AJU PRESS ASIA FIRST NEWS AGENCY

Journalist

Park Sae-jin
Park Sae-jin박세진
Assistant EditorForeign embassies in Seoul & Geopolitics, Diplomacy, Policy
Experienced journalist and editor at AJU PRESS specializing in multilingual news. I cover international diplomacy, geolpolitics, and policy, consistently delivering highly accurate, compelling reporting for a worldwide audience. "Reporting the facts. Shaping the narrative. Every second counts."
Latest by Park Sae-jin
  • Spiritual Asia (24): Gut, the mountain spirit, the seven stars, and the ancestors
    Spiritual Asia (24): Gut, the mountain spirit, the seven stars, and the ancestors This is the twenty-fourth installment of AJP's Spiritual Asia series, which explores the religious traditions, philosophical ideas and moral foundations that have shaped Asia's civilizations. In this concluding chapter of our three-part journey through Japanese Shinto, we examine how a faith rooted in reverence for nature was transformed into an instrument of the modern state, and how it later returned to everyday life. K-culture re-awakens the spirituality of Korean shamanism Just a few years ago, when the world thought of South Korea, semiconductors, automobiles, and K-pop were the first things to come to mind. But now, interest has gone a step further, extending to Korean history, culture, and even spirituality. The Korean Wave no longer means only popular music and television dramas. An era has arrived in which the Korean people's inner world and symbolic vocabulary, accumulated over thousands of years, are being introduced to global audiences through film, animation, gaming, and the performing arts. One of the most prominent examples of this is K-Pop Demon Hunters. The work is not a simple action fantasy. It is a cultural creation that reinterprets Korean shamanism, folk legends, and traditional symbols in a contemporary idiom, layered over the modern cultural platform of K-pop. Many of its elements carry the additions of creative imagination, but underlying them is a worldview that traces back to Korean shamanism and traditional belief. This is why the work has landed as something fresh for audiences around the world. Korean shamanism has long held that the visible world and the invisible world are not entirely severed from each other. Human beings live within nature, ancestors and descendants remain connected through memory, and life and death are understood to exist within a single vast cycle. The shaman was the figure who bridged that boundary. The gut was the ritual that restored it. K-Pop Demon Hunters moves this traditional worldview into the structure of a contemporary story. The tiger that appears repeatedly within the work is not merely a fierce predator in Korean culture. The tiger is a sacred creature that guards the mountains and a symbol of the protector who repels evil spirits. In folk paintings, the tiger is sometimes depicted with dignity and sometimes with humor, but always as a figure that connects the human and the natural world. This is why the tiger appears beside the mountain spirit in paintings of the sanshin. Koreans received the tiger as both an object of awe and a symbol of justice and courage. These symbolic meanings live on naturally within contemporary creative work. The image of the jeosung saja, the messenger of the underworld, that appears in the work is also distinctly Korean. In Western culture, death is often portrayed as an object of fear, but the Korean jeosung saja is not necessarily an evil being. He is a figure who guides a person whose life has ended along a designated path, and he symbolizes the order that judges the goodness and wrongdoing of human beings. The Korean jeosung saja therefore carries a meaning closer to order and ethics than to terror. The fact that contemporary dramas, films, and animations make frequent use of this image is rooted in this cultural background. Another important figure is the gwisin, the ghost. In Korean culture, a ghost is not simply a monster. In many cases it is understood as a soul carrying han, the distinctly Korean weight of unresolved sorrow, a being who could not have a grievance settled or a love fulfilled. This is why in traditional Korean narrative there are many stories not of simply driving the ghost away but of listening to its story and resolving its resentment. This is the spirit of haewon, the resolution of grievance. In Korean shamanism, the gut is itself a ritual of haewon. Releasing sorrow, soothing resentment, and helping both the living and the dead find their proper place were among the central meanings of the gut. This worldview of haewon runs deep throughout Korean culture as a whole. Pansori and folk songs, mask dances and the gut all sing of sorrow while never abandoning hope in the end. The quality of Korean art in which tears and laughter exist together is connected precisely to this shamanic sensibility. That K-Pop Demon Hunters moved global audiences was not simply because of the action. It is because this distinctly Korean emotional register gave the work its depth. The rituals, talismans, and symbolic patterns that appear within the work can also be seen as elements drawing inspiration from traditional shamanism. Contemporary creative work is, of course, a domain of artistic invention and does not recreate traditional ritual as it stands. But the broad framework, the opposition between good and evil, the connection between the invisible world and the human world, the ritual intended to protect the community, touches the long-standing worldview of Korean shamanism. For global audiences, this arrives as an imagination that is unfamiliar and yet