP) - South Korea will open a nationwide search for the site of a second spaceport, the country's space agency said, as it prepares for an expected surge in launches driven by reusable rockets. The Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) announced Sunday it would invite bids from local governments until August 6 to host the facility, which is intended to support more than 10 reusable-rocket launches a year from the mid-to-late 2030s. The agency aims to complete the second center by 2034 on a site of about 5.6 million square meters, comparable in scale to the existing Naro Space Center, equipped with launch, landing and maintenance facilities for reusable vehicles. The push reflects mounting pressure on South Korea's lone launch site. The agency said major spacefaring nations operate multiple spaceports to secure flexibility and industrial competitiveness, while South Korea relies solely on Naro, leaving its space-transport capacity thinly stretched. KASA said it would screen the proposals and announce the winning site in October, followed by an application for a construction-stage research and development project in November. "The second spaceport is core infrastructure for a qualitative leap in South Korea's space industry," KASA Administrator Oh Tae-seok said, pledging to build a new launch hub where the sector can grow freely on the back of active regional participation. 2026-06-21 16:15:26
  • Amorepacific chiefs younger daughter weds in private Seoul ceremony
    Amorepacific chief's younger daughter weds in private Seoul ceremony SEOUL, June 21 (AJP) - The younger daughter of Suh Kyung-bae, chairman of South Korea's Amorepacific Group, married on Sunday, drawing fresh attention to the cosmetics empire's third-generation succession. Suh Ho-jeong, 30, exchanged vows at 6:30 p.m. at the Shilla Hotel in central Seoul's Jangchung-dong, according to business sources. The groom is an investment and management consultant at a foreign firm who has studied abroad, and the couple were introduced through acquaintances. The wedding was held behind closed doors, attended only by immediate family and close friends. Born in 1995, Suh graduated from Cornell University's hotel administration program before joining Osulloc, a tea-and-lifestyle affiliate of the group, as an entry-level employee last year. She now works in product development and marketing on the brand's PD team. Long kept out of the corporate spotlight, Suh has emerged as a figure of interest since her Osulloc debut and a series of share gifts. Her father transferred Amorepacific Holdings stock to her in 2021 and 2023, then handed over 190,000 Amorepacific shares worth about 30 billion won ($19.63 million) in late February to help cover her gift-tax bill. The group's third generation comprises Suh and her elder sister, Suh Min-jeong, who joined Amorepacific in 2017 but has been on extended leave since 2023, leaving the eventual succession picture unsettled. 2026-06-21 14:25:44
  • S.Korean savers shift from insurance to ETFs as stock rally lures bank money
    S.Korean savers shift from insurance to ETFs as stock rally lures bank money SEOUL, June 21 (AJP) - A pronounced "money move" is unfolding inside South Korea's banks as savers abandon insurance products in favor of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), drawn by a buoyant stock market that has reshaped where households park their cash. ETF sales at the country's five major commercial banks - KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori and NH Nonghyup - reached 56.73 trillion won ($37.12 billion) in the first months of this year, about 10.8 times the 5.21 trillion won recorded a year earlier, according to financial industry data on Sunday. Sales commissions surged to 491.8 billion won from 44.1 billion won. Bancassurance, the insurance products banks sell on behalf of insurers, moved in the opposite direction. New sales slipped 4.2 percent to 7.97 trillion won, while commission income fell to 134.8 billion won from 292.6 billion won. The reversal marks a sharp turn for bancassurance, which had long thrived on tax breaks, guaranteed minimum returns and yields exceeding ordinary deposits. Its annual sales climbed steadily to 15.66 trillion won in 2025, dwarfing ETF sales that lagged well behind through 2024. That balance flipped as domestic equities staged a record-breaking run from the latter half of last year, eroding appetite for savings-type insurance that ties up money for years. Last year's ETF sales of 22.06 trillion won ran about 1.4 times ahead of bancassurance. The momentum has intensified in 2026. ETF sales swelled 54 percent in May to 15.31 trillion won amid heightened KOSPI volatility, while bancassurance sales sank 43 percent over the same month. Banks are themselves courting ETF business to stem a larger outflow of deposits to brokerages, since proceeds from ETF redemptions flow back into bank accounts, keeping the money within their walls. A separate factor weighing on insurance has been weaker demand for dollar-denominated policies, which regulators flagged early this year over the risk of mis-selling. 2026-06-21 13:55:32
  • South Korea steps in as Trump pulls back from arming allies
