Journalist
Kim Dong-young김동영
davekim0807@ajupress.com
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."
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
-
Krafton studio Flyway Games launches action roguelike 'Ascend to Zero' SEOUL, July 14 (AJP) - Krafton's creative studio Flyway Games launched its new action roguelike "Ascend to Zero" worldwide, releasing the title simultaneously as an Xbox Game Pass day-one offering. The game went live at Monday 4 p.m. Korea time across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Xbox Cloud Gaming, the ROG Xbox Ally and Steam. Game Pass subscribers can play it at no additional cost. "Ascend to Zero" casts players as a fighter who wields the power to freeze time, battling swarms of enemies while assembling abilities and combat styles across repeated runs. The time-stop mechanic doubles as the game's central hook, rewarding aggression over caution. The title sells for 13,000 won ($8.69) in South Korea. Alongside the base game, Flyway released a "Supporter Pack" downloadable content bundle featuring golden skins for six avatars, an official soundtrack and a discounted deluxe edition combining the game and all DLC. As of Tuesday, the game is rated "Very Positive" on Steam, 95 percent of user reviews remaining positive. 2026-07-14 10:01:53 -
South Korea to steer record tax revenue into AI, physical AI push SEOUL, July 13 (AJP) - South Korea will channel its largest-ever projected tax revenue into a new future-response fund, pouring resources into three mega-projects led by artificial intelligence. Deputy Prime Minister Bae Kyung-hoon, who also serves as science and ICT minister, positioned physical AI as the country's next growth engine, pledging to "export Korea's factories to the world" on the back of a homegrown, full-stack platform. Speaking at the 2026 national fiscal strategy meeting chaired by President Lee Jae Myung at the Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Monday, Bae called the current race to secure a general-purpose physical AI platform "the golden time to marshal national capabilities." The government expects 2027 national tax revenue to top 500 trillion won ($332.6 billion), far above the earlier forecast of 412 trillion won. The windfall will seed a fund targeting youth, growth engines, regional development and talent, with semiconductors, AI data centers and physical AI taking top priority. Bae described AI data centers as the core infrastructure that mints the "production tokens" powering AI services, and said the ministry aims to secure 8.4 gigawatts of capacity by 2029 and 18.4 GW by 2035. Projects are already confirmed in Sejong, Donghae and Ulsan, with three to four more sites under review. Citing Morgan Stanley, Bae said physical AI represents a potential market of $60 trillion, about half of current global gross domestic product, and would spread beyond factory robots into defense, logistics, agriculture, caregiving and household chores. "The nation that seizes the general-purpose platform will lead future industrial competitiveness," Bae said, adding that the government would run three public-private bodies as "one team" to keep the mega-projects on track. 2026-07-13 15:45:00 -
Lotte Wellfood's India unit posts 28% first-half sales growth SEOUL, July 13 (AJP) - Lotte Wellfood announced that first-half sales at its Indian subsidiary, Lotte India, climbed about 28 percent from a year earlier, as the company marked the first anniversary of merging its confectionery and ice cream operations there. According to the firm on Monday, India's ice cream division led the gains with 29 percent growth, driven by expanded supply from a new plant in Pune, Maharashtra, which began full-scale operations in February last year. Anchored by the Pune facility, the company broadened its rollout of Korean ice cream brands, including Dwaeji-bar, sold locally as Krunch, and Jawsbar, marketed under the name Shark. The confectionery arm grew 26 percent over the same period, a rise the company attributed to an aggressive push into traditional trade, the small neighborhood shops that dominate India's retail landscape. Lotte India plans to press ahead with integrating its southern, northern and western operations to maximize efficiency and lift profitability, targeting annual revenue of 1 trillion won by 2032. 2026-07-13 15:09:57 -
Batteries, hydrogen vie for future of freight SEOUL, July 13 (AJP) - The clean-energy contest that upended the passenger car is now rolling into the world's freight lanes, where a single winning technology is proving far harder to crown. Global automakers spent the past decade racing to electrify the family car. That race is largely settled: battery power won. The next front is the heavy truck, and here the map is messier, split between the battery cells that conquered the driveway and the hydrogen fuel cells betting on the long haul. Tesla and China's BYD are pressing the battery case. Hyundai Motor Company is pushing hydrogen. Unlike the passenger market, which consolidated around battery-electric cars, the commercial segment is fracturing along the lines of route, payload and duty cycle, with rival technologies settling into the niches that suit them. The backdrop is a passenger market that has already tipped. In South Korea, eco-friendly vehicles — hybrid, electric and hydrogen combined —accounted for 50.4 