compelling. Today, K-pop is becoming more than a simple music genre. It is becoming a platform that carries Korean culture within it. Hanbok and hanok, jangseung and sotdae, tigers and mountain spirits, the jeosung saja and the philosophy of haewon are all being introduced to the world stage. Culture is the most powerful form of diplomacy, and spirituality is the deepest root of culture, the one that survives the longest. Korean shamanism is no longer a relic of the past but a living cultural heritage being reinterpreted through contemporary creative work and entering into dialogue with the world. In this regard, K-Pop Demon Hunters carries real significance. The work merits attention because it does not consume Korean shamanism as mere superstition but attempts to translate Korean symbols, emotional sensibility, and communal consciousness into a contemporary language. Not every scene faithfully reflects traditional shamanism. But one fact is clear: the ancient spirituality of Korea is finding new life within global popular culture. Korean shamanism has, across many centuries, accompanied the joys and sorrows of people at the boundaries of mountain and field, village and home, life and death. Now that spirituality is meeting the world again through the screens of the digital age. In the past, the gut held the community together as one. Today, cultural content is connecting people across national borders. The times have changed, but the human impulse to seek meaning and find consolation has not. This is why Korean shamanism continues to breathe today, and it is also the fundamental reason K-culture earns the empathy of people around the world. One of the deep roots of the Korean imagination that K-culture is introducing to the world is shamanism. But the essence of shamanism was never in summoning spirits or divining the future. It was the wisdom by which a community learned to live together, a philosophy of daily life that sought to understand nature and humanity, ancestor and descendant, life and death, within a single order. To understand Korean shamanism, then, one must look at the gut, the mountain spirit, the seven stars, the village guardian shrines, and ancestor worship as a single organic world. At the center of shamanism is the gut. Today, when some people hear the word gut they think first of superstition or sorcery, but historically the gut was a communal ritual. When drought struck a village, people gathered to pray for rain together. When disease spread, villagers assembled to pray that the disaster would pass. The gut was also the occasion for praying for a good harvest, for a rich catch from the sea, for peace in the household and health for children. In other words, the gut was a social ritual through which a community confirmed its hopes and comforted one another. In the space of the gut, music and dance and song all come together. The janggu drum, the buk, the kkwaenggwari, and the jing ring out, and the people clap along and take part. This was not simple festivity but a process of healing through which the community shared sorrow and joy alike. Contemporary psychology has produced considerable research showing that music, dance, and collective participation carry therapeutic effects. In this sense, the gut can be understood as a practice of communal healing that Koreans cultivated long ago. Among the presences that cannot be left out of Korean shamanism is the mountain spirit, the sanshin. South Korea is a country whose land is largely composed of mountains. Mountains produce water, grow forests, and hold life within them. The mountain was therefore not simply a geographical feature but the very source of life. The sanshin was the figure who symbolized that order of life. The reason that ancient temples across the country have a sanshin shrine is that after Buddhism arrived in Korea it came to harmonize with indigenous belief. Buddhism did not reject the mountain spirit but embraced it, and the spirituality of the Korean people chose integration over conflict. The tiger that always appears alongside the mountain spirit in paintings is not mere decoration. The tiger is a guardian that protects the mountain and a symbol of justice and courage. In folk paintings, the tiger is not a creature that terrorizes the people but is depicted at times with humor and a human quality. This reveals a Korean understanding of nature in which human beings and the natural world are not in opposition but in coexistence. Next is the faith of the seven stars, the chilseong. The Big Dipper has from ancient times symbolized life, longevity, and blessing. When a child was born, people prayed to the deity of the seven stars for health. When they sought peace for the household, offerings were made to the seven stars with devotion. Even today, old temples retain a seven-stars shrine, a prominent example of how Buddhism, as it took root in Korea, came to harmonize with indigenous belief. Korean religion has developed not by one tradition displacing another entirely but by each holding the other within itself. Another important element is the faith surrounding the village guardian shrines, the seonghwangdang and the seonangdang. The large trees and stone mounds at the edge of a village, the shrines of the village guardian deity, were symbols of the village community. Each year the villagers gathered to hold rites together, praying for a good harvest, for peace, and for the warding off of illness. This was a religious observance and at the same time a social occasion that bound the community together as one. A substantial number of the roots of today's festivals and village events can be traced back