    South Korea steps in as Trump pulls back from arming allies SEOUL, June 21 (AJP) - South Korea is fast emerging as a major weapons supplier to the world, seizing an opening created as U.S. President Donald Trump retreats from Washington's traditional security guarantees and presses allies to defend themselves, Politico reported. The paper said that the shift echoes the 1969 Nixon Doctrine, when then-President Richard Nixon told Asian allies to take charge of their own defense and pulled about 20,000 American troops from the peninsula. Threat level rising, South Korea poured money into a homegrown arms industry, licensing and reverse-engineering foreign weapons. That gamble has matured into a global business. South Korea now ranks as the world's ninth-largest arms exporter and stands second only to the United States as a supplier to NATO's European members. Combined revenue at its four defense champions — Hanwha Group, Hyundai Rotem, LIG Nex1 and Korea Aerospace Industries — is projected at about $37 billion this year, nearly quadruple the 2021 figure. Two wars, in Ukraine and Iran, have stoked urgent demand, while many longtime U.S. allies have bristled at Trump's tariffs, broken treaties and blunt insults. As Politico put it, "global instability... may be bad for the world. But in South Korea, it's good for business." Poland anchors the surge, signing a $13.7 billion deal for K2 tanks, rocket launchers and artillery after Russia's invasion of Ukraine left jittery Eastern European governments scrambling to rearm. Buyers prize Seoul's swift delivery — a reflex of the "bbali-bbali," or hurry-hurry, culture — along with low prices and willing technology transfers. South Korea has also won fans with its combat credibility, underscored when LIG Nex1's Cheongung-II air-defense system reportedly downed 29 of 30 targets over the United Arab Emirates during the war with Iran. Still, the climb toward Seoul's goal of becoming the world's fourth-largest exporter by 2030 is steepening, as European nations rebuild their own defense industries and Japan eases its arms-export curbs, sharpening the competition ahead. 2026-06-21 11:07:41
  • Lee reshuffles Cheong Wa Dae staff, names ex-Yonhap chief as communications adviser
    Lee reshuffles Cheong Wa Dae staff, names ex-Yonhap chief as communications adviser SEOUL, June 21 (AJP) - South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Sunday named Seong Ghi-hong, a former chief executive of Yonhap News Agency, as his senior secretary for public communications, part of a reshuffle of his top Blue House aides at the start of his administration's second year. Han Chan-sik, a former attorney at the law firm Kim & Chang, was appointed senior secretary for civil affairs, while Kim Kyung-ja, an adjunct professor at Woosuk University and a former senior vice president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, was named senior secretary for social affairs. Presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik also announced the appointments of Kang Gun-jark, a member of the presidential future defense strategy committee, as first deputy chief of the National Security Office, and Song Ki-ho, currently the office's economic security secretary, as third deputy chief. Kang said Seong was "a veteran journalist of 30 years who combines a reporter's instinct for the field with the balance and judgment of an editorial leader," adding that the new adviser would help the government communicate its responses and achievements to the public. The reshuffle came as Lee entered the second year of his five-year term after taking office in June last year. 2026-06-21 10:59:30
  • Korean won hits weakest June level since 1998 crisis
    Korean won hits weakest June level since 1998 crisis SEOUL, June 21 (AJP) - The South Korean won has averaged more than 1,520 per dollar so far in June, its weakest monthly level since the Asian financial crisis nearly three decades ago, as a firmer dollar and persistent foreign equity outflows weighed on the currency. The won averaged 1,521 per dollar through June 19, based on weekly closing prices at 3:30 p.m., according to the Bank of Korea's Economic Statistics System. That marks the highest monthly average since February 1998, when the rate stood at 1,626.7 during the height of the crisis, and sits about 70 won above the 1,453.3 average of March 2009, the worst stretch of the global financial crisis. The currency has held above 1,500 for several consecutive sessions since June 15, when it closed at 1,500.8 — the longest such run since the crisis-era stretch from late December 1997 to March 1998. Analysts attribute the slide to a mix of factors. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major currencies, climbed as high as 101.123 on June 19, its strongest in about 13 months, after the Federal Reserve struck a hawkish tone at its June 18 meeting and flagged lingering inflation concerns. Foreign investors have compounded the pressure, dumping a large volume of Korean shares this year even as their ownership share paradoxically rose to 41.03 percent by June 19 from 36.27 percent at the end of last year — a sign that the stocks they hold have rallied sharply. The won's troubles come against a turbulent backdrop. The currency had already breached 1,520 in early April after U.S. President Donald Trump's hardline remarks on Iran rattled markets, while Washington redesignated South Korea to its currency monitoring list in January, citing a current-account surplus that had widened to 5.9 percent of GDP. Stalled working-level talks between Washington and Tehran have added further upward pressure on the rate. 2026-06-21 09:58:02
  • S.Koreas hypermarkets shed market share as e-commerce, discounters bite
