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

US 'made in America' push rattles Korean auto suppliers ahead of USMCA review SEOUL, May 31 (AJP) - South Korean automakers and parts suppliers are bracing for a contentious review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), as Washington signals it may demand a sharply higher share of US-made components in vehicles sold across North America. The three countries are due to begin a joint review of the pact on July 1, six years after it took effect in 2020. A sunset clause requires them to decide whether to extend the agreement for another 16 years, leave it under annual review, or let it lapse in 2036. The United States and Mexico concluded their first bilateral round of talks late this month, with negotiators focused on narrowing the US trade deficit and shoring up American supply chains. Automotive rules of origin, steel and aluminum, and economic-security concerns dominated the agenda. According to the Wall Street Journal and other outlets, US negotiators are weighing a requirement that at least 50 percent of automotive parts and materials be US-made, and are considering lifting the existing 75 percent North American content threshold for duty-free treatment to about 82 percent. For Korean suppliers that built plants in Mexico to tap lower labor costs, a binding US-content rule would force a costly overhaul of sourcing. Hyundai Mobis supplies parts from its Nuevo León plant to Kia's Pesqueria factory, while SL runs a San Luis Potosí facility capable of producing up to one million headlamp modules a year. The Korea Automotive Technology Institute, in a February report, said the United States holds a structural advantage in the talks as the region's largest market and the top export destination for Canada and Mexico, leaving each carmaker's burden to hinge on its US production footprint and local sourcing. 2026-05-31 17:02:47
US says Iran blockade holds firm as warship disables Iran-bound vessel SEOUL, May 31 (AJP) - U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the U.S. naval blockade of Iran remains firmly in place and that American forces stand ready to resume combat operations should ceasefire negotiations collapse. Speaking to reporters in Singapore on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit Saturday (local time), Hegseth said the matter of the Strait of Hormuz had surfaced repeatedly in his bilateral talks. "The blockade is very much still in place," he said, adding that the waterway would become "a toll-free strait that the entire world can use, which is the way it should be." Hours earlier, U.S. Central Command said its forces had fired a missile at the Gambian-flagged merchant vessel M/V Lian Star, which was steaming through international waters in the Gulf of Oman toward an Iranian port. The command said the crew was warned more than 20 times before the strike disabled the ship. The vessel was knocked out of action and is no longer bound for Iran, military officials said. They did not disclose whether anyone aboard was hurt. It was the fifth commercial ship CENTCOM has disabled since the blockade began about mid-April. Asked whether Washington might permanently pull troops from Middle Eastern bases struck by Iran, Hegseth deferred to the White House, saying such calls rested with President Donald Trump and would hinge on the outcome of the talks. For now, he said, the focus was on staying postured to strike again if needed. On Taiwan, Hegseth said U.S. policy was unchanged even as he acknowledged China's military buildup, reiterating Trump's line that Washington stood in its strongest position yet across the Pacific. Trump has said he discussed arms sales to the island with Chinese leader Xi Jinping but has not approved further transfers. Pressed on whether the United States would deliver Virginia-class submarines to Australia on schedule under the AUKUS pact, due to begin in 2032, Hegseth said he believed it would, despite domestic doubts over whether the boats would meaningfully deter China's navy. 2026-05-31 14:05:37
Korea moves to fortify defenses as AI reshapes cyber, wearable battles SEOUL, May 31 (AJP) - Artificial intelligence is pushing deeper into cybersecurity, public infrastructure and wearable devices, redrawing the lines of industrial competition as governments and companies scramble to keep pace. Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT on May 29 unveiled a plan to bolster private-sector information protection against AI-driven cyber threats, warning that high-performance AI models are sharpening attackers' ability to hunt for vulnerabilities and automate strikes faster than conventional defenses can answer. Under the plan, the government will build an emergency response system centered on the presidential Office of National Security and set up a vulnerability management center within the Korea Internet & Security Agency to share flaw and patch data in near real time. It also vowed to strengthen AI-based detection of malicious activity and tighten support for smaller firms. The push extends abroad. Korea, alongside Japan, recently became the first in Asia and the third globally after the United States and Canada to join OpenAI's Trusted Access for Cyber program, securing government access to the firm's most advanced cyber models. "Cutting-edge cyber AI capabilities should not be concentrated in the hands of a few," said Jason Kwon, OpenAI's chief strategy officer, at a Seoul briefing unveiling a parallel "Korea Cyber Action Plan." Generative AI, meanwhile, is steadily becoming a daily fixture. About 38.9 percent of Koreans said they had used generative AI services last year, up sharply from 12.3 percent in 2023 and 24.0 percent in 2024, according to the Korea Information Society Development Institute, though worries over disinformation and copyright abuse have climbed in step. In wearables, the contest is fiercest over smart glasses. Samsung Electronics and Google showcased Gemini-powered eyewear at Google I/O 2026 in May, mounting a joint challenge to Meta, which dominates a market it has held since 2023. Industry watchers say the center of gravity in AI competition is shifting from raw model performance toward security muscle, ecosystems and control of the points where users actually connect. 2026-05-31 10:47:21
AJP joins World News Media Congress as AI takes center stage in Marseille SEOUL, May 31 (AJP) - Artificial intelligence has moved from a supporting theme to a central pillar of the global news industry's annual summit, as publishers, editors and media executives gather in southern France this week to navigate a rapidly changing information landscape. The 77th World News Media Congress, organized by the global news publishers association WAN-IFRA, opens Monday in Marseille, bringing together about 1,000 media leaders from more than 60 countries for three days of discussions on journalism, technology and business sustainability. For the first time, the Congress features a dedicated "AI in Media" track alongside its traditional Future of Journalism and Revenue and Growth programs, reflecting how generative AI has evolved from an experimental newsroom tool into a strategic priority for publishers worldwide. Aju Media, which has integrated AI across editorial production, translation, video creation and multi-platform distribution, has been invited to share its experience on newsroom transformation and audience growth in the AI era. The gathering marks WAN-IFRA's return to France for the first time in more than three decades. The event is being held at Marseille's Palais du Pharo, a 19th-century palace overlooking the Mediterranean that was built by Emperor Napoleon III. Founded around 600 BC, Marseille is France's oldest city and one of Europe's most diverse ports, linking Europe, Africa and the Middle East. WAN-IFRA said the choice reflects a deliberate effort to move beyond traditional media capitals and highlight emerging voices shaping the future of journalism. The annual Congress traces its roots to 1948, when delegates of the first FIEJ Congress — the predecessor to WAN-IFRA — gathered in Paris. Since then it has become the world's largest annual meeting of news publishing executives, rotating among cities across five continents. Previous editions have been held in Seoul, Cape Town, Taipei and Krakow. WAN-IFRA today represents more than 3,000 news publishing companies and 60 publishers' associations covering approximately 18,000 publications in 120 countries. This year's theme, "Rising Voices. Emerging Risks. Inspiring Futures," reflects the industry's struggle to adapt to disruptive technologies, shifting audience behavior, platform dependency and declining public trust. The AI emphasis marks a notable evolution from previous gatherings. The 2025 Congress in Krakow addressed artificial intelligence within the broader framework of media transformation under the banner "Mastering Media's New Playbook." The previous year's 75th anniversary edition in Copenhagen focused on "Shaping the Future of News Media in the AI Era." This year, however, AI has been elevated into a standalone strategic agenda. WAN-IFRA described AI as a "defining pillar" of its activities in its latest annual review. Its Newsroom AI Catalyst accelerator, developed in partnership with OpenAI, has involved 145 news organizations worldwide in experimenting with and deploying AI-powered newsroom tools. The Congress will also feature pre-conference workshops on technology, innovation, editorial strategy and business development, while industry-led roundtable discussions will examine media sustainability, revenue diversification, the future of print and the growing creator economy. All sessions will be conducted in English with AI-powered live translation available in more than 50 languages. The event will conclude with the presentation of WAN-IFRA's Golden Pen of Freedom Award, the organization's highest honor for press freedom, and the Digital Media Awards Worldwide, which now include categories recognizing the best use of artificial intelligence in newsroom operations and revenue generation. Following the Congress, delegates will visit leading Paris-based media organizations on a study tour scheduled for June 4 and 5. 2026-05-31 10:17:04