to these traditions. The deepest foundation of Korean spirituality is ancestor worship. Koreans did not regard death as an ending. The ancestor was not a being who had left the family but a being who continued to watch over the descendants. Ancestral rites were therefore not a mere formality but a ritual of memory and gratitude. Hyo, filial devotion, was not a virtue directed only toward living parents but a culture that carried the thread from one generation to the next. Embedded within it was the belief that a person who remembers the ancestors does not forget the roots of the self, and a person who knows the roots of the self holds the community dear. These traditions continue in various forms today. The Lunar New Year and Chuseok ancestral rites, the culture of visiting and tending graves, the custom of families coming together to honor their ancestors have changed in form with the passing of time but remain alive in Korean life. This is not simple ritual but a cultural memory that carries the thread between generations. The most defining characteristic of Korean shamanism is integration over rejection. The mountain spirit entered into Buddhism. The seven stars were enshrined within the temple. Confucian ritual culture merged with ancestor worship. Now contemporary art, culture, and popular entertainment are reinterpreting these traditions in new ways. This is the flexibility and openness that Korean culture possesses. Today, living in the age of artificial intelligence, we experience dazzling advances in science and technology. Yet technology cannot resolve every human loneliness, every sorrow, every sense of loss. People still desire comfort, desire community, and seek the meaning of life. Korean shamanism has answered precisely these fundamental human questions with the language of community, nature, ancestor, and memory. Korean shamanism is therefore not a relic of the past. It is a spirit alive within Korean culture and a spiritual asset that speaks to the world through K-culture. The gut was a ritual of communal healing. The mountain spirit was a symbol of nature and life. The seven stars signified the harmony between the cosmos and humanity. Ancestor worship was a culture of memory that carried the thread between generations. All of these, woven together, have made Korea what it is today. 2026-06-29 13:17:06
  • Tungsten race puts Kazakhstan between US and China
    Tungsten race puts Kazakhstan between US and China SEOUL, June 29 (AJP) - Last November, at a summit in Washington where President Donald Trump hosted the leaders of all five Central Asian nations, the United States signed a deal giving an American company development rights to what independent feasibility studies describe as the world's largest known undeveloped tungsten resource. The host country was Kazakhstan. The metal was tungsten. The company is Kaz Resources, a newly formed American firm backed by up to $1.6 billion in potential federal financing. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick signed a memorandum of understanding with Kazakhstan's Ministry of Industry and Construction at the summit. Trump had negotiated the final terms with Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev directly, by telephone, weeks before. "It's the only project that President Trump and Secretary Howard Lutnick have been involved with directly in the negotiations and discussions with President Tokayev," Pini Althaus, executive chairman of Kaz Resources, told Fastmarkets in March 2026. The deal is a measure of how urgently Washington views its position in tungsten, a metal it has not produced commercially since 2015 and which China spent the past year systematically cutting off from Western supply chains. The ground at the center of that effort lies in Kazakhstan's Karaganda region, in the heart of a country that spent seven decades as a Soviet republic and emerged with some of the world's largest untapped mineral reserves. Outside the village of Unrek, population 407, a string of water-filled craters sits across the steppe. Soviet engineers dug them during the Cold War, searching for tungsten in a landscape that offered little but distance. They confirmed what they were looking for. Then the Soviet Union collapsed, the workers left, and the craters filled with rain. Those holes are now at the center of a 21st-century supply chain war. The two deposits are Northern Katpar and Upper Kairakty, less than 32 kilometers apart in the Karaganda mining district, roughly 160 kilometers south of the city of Karaganda. Feasibility studies completed in April 2023 reported JORC-compliant mineral resources of 1.4 million tons of tungsten trioxide across both sites. Cove Kaz Capital Group, the operating entity behind Kaz Resources, holds a 70 percent interest in the joint venture, with Kazakhstan's state mining company Tau-Ken Samruk retaining 30 percent. Cove Kaz describes the combined asset as the world's largest known undeveloped tungsten deposit. Planned annual output at full development is 12,000 metric tons, approximately 15 percent of current global production. Kazakhstan holds an estimated two million tons of tungsten resources in total, placing it second in the world after China according to analysis by China's Geological Survey. For most of the post-Soviet period, those resources sat largely untouched. What changed was not Kazakhstan. It was China. In February 2025, Beijing imposed export licensing controls on tungsten products, including ammonium paratungstate (APT), the refined intermediate from which tungsten metal and carbide are manufactured. By late 2025, shipments had effectively stopped. Data from