percent of new registrations in the first half of 2026, the first time the green share has cleared half a year, according to data researcher CarIsYou Data Research Center based on transport ministry records. Battery-electric registrations alone jumped 112.6 percent from a year earlier. The shift is global, as worldwide electric car sales are set to reach 23 million this year, close to 30 percent of all cars sold, the International Energy Agency said in May, up from a fifth of the market a year earlier. "Electric car sales set new records in close to 100 countries last year. The growing popularity of EVs has marked a major shift for car markets and the energy system as a whole – and it is providing some relief now amid the largest oil supply shock in history," said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol. Freight is where the picture splinters. Tesla began high-volume output of its Class-8 Semi at a dedicated Nevada plant in the second quarter, targeting 50,000 units a year. The long-range version carries an 822-kilowatt-hour pack good for over 800 kilometers on a charge, the company says—economics aimed squarely at North American line-haul fleets. BYD is widening its own battery-truck push with its 8TT, first shown in 2018 as one of the heaviest Class-8 electric tractors on the U.S. market, has hauled containers around California's ports, though its roughly 320-kilometer range keeps it closest to shorter, repeatable runs. Meanwhile, Hyundai has taken the other road. The South Korean maker rolled out the world's first mass-produced hydrogen heavy truck, the Xcient, in 2020. With a range up to around 720 kilometers per charge, the truck has made it into Switzerland, Germany, the U.S. and Canada. In March, Hyundai shipped eight Xcient trucks to Uruguay to haul timber for the Kahirós green-logistics project—Latin America's first commercial deployment of hydrogen trucks, not a demonstration. "We will help decarbonize a critical part of the paper production value chain and demonstrate to the world that we can take action for a better future starting now," said Airton Cousseau, head of Hyundai Motor's Central and South America region, in a company statement. Analysts see the freight market splitting rather than consolidating. SNE Research, an energy market researcher, said the growth axis for hydrogen vehicles is moving away from passenger cars toward medium and heavy commercial trucks, long-haul freight, buses and port operations. It added that hydrogen is likely to complement battery power in long-distance, high-tonnage, high-utilization work rather than compete with it head-on. That leaves battery and hydrogen trucks advancing in parallel, each leaning on its strengths, with no single technology poised to reshape the segment the way batteries reshaped the car. For now, the freight lane belongs to no one. Where the passenger market picked a winner, the truck market looks set to keep several in play at once. 2026-07-13 13:57:26 -
Global EV separator installations rise 21% in Jan-May as China tightens grip SEOUL, July 13 (AJP) - Global installations of battery separators for electric vehicles climbed more than 20 percent in the first five months of the year, with Chinese suppliers extending their dominance over the market. According to market researcher SNE Research on Monday, separator installations in pure-electric, plug-in hybrid and hybrid vehicles registered worldwide reached about 7.49 billion square meters in the January to May period, a 20.7 percent increase from a year earlier. Excluding China, installations rose a steeper 38.7 percent to about 2.61 billion square meters, pointing to a recovery in demand outside the world's largest EV market. A critical component that governs the safety, output and lifespan of lithium-ion cells, the separator has seen demand swell as EV adoption widens and automakers pack higher-energy-density cells into their vehicles. China's Semcorp held onto the top spot with about 2.21 billion square meters, up 15 percent on the year, while compatriots Senior and Sinoma grew 19 percent and 15 percent respectively. Fourth-ranked Gellec surged 72 percent, whereas Korea's SKIET slid 13 percent. Chinese firms commanded 89.6 percent of the market in the first quarter, up three percentage points from a year earlier, as Japanese suppliers slipped to 6.7 percent and Korean players to 3.7 percent. 2026-07-13 11:01:38 -
Homeplus set for bankruptcy filing as rehabilitation collapses SEOUL, July 13 (AJP) - Homeplus is expected to begin shutting stores this week and file for bankruptcy, moving into effective liquidation after a court ended its rehabilitation proceedings on July 3. With emergency operating funds all but out of reach and any chance of recovery fading, the focus has shifted to an orderly wind-down that limits harm to suppliers, employees and in-store tenants of South Korea's second-largest hypermarket chain. The retailer is weighing a phased halt to operations at some stores as early as this week, sources say, as dwindling facilities staff raise safety concerns and operating cash runs dry, leaving normal trading increasingly untenable. Weekend half-price sales on liquor and other stock drew shoppers long enough to form checkout queues, but the surge did little to change a company on the cusp of collapse. The appeal window runs through July 20, but the industry