South Korea eyes record $900 billion in exports, aims for top-five trade power SEOUL, May 31 (AJP) - South Korea is on course to ship about $900 billion in goods this year, a surge that would vault Asia's fourth-largest economy into the world's top five trading nations, the trade ministry said. According to data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources on Sunday, exports reached $709.3 billion last year, the sixth country ever to clear the $700 billion mark and a milestone hit just seven years after crossing $600 billion in 2018. Through April this year, shipments soared 40.9% from a year earlier to a record $306.5 billion. The blistering pace has prompted the government, state researchers and brokerages alike to sharply lift their forecasts, far above the ministry's February target of $740 billion. "There are other variables, so I am cautious, but exports are expected to top $900 billion this year," Minister Kim Jung-kwan told reporters on May 27, adding that breaking into the top five was within reach. Kim stressed the boom was not propped up by chips alone. While semiconductor exports jumped about 140 percent, he said other sectors were growing a sturdy 14 percent to 15 percent, and small-business shipments climbed 10 percent. Beauty, fashion and food exports also advanced briskly, while shipments to emerging markets widened. Some experts forecast that the $1 trillion threshold may be within striking distance. Meritz Securities forecasts exports of $1.02 trillion, a 44.2 percent leap, as analyst Lee Seung-hoon projected chip and computer-component shipments would balloon 160 percent and 212 percent respectively on swelling AI infrastructure. From the second half, the ministry will mount an all-out push, channeling a record 275 trillion won in trade insurance, courting China and India, and nurturing 500 promising small exporters to cement what it called a robust, diversified trade structure. 2026-05-31 09:19:14
South Korea's reckoning with the AI century There is a phrase South Koreans invoke with quiet pride: bbaly bbaly — "quickly, quickly." It describes a national temperament forged in crisis, the same urgency that rebuilt a war-ravaged nation into an industrial titan within a single generation. But urgency alone, as Kwon Seok-jun, a semiconductor scholar at Sungkyunkwan University, recently warned, will not be enough for what comes next. The artificial intelligence age demands not just speed, but vision. South Korea stands at an inflection point that will look, in retrospect, as decisive as the 1960s industrialization drives that gave the world Hyundai and Samsung. The country holds world-class memory chip manufacturing — its two giants, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, dominate the high-bandwidth memory market that powers today's AI data centers. And yet, as Professor Kwon put it, Korea remains a semiconductor power, not yet an AI power. The distinction is not semantic. It is existential. Generative AI has redrawn the map of strategic resources. Where iron ore and oil once defined national advantage, memory — the capacity of machines to store, recall, and contextualize vast knowledge — now does. GPT-class models require exponentially more memory with each generation. The country that controls that memory infrastructure wields, in effect, an indispensable key to the intelligence economy. South Korea possesses that key. The question is whether it knows what door to unlock with it. To understand the moment, consider the four powers now jostling for position in what may become the defining geopolitical contest of this century. America commands the full AI stack — frontier models from OpenAI and Google, hardware from Nvidia, capital from Silicon Valley. China presses forward with state-backed determination and the data exhaust of 1.4 billion citizens, despite the chokehold of American export controls. Taiwan's TSMC manufactures the world's most advanced chips, making it simultaneously indispensable and alarmingly vulnerable — a single strait separating civilization's nervous system from catastrophe. And Japan, once sovereign over the global semiconductor industry, now bets on its unmatched mastery of materials and precision equipment. South Korea sits in the interstices of all four. It is America's ally and China's largest trading partner. It manufactures what Taiwan designs and supplies materials Japan refines. It