China's General Administration of Customs showed the combined annual export volume of APT powder, and tungsten carbide powder fell approximately 41.7 percent year on year in 2025, to roughly 3,877 tons. In January and February 2026, APT exports dropped to zero. In those same two months, China recorded a net import of 1,363 metric tons of tungsten metal content, compared with a net export of 545 metric tons a year earlier. The country responsible for nearly four-fifths of global tungsten supply had become a net importer of it. Prices moved accordingly. Data from the U.S. Geological Survey showed the Rotterdam benchmark for APT rising from $331 to $675 per metric ton unit over the course of 2025. By January 2026, Fastmarkets assessed the same benchmark at $1,090 to $1,150 per metric ton unit, more than three times the level at the start of the previous year. In a February 2026 research note, analysts at BMO Global Commodities Research warned the world had "sleepwalked" into a tungsten crisis, driven by declining ore grades in Chinese mines, tightening environmental restrictions, and years of underinvestment elsewhere. The severity of that crisis traces back to what tungsten actually is. It has the highest melting point of any element on earth, 3,422 degrees Celsius, and a density approaching that of gold. In carbide form it is virtually irreplaceable in cutting tools and drill bits. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) classifies it as a critical mineral; the defense establishment calls it a war metal: it goes into armor-piercing projectiles, missile warheads, and fighter jet components, and is essential in semiconductor interconnects. USGS data placed China's 2025 output at 67,000 metric tons against a world total of 85,000. Washington was not the only power that understood what a disruption to that supply would mean. China had already moved into Kazakhstan before the American deal was announced. The Boguty mine in Almaty Oblast, near the Chinese border, entered commercial production in April 2025 under Jiaxin International Resources Investment, a Hong Kong-listed Chinese company. Targeted output for 2026 is approximately 7,085 metric tons of contained tungsten oxide. In the south of Kazakhstan, a Chinese company mines tungsten. In the center, an American company is preparing to do the same. Kazakhstan has played both sides through what Tokayev calls a "multivector" foreign policy, the deliberate balancing of competing interests from Moscow, Beijing, and Washington. The country participates in a Russian-led military alliance and a Chinese-led trade bloc, yet signed 29 agreements with American companies at the Washington summit worth over $17 billion. The U.S. accounts for only five percent of Kazakhstan's critical minerals exports, according to The Diplomat, while China takes 27 percent and Russia 16 percent. At the summit in November 2025, Tokayev declared that Trump had been "sent by heaven." "Our economic security depends on our ability to diversify our access to critical minerals," Sergio Gor, the U.S. special envoy for South and Central Asian affairs, said at a C5+1 critical minerals dialogue in Astana in June 2026, according to the Times of Central Asia. The consequences extend beyond Central Asia. No single fact makes that clearer than what happened in South Korea's Gangwon Province on March 16, 2026. That was the day the Sangdong mine returned to production after 32 years. Sangdong once generated 70 percent of South Korea's total export earnings during the country's post-war reconstruction in the 1960s. It closed in 1994, undercut by cheap Chinese supply. Almonty Industries, a Canadian mining company that acquired the site in 2015, invested more than $100 million rebuilding it as a modern underground operation. Almonty projects that at full capacity, following a second expansion targeted for 2027, Sangdong will supply approximately 40 percent of global tungsten demand outside China. The mine's ore grade, at approximately 0.51 percent tungsten trioxide, is roughly three times the global average, with an expected mine life of at least 45 years. "This is a significant milestone in the effort by the U.S. and its allies to diversify supply chains for critical minerals away from China," Lewis Black, chairman, president and chief executive of Almonty, said at the mine's commissioning ceremony in March 2026, "which currently produces approximately 88 percent of the world's tungsten supply." 2026-06-29 12:45:05
  • Korean researchers measure tree carbon with LiDAR
    Korean researchers measure tree carbon with LiDAR SEOUL, June 26 (AJP) - A ground-based laser scanner can now map the full three-dimensional structure of a tree precisely enough to calculate how much carbon it stores, without cutting, drilling, or attaching anything to the tree. That is the finding of a joint study by Kookmin University and the National Sejong Arboretum, published in the Journal of the Korean Cadastre Information Society in April 2026. The technology relies on LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), a remote sensing method that fires rapid pulses of laser light and measures how long each pulse takes to bounce back. The result is a dense cloud of data points, each representing a specific location on the surface of the object being scanned. The same basic technology powers the sensors in self-driving cars and aerial survey drones, but here the scanner is positioned on the ground and pointed at individual trees. From that point cloud, the researchers applied a technique called Quantitative Structure Modelling, which uses the data to reconstruct the tree's full three-dimensional