expects Homeplus to petition the court by July 16 at the latest, pursuing a rehabilitation-linked "affiliated bankruptcy" rather than an ordinary filing to blunt wider disruption. Affiliated bankruptcy preserves the priority of public-interest claims accrued during rehabilitation, whereas a separate ordinary filing after the termination becomes final could unsettle their legal standing and repayment. Homeplus' public-interest claims are estimated at about 1 trillion won ($677 million), much of it unpaid supplier bills and back wages. Beyond real estate pledged to Meritz-led creditors, Homeplus is understood to hold almost no cash assets, setting up a fierce contest among suppliers, tenants and junior creditors over a shrinking pool. Homeplus filed for rehabilitation in March last year and sought liquidity through the sale of its Express arm, but failed to offload the main business or raise fresh capital, leaving creditor recovery likely to drag on for a considerable time. 2026-07-13 09:27:50 -
Samsung SDI cells win two-thirds of Korea's first AI-powered grid ESS project SEOUL, July 10 (AJP) - Batteries made by Samsung SDI have been selected for the majority of South Korea's first government-backed program to build artificial-intelligence-powered energy storage systems along regional distribution lines. Six of the nine operators chosen for the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment's 2026 AI-based ESS deployment project will use Samsung SDI cells, industry sources said Friday. One operator opted for LG Energy Solution cells and two turned to SK On. Measured by capacity, consortia paired with Samsung SDI captured about 66 percent of the awarded volume. Those aligned with LG Energy Solution and SK On accounted for 22 percent and 12 percent, respectively. The project installs storage systems on lines carrying renewable power and leans on AI to run them efficiently, easing chronic grid congestion in the sun-drenched southwestern provinces where solar output has outstripped existing capacity. Samsung SDI plans to supply its all-in-one "SBB 1.5" solution, a 20-foot container packing high-nickel NCA prismatic cells, modules, racks and safety gear that plugs straight into the grid. LG Energy Solution, though supplying fewer cells, emerged as a marquee operator, teaming with Shinhan Asset Management to graduate from battery vendor to virtual power plant player. The company locked in the maximum allotment available to a single operator—seven distribution lines totaling 140 megawatt-hours—and said its AI forecasting and VPP platform would newly connect 40 megawatts of stranded solar capacity, absorbing an extra 52.4 gigawatt-hours of renewable power a year. 2026-07-10 16:00:38 -
POSCO ties up with Mongolia in about $100 mln energy push SEOUL, July 10 (AJP) - POSCO International signed a memorandum of understanding with Newcom LLC, a leading Mongolian energy and infrastructure firm, to jointly develop energy projects worth about $100 million. The South Korean trading arm of POSCO Group said the deal, sealed in Ulaanbaatar on Thursday during President Lee Jae Myung's state visit, marks the group's bid to plant a foothold in Central Asia's energy market as it broadens beyond steel and batteries. Under the agreement, the two firms will build a district-heating business anchored on heat pumps, capturing waste heat from the cooling water of the Ulaanbaatar CHP-4 power plant and converting it into heating supply. POSCO International will oversee development, project financing and engineering, while Newcom handles local investment, permits and site securing. "Drawing on our heat-pump, renewable and energy-storage technologies, the government will firmly back Korean firms entering the eco-friendly energy market," Climate Minister Kim Sung-hwan said, pledging support for the transition. POSCO International said it would expand into follow-on renewable ventures with Newcom, including onshore wind, to seize an early position in the market emerging from Mongolia's energy transition. 2026-07-10 11:14:03 -
Hanwha QCells builds one of largest US renewable complexes SEOUL, July 10 (AJP) - Hanwha Solutions' QCells division has completed engineering, procurement and construction work on part of the Atlas Energy Park in Arizona, one of the largest renewable energy projects ever undertaken in the United States, and recently sold some of the assets. Located in La Paz County, the complex will comprise 14 solar and energy storage projects, with 2.8 gigawatts of solar generation and 5.7 gigawatt-hours of storage capacity due to come online by 2028. Spanning about 63.66 square kilometers, roughly 22 times the size of Seoul's Yeouido district, it ranks among the biggest renewable developments in the country. QCells will handle the EPC for every project in the park and supply all modules for the solar installations. Two solar plants totaling 357 megawatts, which the company developed and built in-house, were sold in May. Active in the US solar and storage EPC market since 2017, QCells has completed or is pursuing North American projects exceeding 11 gigawatts of solar and 6 gigawatt-hours of storage as of 2026. The company plans to expand further to meet surging demand driven by the spread of artificial intelligence data centers. "Atlas Energy Park is a symbolic project that once again proves Qcells' EPC capabilities, our local US supply chain and our comprehensive expertise spanning development, construction and asset sales," said Chris Hodrick, head of QCells' EPC business division. 2026-07-10 09:35:02 -