is, in the language of supply chains, a critical node — which is both a strategic asset and a dangerous dependency. "Korea has mastered the survival mind. The AI era demands something rarer: the great mind — the ambition not merely to endure, but to define what comes next." said according to Kwon. The architecture of computing itself is shifting beneath Korea's feet. For eighty years, the von Neumann paradigm — separating calculation from storage — governed hardware design. Today, as processors outrun memory bandwidth, a bottleneck known to engineers as the "memory wall" has become the central constraint of AI performance. High-bandwidth memory, or HBM, is the current answer. Korean companies built it. But the real prize is a comprehensive memory ecosystem spanning DRAM, NAND flash, and next-generation architectures — a prize Korea is uniquely positioned to claim. And yet hardware is not destiny. The uncomfortable truth confronting Korean policymakers is that the country has historically been stronger at manufacturing than at origination, better at refining foreign blueprints than at drawing its own. The software platforms that capture the value generated by AI — the operating systems, the foundation models, the application ecosystems — remain overwhelmingly American. Korea builds the picks and shovels of the AI gold rush. It has not yet staked a claim of its own. What could change that calculus? The answer, increasingly, lies in what technologists call physical AI: the fusion of machine intelligence with the material world. Robots, autonomous vehicles, smart factories, AI-enabled logistics — the digital made tangible. This is terrain where Korea's industrial structure offers a rare advantage. No other nation of comparable size combines deep capabilities in shipbuilding, automotive manufacturing, battery technology, telecommunications, and advanced semiconductors. Korea does not merely participate in these industries; in several, it sets the global standard. The physical AI wave, if Korea positions itself correctly, could be the country's defining contribution to the next industrial order — not merely adopting AI within its factories, but exporting the model of AI-enabled manufacturing to the world. That optimistic scenario requires confronting obstacles that are as much political as technological. Korean universities produce talented engineers, but the country's rigid corporate hierarchies and risk-averse culture have historically struggled to retain the kind of ambitious, iconoclastic talent that builds transformative platforms. Chaebol dominance, for all the efficiency it provided in the catch-up era, may now be a brake on the creative destruction that frontier AI demands. And then there is politics: Korea's democratic system, vibrant and combative, has produced policy gridlock at precisely the moment when the country needs a coherent, long-horizon national AI strategy. The window is not indefinite. The United States and China are moving fast; Korea's structural advantages will erode if they are not converted into ecosystem leadership within this decade. History is not indifferent to preparation. The industrial revolution rewarded the nations that had done the institutional groundwork — the property rights, the capital markets, the engineering education — before steam power arrived. The information revolution rewarded those that had built the network infrastructure and the legal frameworks for venture capital. The AI revolution will be no different. South Korea has pulled off three modern miracles: industrialization, democratization, and the information economy, each transforming the country within a generation. The fourth — becoming not just a supplier to the AI age but an architect of it — is harder precisely because it cannot be achieved through the survival mind alone. It requires a different kind of ambition: the willingness to define standards rather than meet them, to export ideas rather than components, to compete not at the bottom of the value chain but at its very top. Korea's time has not run out. But the clock, for perhaps the first time in its modern history, is running faster than the country's famous urgency can match. 2026-05-30 09:28:42