geometry: trunk, branches, and the way they connect. That reconstruction produces a precise volume estimate for each tree. The team then used those figures to calculate aboveground biomass, the total mass of organic material above ground, and from there, how much carbon the tree holds. The study was conducted on four species planted at the National Sejong Arboretum and surrounding residential gardens in Sejong City, South Korea's purpose-built administrative capital: zelkova, dawn redwood, pine, and horse chestnut. The relevance of this method lies in where it can realistically be applied. Standard approaches to measuring tree carbon storage rely on allometric equations, mathematical formulas that estimate a tree's total mass from its trunk diameter and height. Those formulas were developed primarily for forest trees, which tend to grow in uniform stands of the same species under consistent conditions. Urban trees are different. They are pruned, grow in confined spaces, and often stand alongside several other species in small parks, gardens, and roadside plantings. These conditions make forest-derived formulas unreliable for city green spaces. Hwang Se-yeon, a master's student in forest resources at Kookmin University who led the research, said the study established a foundation for automating the entire process from tree structure measurement to carbon storage calculation in urban green spaces with complex layouts and varied tree forms. The research is part of a broader collaboration. Kookmin University (Kookmin) and the Korea Arboretum and Garden Management Institute, the state body that manages South Korea's national arboretums and gardens, signed an agreement in September 2024 to jointly develop technologies for enhancing carbon absorption in urban forests. The previous year's work produced a drone LiDAR-based carbon prediction formula for garden trees. Ground-based LiDAR, used in this study, operates at closer range and captures finer structural detail. 2026-06-26 15:46:14
  • Kazakhstan and China Set Trade Target of $100 Billion
    Kazakhstan and China Set Trade Target of $100 Billion Approximately 85% of land cargo traveling from China to Europe passes through Kazakhstan. This statistic underscores the motivation behind the recent meeting in Urumqi, where officials from both countries gathered to enhance their already record-breaking trade relations. During the 9th China-Eurasia Expo, Kazakhstan's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Economy Serik Jumangarin held a bilateral meeting with China's State Councilor Ding Xuexiang. According to a report by Kazinform, citing the Kazakhstan government, the two sides discussed expanding trade, joint investments, and building transportation infrastructure for the China-Europe logistics corridor. Trade between the two countries reached a record high of $48.7 billion in 2025. From January to May 2026, trade totaled $22 billion, marking a 27% increase compared to the same period last year. Authorities expect annual trade to exceed $50 billion this year. Jumangarin proposed a more ambitious target, stating, "Our core goal is to raise bilateral trade to $100 billion in the near future," and urged for the swift approval of a Kazakhstan-China trade and economic cooperation program and roadmap for 2027-2030. According to a Kazakhstan government report, more than half of the total trade between the two countries transits through the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, making it a critical trade gateway. Kazakhstan is also accelerating efforts to enhance border crossing capabilities. Once the new Bakhti-Ayagoz border checkpoint is completed, the combined annual processing capacity of the three border checkpoints along the Kazakhstan-China border will reach 100 million tons. Chinese officials confirmed readiness to jointly construct a third railway border checkpoint, which both sides expect will improve the reliability and safety of international transport routes. Since Kazakhstan's independence, China has invested approximately $30 billion in the Kazakh economy, making it one of the largest foreign investors. Jumangarin encouraged Chinese companies to participate in high-value production projects, highlighting key cooperation areas such as deep processing of agricultural products like wheat and corn, integrated steel production, agrochemicals, and drone manufacturing. He noted, "This expo showcased advanced achievements in agrochemicals and drone manufacturing," adding, "We want to invite relevant manufacturers and investors to Kazakhstan. We are ready to provide all necessary conditions for localizing production." Ding reaffirmed China's commitment to expanding cooperation with Kazakhstan in the fields of digital economy, artificial intelligence, energy, and navigation technology. Bilateral agricultural trade amounts to $2 billion. China has approved the import of 34 agricultural products from Kazakhstan, with nine additional items, including chilled meat, currently under further review.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-06-26 15:12:00
  • Nature debuts autonomous robotics conference at KAIST