Naver poised to challenge Coupang on its specialty turf: logistics SEOUL, July 09 (AJP) - Naver, a distant No. 2 in South Korea's ecommerce market, is crossing into the one territory long dominated by Coupang as it prepares its first directly operated logistics network, abandoning the asset-light strategy that defined its shopping business for two decades. The move marks a wholesale reversal for the internet giant, which has long relied on outside partners to store, haul and deliver merchants' goods while focusing on search traffic and marketplace technology. According to industry officials, Naver is scouting warehouse sites on both sides of the Han River, weighing land purchases, acquisitions of existing fulfillment centers and long-term leases across the greater Seoul area. The timing is difficult to overlook. Coupang, whose Rocket Delivery service transformed Korean ecommerce and built a logistics moat rivals have struggled to cross, is navigating one of the most challenging periods in its history following the country's largest-ever personal data breach. South Korea's privacy watchdog imposed a record 624.7 billion won ($415.6 million) fine on June 11 after determining that a breach exposed the personal information of more than 33 million accounts—roughly two-thirds of the country's population and nearly all of Coupang's users. "This was not advanced hacking but negligent management," PIPC Chairperson Song Kyung-hee said, citing the company's failure to maintain basic security safeguards. The controversy has also spilled into Washington. Coupang, listed in New York and backed by U.S. investors, spent about $1.79 million on lobbying in the first quarter. A July 1 staff report by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee accused Seoul of discriminating against an American-owned company through excessive regulation and punitive enforcement. Earlier this year, U.S. investors Greenoaks and Altimeter petitioned for a Section 301 trade investigation before withdrawing the request as the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative considered a broader review of South Korea's digital trade practices. More importantly for competitors, the fallout is beginning to show up in business performance. Coupang posted its first monthly decline in domestic sales in eight years last month, suggesting the prolonged controversy may finally be denting consumer momentum. Into that opening steps Naver. For years, the company sought to counter Rocket Delivery without pouring billions into warehouses. It instead built the Naver Fulfillment Alliance in 2020 with CJ Logistics before adding fulfillment startups such as Fassto and Pumgo. Sellers chose logistics partners while Naver supplied the shoppers, shopping algorithms and promised delivery dates. The asset-light model kept costs low and allowed rapid expansion without owning a single warehouse. But as delivery itself became the product, its biggest strength increasingly became its biggest weakness. Shipping cut-off times, inventory placement, returns and delivery quality are ultimately decided on the warehouse floor—and Naver never owned the floor. Coupang did. The ecommerce leader has invested more than 10 trillion won in nine mega fulfillment centers and 227 delivery camps, layering automation onto a nationwide logistics network that competitors have struggled to replicate. Naver now appears to have concluded that algorithms alone are no longer enough. The urgency is also reflected in its own business. Commerce revenue more than tripled to 3.69 trillion won in 2025 from 1.09 trillion won in 2020, lifting the segment's contribution to more than 30 percent of total revenue. Yet investors remain unconvinced. Naver trades at roughly one times book value, suggesting the market assigns little premium to one of Korea's largest internet platforms despite its dominance in search, payments, content and ecommerce. "We are also actively reviewing direct investment models in logistics," Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon said during the company's first-quarter earnings call, adding the company would decide after weighing lower per-delivery costs against the value of logistics data. Industry observers believe the strategy could eventually extend beyond warehouses to the last mile itself, with Naver fielding its own couriers—a counterpart to Coupang's in-house "Coupang Friends." For now, Naver is stopping short of confirming such ambitions. "Expanding logistics is one of our key priorities, and we are reviewing various investment options, but nothing has been finalized. It may not necessarily take the same direct-delivery approach as Coupang," a company spokesperson told AJP. But the strategic direction is unmistakable. For 25 years, Naver believed ecommerce could be won without owning logistics. Now it is preparing to invest in the very infrastructure that made Coupang the country's dominant online retailer. If the plans materialize, they would represent more than a new logistics investment. They would amount to Naver abandoning one of its longest-held strategic assumptions—and taking the fight directly onto Coupang's turf. 2026-07-09 15:16:41