The world is getting thinner on a needle, and Korea wants in SEOUL, May 29 (AJP) - South Korean companies have a knack for catching up — and then overtaking. Their latest target is a class of drugs first designed to manage blood sugar that has since become the most coveted weight-loss tool on the planet, reshaping pharmacy shelves, celebrity bodies, and the business model of personal trainers everywhere. The drugs, known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, mimic a gut hormone that curbs appetite and slows digestion. Marketed by Denmark's Novo Nordisk as Wegovy and by Eli Lilly as Mounjaro and Zepbound, they have delivered double-digit weight loss in clinical trials and turned obesity treatment into one of the most lucrative frontiers in modern medicine. The numbers are staggering. Mounjaro and Zepbound together accounted for nearly 56 percent of Eli Lilly's $65.2 billion in revenue in 2025. Novo Nordisk's diabetes and obesity segment generated roughly $44 billion. Lilly's CEO has said 20 to 25 million patients are now on the two companies' drugs. What began as a medical breakthrough has long since spilled into popular culture. In Korea, interest in Wegovy surged after Bang Si-hyuk — the once-portly chairman of K-pop powerhouse HYBE — appeared markedly slimmer in public, reportedly with the drug's help. Overseas, a parade of slimmed-down celebrities has fueled a social-media frenzy that critics say glamorizes a dangerous thinness. The hype has outrun both the supply chains and, at times, the science. Studies show the drugs must be taken indefinitely to keep weight off; research published this year found that patients who quit regain weight up to four times faster than those who stop conventional dieting. Researchers are still mapping the fuller picture. Large observational analyses have linked semaglutide to sharply lower rates of Alzheimer's diagnosis — but the first major Phase III trials, reported in March, found that an oral form of the drug did not slow the disease's progression. A separate concern, that the drugs strip muscle along with fat, has driven much of the current innovation race. More recent studies temper the alarm, suggesting the apparent loss comes largely from liver and other tissue rather than skeletal muscle, and that strength is mostly preserved. The side effects, though, are real. Korean regulators have logged cases of acute pancreatitis, gallbladder disease, and kidney failure among Wegovy users, alongside prescriptions wrongly issued to children and pregnant women. Cost has divided the world into haves and have-nots. In the United States, list prices have topped $1,000 a month, pushing some patients to buy abroad. In China, Wegovy launched at around $193. Indian generics — available after patents lapsed there — have appeared for as little as $14. Korea sits somewhere in between. Wegovy is not covered by national health insurance, leaving patients to pay 400,000 to 800,000 won (roughly $290 to $580) per four-week pen, though a price war touched off by Mounjaro's arrival has since pushed some clinics lower. That gap, combined with easy access through clinics and telemedicine apps, has bred misuse: prescriptions have flowed from psychiatry, dentistry, and ophthalmology offices. On Wednesday the country's drug-safety ministry said it would tighten controls on overseas purchases and customs clearance, citing a surge in purely cosmetic use. It is into this turbulent, fast-globalizing market that Korean firms are pressing their case — not as pioneers, but as fast followers betting on better formats and lower prices. The local push rests on three ideas: pills for the needle-averse, longer-lasting injections, and drugs that spare muscle. A 2025 survey across 21 countries found 62 percent of respondents preferred oral weight-loss drugs over injectables, which drew only 16 percent. Hanmi Pharmaceutical said Wednesday it will present eight studies on two obesity candidates at the American Diabetes Association meeting in New Orleans next week, including the first disclosure of HM500197, a peptide designed to build muscle while cutting fat. Celltrion said Friday it had begun primate toxicity testing of CT-G32, a drug acting on four biological targets simultaneously, with a regulatory filing planned for the first half of next year and an oral version targeted for 2028. Samsung has joined the race too, with Samsung Bioepis striking a March deal to develop a monthly version of semaglutide and Samsung Biologics weighing U.S. manufacturing plants. Because the drugs' full range of effects remains uncharted, researchers are probing where else they might reach. At the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, scientists are studying GLP-1's potential as an anti-aging therapy. "Both Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly spoke at an international aging conference last year about developing GLP-1 as an anti-aging treatment," said Oh Doo-byoung, head of the institute's Aging Research Institute. "Many experts believe obesity drives aging by triggering inflammation, and there is an idea that GLP-1 could counter that — and even help reverse aging, though nothing is settled yet." Oh added that his institute is exploring exercise-mimicking drugs to see how they might help older people losing muscle mass. "There are honestly so many indications that some call it a cure-all," he said. "If an anti-aging drug is developed, it too could likely be used across a wide range of conditions." 2026-05-29 16:08:57