    Nature debuts autonomous robotics conference at KAIST SEOUL, June 26 (AJP) - Nature will hold its first conference dedicated to autonomous robotics at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in the central city of Daejeon, South Korea, this October, bringing together some of the world's leading researchers to debate the future of intelligent machines, the prominent institute said Friday. The three-day event, titled "2026 Nature Conference: Autonomous Robotics," runs from October 13 to 15 on the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) campus. According to KAIST, which co-hosts the conference alongside Nature, the journal has held more than 50 academic events on topics ranging from artificial intelligence to biotechnology and energy, with institutions including Princeton University and Tsinghua University. A conference centered solely on autonomous robotics is a first. KAIST is not an arbitrary venue. The institution developed South Korea's first robotic arm, known as KAISEM, as well as an early intelligent service robot called AMI and HUBO, the humanoid robot that became a symbol of the country's robotics ambitions. The choice of Daejeon signals that the conference is as much about showcasing where the field stands as it is about deciding where it should go. Four keynote speakers will anchor the program. Sami Haddadin, vice president for research at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence in Abu Dhabi, developed the Franka Emika Panda, a seven-axis collaborative robot capable of fluid, human-like arm movement. Kwon In-so, head of the Physical AI Research Division at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and a professor in KAIST's Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, has led domestic research in computer vision and robot intelligence and was named among the world's top 100 AI talents. Aude Billard, a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), is a leading authority on robot manipulation control and machine learning algorithms. Steven H. Collins of Stanford University specialises in exoskeleton systems and wearable robotics. The programme covers robot intelligence, autonomous field operation, and human-centered robotics across two days of sessions. Topics include neuromorphic artificial intelligence for autonomous drones, multimodal robotics, next-generation tactile sensor design, and advances in physical AI. Attendees will have access to one-on-one meetings with Nature editors and structured sessions on international research collaboration and academic publishing. KAIST will use the conference to put several of its flagship projects on display. Kong Kyoung-chul's WalkON Suit, an exoskeleton robot that won the Cybathlon international competition twice in succession, will be among the exhibits. The Cybathlon, held every four years in Switzerland, challenges teams to develop assistive technologies for people with disabilities and is sometimes called the Cyborg Olympics. Park Hae-won's quadruped robot Hound, which set a Guinness World Record for a 100-meter run, is also scheduled for demonstration, as are Sim Hyun-chul's PIBOT, a humanoid robot designed to operate aircraft, and DreamWaQ, a vision-based quadruped locomotion system developed by Myung Hyun. "Robot intelligence and autonomous operation technologies are the key technologies that will transform future industries and society," said Yoo Seung-hyeop, head of KAIST's Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering. "We hope this conference will become a starting point for expanding global research collaboration and accelerating innovation in autonomous robotics." KAIST President Lee Kwang-hyung framed the event in broader terms. "The next stage of AI is the physical world, and autonomous robotics is the key technology that will lead that change," he said. "Through this conference, KAIST will work with world-class researchers to present the direction of future robot technology and lead the establishment of a global innovation ecosystem." The conference will be conducted in English and is open to researchers, students, and industry professionals working in autonomous robotics. Early registration closes on July 31. General registration runs until October 6. 2026-06-26 10:01:48
  • Kazakhstan and China target $100bn in trade
    Kazakhstan and China target $100bn in trade SEOUL, June 26 (AJP) - More than eight in every 10 containers shipped overland from China to Europe pass through Kazakhstan. That single statistic, more than any diplomatic formula, explains why the two countries spent this week in Urumqi pressing to deepen a commercial relationship already generating record numbers. On the sidelines of the 9th China-Eurasia Expo on Thursday (local time), Kazakhstan's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Economy Serik Zhumangarin met with Ding Xuexiang, Vice Premier of the State Council of China. The talks, according to Kazakhstan's state-operated news agency Qazinform, covered trade expansion, joint investment, and transport infrastructure along the China-to-Europe corridor. Bilateral trade hit a record $48.7 billion in 2025. In the first five months of 2026, trade reached $22 billion, a 27 percent rise compared to the same period last year. Officials forecast the full-year total will exceed $50 billion. Zhumangarin set a more ambitious horizon. "Our main objective is to achieve bilateral trade of $100 billion in the near future," he said, calling for accelerated approval of a Trade and Economic Cooperation Program and Roadmap for 2027 to 2030. More than half of all bilateral trade flows through China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the Kazakhstani government report noted, making it the primary commercial gateway between the two countries. Kazakhstan is expanding its border-crossing capacity. With the construction of a new crossing at Bakhty-Ayagoz, the combined capacity of three crossings on the Kazakhstan-China border will reach 100 million tons of cargo per year. The Chinese side confirmed it was ready to jointly build a third railway crossing, which officials said would improve the reliability and security