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
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KOTRA forms task force to seize Middle East rebuilding, export openings SEOUL, June 23 (AJP) - South Korea's state trade promotion agency is mobilizing to help domestic firms recover exports and stake out early positions in Middle East reconstruction markets, betting that a fragile US-Iran ceasefire will reopen commercial doors across the region. The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, known as KOTRA, said it convened an emergency review meeting on Tuesday chaired by president Kang Kyung-sung to map its response to the truce between Washington and Tehran. Heads of 13 trade offices across the Middle East joined by video link to brief headquarters on conditions on the ground, weighing a swift response to the normalization of Hormuz shipping lanes, an early revival of exports to the region and the hunt for promising postwar markets. KOTRA said it would throw its weight behind exports of defense goods, consumer products and medical devices. On defense, it plans consultation sessions with state-owned arms makers and government bodies in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Oman, while courting investment as demand grows to localize maintenance, repair and overhaul work. The agency also launched a "post-Middle East" task force running five divisions covering trend analysis, export recovery, reconstruction infrastructure, promising exports and logistics. It said it would expand "Team Korea" public-private ventures to bid on digital infrastructure and energy-security projects, and prepare seminars on Iran's potential opening should US sanctions ease. "We will deploy a swift and precise strategy centered on entry footholds and promising items, so that companies can not only restore their Middle East exports but also seize fresh opportunities," said Kang. 2026-06-23 16:50:14 -
Homeplus pays April, May wages as Express sale proceeds SEOUL, June 23 (AJP) - Homeplus, the South Korean hypermarket chain mired in court-led rehabilitation, paid its long-overdue April and May wages, drawing on funds widely believed to have come from the sale of its supermarket unit. Industry reports say the cash-strapped retailer disbursed the unpaid 75 percent of April salaries along with full May wages and shutdown allowances to all employees on Tuesday morning. The company declined to identify the source of the funds, though proceeds from the Homeplus Express sale, settled in full the previous day, are presumed to have been tapped. June wages, however, remain unpaid. Homeplus pays salaries on the 21st of each month, meaning the payment due last Friday has yet to be made, leaving workers in continued limbo. Homeplus filed for court receivership in March last year to pursue restructuring and has spent more than a year under legal administration. Having offloaded its Express supermarket arm, the company has launched a pre-approval merger and acquisition process for its remaining operations, yet it continues to struggle to raise the 200 billion won ($129.9 million) required to carry out its rehabilitation plan. The retailer has asked its largest creditor, Meritz Financial Group, for a 200 billion won debtor-in-possession loan, but talks remain deadlocked as Meritz demands conditions including a personal guarantee from MBK Partners chairman Michael Kim. 2026-06-23 15:32:24 -
LG Chem to invest $9.7 billion in R&D for AI-driven materials shift SEOUL, June 23 (AJP) - LG Chem will pour 15 trillion won ($9.75 billion) into research and development through 2035 as South Korea's largest chemical maker pivots toward high-value, AI-driven materials. Chief executive Kim Dong-chun told a town hall meeting on Monday that the company would cultivate semiconductor, mobility and robotics materials, along with cancer drugs, as its core future businesses, sharpening a portfolio long anchored in commodity chemicals. The strategy comes as global oversupply and intensifying competition erode margins across the traditional petrochemical industry, pushing producers toward faster-growing, higher-margin sectors. LG Chem aims to reach a double-digit operating margin by 2030. About 70 percent of the R&D budget will flow to the targeted growth businesses, with the company concentrating on AI-based applications and frontier technologies. LG Chem said it had set up a new business-development unit reporting directly to the CEO in June and would pursue mergers and acquisitions to accelerate expansion. In semiconductors, the company plans to deepen its advanced-packaging lineup and grow electronic-materials revenue to 2 trillion won by 2030, while extending its mobility reach into robot structural and precision-bonding materials. It also intends to strengthen its cancer-drug pipeline through global trials, licensing and partnerships. "LG Chem will leap forward into a technology-strong converting company," Kim said, vowing to focus capabilities on a growth axis centered on semiconductor, mobility and robotics materials and cancer drugs. 2026-06-23 10:57:11 -
World-OKTA readies 2026 Korea-China trade expo in Shenzhen SEOUL, June 23 (AJP) - The World Federation of Overseas Korean Traders Associations (World-OKTA) has formally launched an organizing committee for the 2026 Korea-China economic and trade exchange expo, opening preparations for the October event in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. The federation said Tuesday it held an inaugural ceremony for the committee in Beijing on June 21, aiming to recruit exhibitors, build local cooperation channels, match buyers and steer on-the-ground operations for the fair. The expo will run on Oct. 9 and 10 at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center, alongside the 30th World Korean Business Convention from Oct. 8 to 11. World-OKTA expects about 6,000 participants, including government officials from both countries, exporters, member companies and overseas buyers. World-OKTA is positioning the fair as a platform linking competitive Korean firms with the Chinese market and global buyers, weaving together exhibitions, export consultations, investment talks and networking. It is targeting participation from some 750 companies and institutions and the recruitment of about 2,000 buyers. "This expo will go beyond a mere exhibition to become a genuine arena of economic cooperation connecting Korea's leading firms, the Chinese market and global buyers," said Park Jong-bum, chairman of World-OKTA. 2026-06-23 10:32:11 -