    S.Korea's hypermarkets shed market share as e-commerce, discounters bite SEOUL, June 21 (AJP) - South Korea's hypermarket chains have absorbed the heaviest blow among offline retailers from the rise of e-commerce, with their share of total retail sales sliding to a record low as shoppers migrate online and to deep-discount stores. The country's three big-box operators — E-mart, Lotte Mart and Homeplus — accounted for 7.9 percent of total retail revenue as of April this year, the lowest share on record, according to data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The figure is less than half the 17.9 percent recorded in 2020, the year the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Hypermarkets dominated Korean retail at their peak in 2009 and 2010, when their share topped 50 percent and the combined sales of the three chains outstripped those of all department stores, convenience stores and supermarkets nationwide. The format held its lead even after a mandatory store-closure rule took effect in 2012, but the pandemic upended the landscape. In fresh food, once a core strength, fast-delivery e-commerce platforms and lightly regulated wholesale grocers steadily ate into market share, while household goods ceded ground to fixed-price chain Daiso and Chinese players such as AliExpress and Temu. The sector's share has fallen each year since — 15.1 percent in 2021, 13.0 percent in 2022, 12.1 percent in 2023 and 11.0 percent in 2024 — before dropping below 10 percent for the first time last year, to 9.8 percent. Even measured against offline rivals alone, hypermarkets have slipped to third place behind department and convenience stores. The downturn looks set to persist. Homeplus, which once vied with E-mart for the top spot, entered court-led rehabilitation last year and has since shuttered dozens of outlets and shed about 5,000 jobs; with a July 3 deadline to win approval for its restructuring plan, analysts warn the chain could face liquidation if a sale falls through. 2026-06-21 09:25:36
  • Korea moves to break down data barriers for self-driving AI
    Korea moves to break down data barriers for self-driving AI SEOUL, June 19 (AJP) - South Korea's science ministry has stepped in to ease a chronic data bottleneck holding back the development of self-driving artificial intelligence, issuing the country's first common standards for building and sharing autonomous-driving training data. The Ministry of Science and ICT said on Friday it had published a guideline and specification document allowing industry, academia and research institutes to jointly build and share training data for end-to-end (E2E) self-driving AI. The global autonomous-driving industry is shifting rapidly toward the E2E approach, in which a single AI trained on vast volumes of data handles perception, judgment and control as one integrated process. Leaders such as Waymo in the United States and Baidu in China have been expanding road testing and racing to amass ever-larger training datasets. South Korean firms, by contrast, have built their data in isolation, leaving it hard to share because sensor placement and other specifications differ from vehicle to vehicle. The new guideline covers the full data lifecycle, defining procedures for collection, processing, alignment, correction and labelling, and setting out sensor configurations, storage formats and methods for verifying raw data. It was developed through the multi-ministry project for autonomous driving technology innovation, led by the Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation, the autonomous-driving project group KADIF and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute. The ministry said it would work with the land ministry to deploy the standards in self-driving test cities building city-scale E2E datasets, refining the guideline as it goes. 2026-06-19 14:48:20
  • Seoul to release 21 million imported eggs as bird flu squeezes supply
    Seoul to release 21 million imported eggs as bird flu squeezes supply SEOUL, June 19 (AJP) - South Korea will channel about 21.12 million imported fresh eggs from the United States and Thailand into the market through next month, the agriculture ministry said, moving to ease a price surge that has strained household budgets. Starting Friday, 1.12 million U.S. eggs will reach shelves at major retailers including E-Mart and Lotte Mart. E-Mart will stock them at all outlets except those on Jeju Island, while Lotte Mart will sell them at 40 stores nationwide. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said it would funnel at least 4.48 million U.S. and Thai eggs each week to large retailers first, before routing supplies through smaller distributors to neighborhood bakeries, corner shops and other small businesses. The push follows a slide in domestic output triggered by last winter's outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, which forced the culling of laying hens, and by tighter rules on flock density. Daily production this month stood at 47.05 million eggs, up 1.2 percent from the seasonal norm but down 3.3 percent from a year earlier. Since January, the ministry has imported about 10.11 million fresh eggs through the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation, comprising 6.74 million from the United States and 3.37 million from Thailand. It plans to diversify supply lines by bringing in Brazilian eggs for the first time. The ministry will also extend a tariff-rate quota on processed egg products to the end of the year from this month and double the eligible volume to 8,000 tons. The scheme cuts duties on selected goods by up to 40 percentage points, giving importers room to offer cheaper products. "As the number of laying hens recovers, egg output is expected to climb from next month," the ministry said, "but it will take some time for the recovery to translate into actual market supply and price stability." Daily output is projected to rebound to last year's level of about 49 million eggs in July. 2026-06-19 11:40:20