of international transport routes. China has invested approximately $30 billion in Kazakhstan since the country's independence, making it one of the largest foreign investors in the Kazakhstani economy. Zhumangarin invited Chinese businesses to participate in projects centered on high value-added production, including deep processing of wheat and corn, full-cycle metallurgical production, and manufacturing of agrochemicals and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). "Today, the exhibition featured advanced achievements in agrochemicals and drone manufacturing," he said. "We would like to invite these producers and investors to Kazakhstan. We are ready to provide all the necessary conditions for the localization of production." Ding reaffirmed China's interest in expanding cooperation with Kazakhstan in the digital economy, artificial intelligence, energy, and navigation technologies. Agricultural trade between the two countries has reached two billion US dollars. China has approved imports of 34 categories of Kazakhstani agricultural products. Nine more categories, including chilled meat, are currently under review. 2026-06-26 09:25:55
  • KAIST works on brain-to-robot system for paralysis patients
    KAIST works on brain-to-robot system for paralysis patients SEOUL, June 25 (AJP) - People with quadriplegia currently depend on clinical settings and human assistance to carry out basic physical tasks. A South Korean research consortium has begun developing a system intended to connect the human brain directly to a full-body robotic exoskeleton and route sensations captured by the robot back to the user's nervous system, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology said Thursday. Brain-computer interface technology has already reached human clinical trials, with companies including Neuralink and Synchron demonstrating systems that allow users to control cursors or smartphones through neural signals. But those platforms share a critical limitation: development has focused on decoding brain signals without clearly defining what the signals should control or what sensory information should return to the user. The system now in development targets that gap directly, assigning a full-body exoskeleton as the designated control target and establishing simultaneous pathways to relay ground-reaction force, joint torque, and tactile data from the robot back into the user's brain, a fully closed loop that has not been demonstrated anywhere in the world. The project is a flagship initiative under South Korea's multi-ministry advanced medical device research and development program, running from April 2026 to December 2032. It is led by professors Kong Kyoung-chul and Kim Jung at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Department of Mechanical Engineering, in consortium with Angel Robotics, a wearable robotics firm founded by Professor Kong. KAIST is designated as the lead research institution for AI signal processing within the consortium. Professor Kong, who led Angel Robotics to back-to-back gold medals at Cybathlon, an international assistive technology competition, will direct the development of the wearable robot control systems and AI-based movement-intent interpretation. His team will also design a somatosensory interface to relay sensory data from the robot to a brain-signal-processing chip. Professor Kim, whose robotic skin research earned him South Korea's Scientist of the Month award, will lead the development of robotic skin capable of registering physical sensations on behalf of a user with paralysis, alongside AI-based systems to decode that sensory information. The core engineering challenge is the development of AI-based encoding and decoding algorithms that translate cortical signals from hundreds of channels into robot commands in real time while simultaneously converting sensory data from the robot back into signals the brain can interpret. This process is all carried out within a closed-loop control structure that must sustain extremely low latency to function reliably. Commercialization will be handled by Angel Robotics, which plans a full-cycle path to market, including regulatory approval from South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety through to broad distribution. The research team noted that the project's complexity requires safety validation, clinical testing, and regulatory framework development to advance in parallel with core research and that global market entry will additionally require accumulated clinical evidence, risk management systems, neural data protection, and ethical review. "If this technology succeeds, a new rehabilitation paradigm will open where people with quadriplegia can walk on their own in daily life beyond hospitals, pick up objects, and even feel the touch of their fingertips," said KAIST professor Kong. 2026-06-25 16:11:11
  • KMU forum tells leaders AI era needs more humanity, not less