Nexon launches $162 million fund for early-stage game studios SEOUL, June 23 (AJP) - Nexon is rolling out a five-year, 250 billion won ($162.2 million) investment program aimed at seeding early-stage game developers, moving to fill what it described as a widening capital gap in South Korea's domestic gaming market. The South Korean game maker said Tuesday it would channel money into studios at the seed and Series A stages, pairing large-scale private capital with government policy funds in a public-private structure designed to revive faltering investor appetite for fledgling developers. To run the effort, Nexon has established a dedicated unit, Nexon Partners, which joined forces with games-focused venture firm Kona Venture Partners to launch a 120 billion won strategic fund. The fund draws 60 billion won from the Culture Ministry's intellectual-property mother fund, while Nexon will separately inject about 130 billion won to bankroll follow-on growth. The program adopts an open-ecosystem model, extending capital even to titles Nexon does not publish itself, and stretches the definition of a game to embrace broader IP such as "gamified AI." Investment targets include studios building globally scalable IP and next-generation games powered by emerging technologies. "In this market environment, we will resolve the early-stage funding gap through public-private cooperation and operate this as a long-term ecosystem investment program that uncovers the next generation of global IP born out of the AI transition," said Lee Jung-hun, chief executive of Nexon Partners. 2026-06-23 08:52:31 -
Samsung, Lotte vie for CDMO supremacy as K-bio storms BIO USA SEOUL, June 22 (AJP) - South Korean chips are not the only hot-selling commodities in the United States. Biopharmaceutical heavyweights have descended on the Pacific coast city of San Diego, turning the world's largest biotech gathering into a proving ground for the country's fast-expanding contract manufacturing ambitions. The 2026 BIO International Convention, known as BIO USA, runs from Monday through Thursday at the San Diego Convention Center under the theme "Driven by Purpose," drawing some 20,000 industry figures from more than 70 countries. For the first time, the event features a dedicated session on Korea's bioindustry, titled "Korea Rising: Don't Be Late to Asia's Next Innovation Hub," underscoring the sector's growing global standing. The Korea Pavilion, run for a 23rd year by the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization, hosts 51 domestic firms and institutions, with 29 set to present pipelines and platform technologies on an open stage. "BIO USA is a festival and a battleground where investment and partnering in the global bioindustry unfold most dynamically," said Lee Seung-gyu, vice chairman of the association. "This year we have significantly strengthened our linked programs, including an integrated Korea Night, and we will provide all-out support so that Korean firms can generate tangible business results with global big pharma and investors." Yet the fiercest contest on the show floor is a domestic one: a race between Samsung Biologics, the established titan, and Lotte Biologics, the upstart challenger, to win a larger share of a post-China manufacturing order. The timing may be unusually favorable. Washington's effort to reshape supply chains away from China has handed Korean contract development and manufacturing organizations, or CDMOs, a rare opening. The U.S. Biosecure Act, enacted in December, alongside Section 232 tariff measures and a push to expand biosimilars through pharmacy-benefit reforms, is expected to redirect business toward suppliers in South Korea, Japan and India. Samsung Biologics arrives as the clear front-runner. The company is staging a solo booth for a 14th consecutive year, the only Korean company to have done so since its founding in 2011. Samsung is leveraging its growing global footprint to appeal to multinational drugmakers seeking to diversify production beyond a single geography. In December, it agreed to acquire a biologics plant in Rockville, Maryland, from GlaxoSmithKline for about $280 million, securing its first U.S. manufacturing base. The acquisition was completed in the first quarter. The strategy is already paying off. Samsung Biologics booked a record 6.8 trillion won ($4.4 billion) in new orders last year and now counts 17 of the world's 20 largest pharmaceutical companies among its clients. James Choi, executive vice president, is slated to appear as a panelist in the Korea Rising session, while Jeff Mason, sales director for the Americas, will discuss the company's manufacturing capabilities in an on-site presentation. For Celltrion, attending for a 17th consecutive year, the focus is artificial intelligence. The company secured a booth in the event's AI zone to showcase AI-driven drug discovery, multispecific antibody design and antibody-drug conjugate technologies. "Through this event, Celltrion plans to actively promote its future business vision and technological competitiveness as it grows beyond biosimilars into a global innovative-drug company," a company spokesperson said. If Samsung represents Korean CDMO at its most muscular, Lotte Biologics embodies its boldest gamble. The unit has emerged as a new growth engine for Lotte Group as the retail-heavy conglomerate grapples with liquidity strains elsewhere in its empire, a