Hyundai robot Atlas masters rabona kick SEOUL, May 29 (AJP) - Hyundai Motor Group has unveiled a marketing campaign showcasing the football skills of Atlas, the humanoid robot developed by its U.S. robotics unit Boston Dynamics, in a fresh demonstration of the company's push into physical artificial intelligence. As a partner of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, to be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, the automaker released a five-part "School of Football" series on its official YouTube channel, the company said Thursday. The films show Atlas dribbling, passing and shooting with apparent ease. In the clips, the robot pulls off a rabona — a flourish in which the kicking leg is wrapped behind the standing leg — and even lands a "ghost rabona," adding a feint to deceive a defender. To master the moves, Atlas modeled motion data from professional players and refined its technique through reinforcement learning. Hyundai said the campaign demonstrated its capabilities in AI-driven reinforcement learning, precise mimicry of human movement and hardware control. The launch film, three training videos, and its final reveal video released through Friday on the group’s YouTube channel drew a combined around 48,600 views in their first five days. "Through football, we have shown the world the future of robotics," said Jee Sung-won, head of Hyundai's brand marketing division, adding that the company plans to build varied brand experiences around mobility and robotics. The campaign comes as Hyundai Motor Group prepares to put Atlas to industrial work. The group has said it intends to deploy more than 25,000 of the robots across Hyundai and Kia plants, beginning with parts-sequencing tasks at its Metaplant America facility in Savannah, Georgia, from 2028, as part of a broader bet on humanoid automation. 2026-05-29 14:38:03
Celltrion begins primate trials for quad-target obesity drug SEOUL, May 29 (AJP) - Celltrion has kicked off primate toxicity trials for its next-generation obesity drug candidate CT-G32, moving the compound into the final stretch of preclinical development ahead of a planned investigational new drug (IND) submission in the first half of 2026. CT-G32 simultaneously targets four biological pathways, including GLP-1, making it what Celltrion describes as a potential first-in-class therapy. The company said the drug is designed to address persistent shortcomings of existing GLP-1 treatments — including inter-patient variability in weight loss, muscle loss, and durability — while maximizing fat reduction. The ongoing toxicity study covers 252 rats and 48 monkeys to assess the compound's safety profile and establish appropriate clinical dosing ranges. Celltrion said it will also evaluate CT-G32's pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties alongside the toxicity assessments. In earlier preclinical work, CT-G32 demonstrated superior weight loss compared to a reference compound at equivalent doses, while preserving lean body mass — a key differentiator in a market increasingly focused on muscle retention during treatment. "CT-G32 is being developed as a next-generation drug that addresses the limitations of existing GLP-1-based therapies and extends beyond obesity to cover metabolic diseases," said a Celltrion spokesperson. The company is also developing an oral obesity drug in parallel, targeting an IND filing in the second half of 2028. 2026-05-29 09:56:51
FuriosaAI taps Broadcom to build third-generation AI inference chip SEOUL, May 28 (AJP) - South Korean artificial intelligence chip designer FuriosaAI said it had forged a strategic partnership with U.S. semiconductor giant Broadcom to co-develop a next-generation AI inference platform, deepening a homegrown bid to challenge the dominance of established players in the booming market for AI silicon. According to the neural processing unit maker on Thursday, the two companies will evolve FuriosaAI's proprietary tensor contraction processor architecture into a multi-die chiplet system, building an engine tuned for the high-volume token processing that global hyperscale data centers increasingly demand. The collaboration builds on FuriosaAI's second-generation accelerator, RNGD, a 180-watt PCIe chip now in mass production. Fabricated on TSMC's 5-nanometer process and paired with SK hynix HBM3 memory, the accelerator is optimized for large language models and agentic AI workloads, and has already been validated in production at customers including Samsung SDS and LG AI Research. The third-generation accelerator will carry a 2-nanometer compute die and HBM4/4E memory, drawing on Broadcom's advanced packaging to fuse multiple silicon dies into a single high-performance chip. The two firms plan to begin sampling the chip in the first half of 2028, as surging demand for agentic AI pushes inference workloads to outpace the training tasks that first fueled the generative AI boom. 2026-05-28 15:57:59