high-stakes bet on a future built around biologics. The symbolism runs deep. In a November reshuffle, Shin Yoo-yeol, the eldest son of Chairman Shin Dong-bin, was named co-chief executive alongside James Park, taking direct command of a domestic affiliate for the first time. Park himself is a Samsung Biologics veteran who previously led global sales at the larger rival. Lotte has also recruited several former Samsung executives in an effort to import the market leader's playbook. The challenger arrives at BIO USA with fresh evidence of progress. On Monday, Lotte announced it had obtained occupancy approval for the first plant at its Songdo Bio Campus in Incheon, completing the main construction roughly two years after breaking ground. The 120,000-liter antibody facility, equipped with eight 15,000-liter stainless-steel bioreactors and a real-time monitoring system, will begin commissioning and validation work in the second half of the year. Lotte is pursuing a "dual-site" strategy that links the Songdo campus with its Syracuse facility in New York, with Syracuse handling early-stage and clinical work and Songdo dedicated to large-scale commercial production. That strategy is beginning to gain traction. Lotte signed three contracts last year and added more in 2026, including a January deal with Japan's Rakuten Medical to produce a head-and-neck cancer therapy and a May agreement expanding antibody production work for Britain's Ottimo Pharma. Still, the stakes are considerable. Lotte Biologics remains in the red, and utilization at its lone revenue-generating Syracuse plant fell to about 14 percent in the first quarter from 74 percent a year earlier after a key customer contract expired. Winning marquee orders has become both a corporate imperative and a personal test for Shin, whose standing as heir apparent is increasingly tied to the venture's fortunes. Samsung, for its part, is positioning itself as the partner of choice in a reordered market, arguing that speed and scale will prove decisive as pharmaceutical companies diversify away from Chinese suppliers. For now, the two Korean firms are chasing the same prize from opposite ends of the field — one defending a hard-won lead, the other scrambling to close the gap. 2026-06-22 15:36:00 -
Kakao Games names co-CEOs as LY takeover takes hold SEOUL, June 22 (AJP) - Kakao Games installed a co-chief executive structure, appointing Line Games veteran Kim Tae-hwan and company insider Lee Si-woo to steer the games publisher into a new chapter under its Japanese backer. The appointments, ratified at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting at the Kakao AI Campus in Yongin, south of Seoul, follow the firm's acquisition by a special purpose vehicle funded by LY, or Line Yahoo, the operator of the Line messenger. Kim spent years at Nexon, holding senior strategy and business-development roles across its Korean, Japanese and U.S. arms before joining Line Games in 2023. He will oversee long-term strategy, global expansion and mergers. Lee, a founding-era executive, will run live-service operations, new releases and the firm's intellectual-property portfolio. "Aggressive investment and innovation are essential to compete in a fiercely contested global market," Kim said, pledging to harness the company's strengthened capital base to accelerate overseas growth. LY's investment vehicle, LAAA Investment, became the largest shareholder last week with a 33.43 percent stake, after injecting about 300 billion won ($194.9 million) through a share purchase, a rights offering and convertible bonds. The company's chief financial officer damped speculation of a full merger with Line Games, saying no decision had been made, though he flagged room for business cooperation and signaled a push into Southeast Asia using Line's regional platform. The shake-up unseats former chief executive Han Sang-woo, who departs after roughly two years. A minority shareholders' group used the meeting to demand a clearer return policy and the disclosure of launch dates for key upcoming titles, including Odin Q: Valkyrie's Call and ArcheAge Chronicles. Kakao Games separately named Sungkyunkwan University professor Lim Tay-seop as an outside director and Petrichor Partners executive Seo Seok-ho as a non-executive director. 2026-06-22 12:54:49 -
AI hiring spreads across South Korean industries SEOUL, June 22 (AJP) - Job postings seeking artificial intelligence skills in South Korea have surged about 70 percent so far this year, a sign that demand for AI talent is spilling well beyond the technology sector into nearly every corner of the economy, according to recruitment platform Jobkorea. About 15,000 postings carrying the keyword "AI" were registered between January and May, a record high and seven times the 10 percent growth in overall job listings during the same period, the platform's operator Worxphere said on Monday. Demand was especially pronounced among entry-level roles, where AI-related postings climbed about 80 percent from a year earlier, suggesting employers are racing to secure not only experienced hires but also a future pipeline of talent. AI postings rose in 10 of 11 industries surveyed, led by education with a 154 percent jump in media and advertising and a 139 percent rise in culture, arts and design. Healthcare and pharmaceuticals followed, underscoring how far the hiring drive has reached beyond software firms. "The biggest feature of this year's job market is that, unlike in the past, demand for AI talent is no longer confined to specific industries but has spread across all sectors," a JobKorea official said. The wave marks a second growth spurt since generative AI first entered the mainstream four years ago, with major employers including Samsung Electronics and SK hynix now competing aggressively to recruit AI and data specialists. 2026-06-22 10:47:10 -
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 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