    KMU forum tells leaders AI era needs more humanity, not less SEOUL, June 25 (AJP) - Kookmin University's Graduate School of Business gathered academics, executives, and coaches in Seoul on June 19 for its third annual Leadership and Coaching Conference, where the central argument was direct: as artificial intelligence takes over more analytical and operational work, the distinctly human dimensions of leadership matter more, not less. The timing reflects a live tension running through South Korean corporate life. According to Microsoft's 2026 Work Trend Index, 78 percent of South Korean office workers who use AI on the job fear falling behind if they cannot adapt quickly, yet only 16 percent say their leaders provide adequate training. A separate survey by Korean recruitment platform WantedLab, published in April 2026, found that 92 percent of office workers already use AI in their daily tasks, while only 5 percent of companies have formally adopted the technology at an organizational level. The conference, titled "Human-AI Co-Evolution," drew more than a dozen speakers across parallel tracks on leadership and coaching. Organizers framed the day not as a technology showcase but as an examination of what human leaders and coaches must do differently as AI handles more of what they once did alone. The keynote was delivered by Lee Byeong-nam, a former president of LG Inwhawon, LG Group's corporate education institute. Lee argued that companies and markets are better understood as ecosystems of interconnected stakeholders than as machines to be optimized. A leader's core function, he said, is to create conditions in which people can develop their potential, grow on their own terms, and produce results rather than simply follow instructions. The leadership track addressed questions of organizational design and the changing role of management. Participants argued that the traditional model of leaders as controllers and resource allocators no longer fits a world where AI agents handle much of the information processing. What emerged was a vision of the leader as an orchestrator, someone who designs the context in which people and AI systems work together, and who enables teams to apply existing skills while simultaneously exploring new possibilities. Speakers used the term "ambidextrous organization development" to describe this dual mandate. The coaching track focused on behavior change and individual performance. Participants converged on the view that genuine change begins not with instruction but with self-awareness and personal accountability. As AI becomes faster at generating answers and solutions, speakers argued, the coach's job grows more distinct: building psychological safety, asking questions that challenge assumptions, and helping people think independently rather than defer to machine output. In the closing session, Kim Na-jeong, a professor at Kookmin University's Graduate School of Business, drew the conference's threads together. She described the core task of leadership and coaching in the AI era as designing what she called a "Think, Feel, Act" environment, one that helps people develop new perspectives, builds the emotional energy required to take on challenges, and connects those insights to concrete actions and repeatable organizational routines. "AI expands intelligence, but leaders must expand humanity," Kim said. "The more AI generates good answers and strategies, the more important it becomes to ask deeper questions grounded in human experience, philosophy, values, and context, and to design environments where meaningful actions can be repeated." 2026-06-25 14:56:28
  • Kazakhstan signs €100 million deal with Damen to build Caspian shipyard
    Kazakhstan signs €100 million deal with Damen to build Caspian shipyard SEOUL, June 25 (AJP) - Kazakhstan and Dutch shipbuilder Damen Shipyards Group signed a framework agreement in Brussels on Tuesday (local time) to develop a €100 million ($113.6 million) shipyard in the Mangystau region, the province home to Kazakhstan's two main Caspian ports, targeting what analysts have consistently identified as the weakest link in the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route. Cargo volumes crossing the Caspian surged more than 63 percent in 2024, reaching 4.1 million tons, an eightfold increase from the 500,000 tons recorded before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Container traffic climbed a further 36 percent in 2025 to approximately 77,000 twenty-foot containers. The European Union pledged €12 billion to Central Asia's infrastructure development at the 2025 EU-Central Asia Summit in Samarkand and designated the corridor a flagship project under its Global Gateway strategy, the bloc's global infrastructure investment program. Kazakhstan has no meaningful domestic capacity to build the vessels that move cargo across its own sea. The shipyard deal is a direct response to that gap. The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, known as the Middle Corridor, runs roughly 4,000 kilometers, connecting China's eastern coast to Eastern Europe by rail and sea. Cargo moves by rail across Kazakhstan to the port of Aktau on the Caspian Sea, crosses by ship to Baku in Azerbaijan, then continues by rail through Georgia and Turkey to European markets. At approximately 3,000 kilometers shorter than the route through Russia, transit times run around 15 days, compared with 45 to 55 days for traditional sea shipping. Costs are higher, moving a 40-foot container on the Middle Corridor runs $3,500 to $4,500 against $2,800 to $3,200 via the northern route, but European companies seeking to reduce exposure to Russian transit have broadly accepted that premium. The Caspian crossing is where constraints are sharpest. The sea is landlocked, meaning no vessel can be sailed in from elsewhere in the world. Every ship operating on the Caspian was either built at one of the region's aging facilities or assembled in pieces transported overland. Kazakhstan relies heavily on Azerbaijan's Baku Shipyard for vessel construction and maintenance, adding cost and time to an already complex chain. When cargo demand spikes, as it has repeatedly since 2022, Astana has limited means to respond. The Caspian Sea is also shrinking. Water levels have been dropping by an average of up to 30 centimeters annually since 2020, driven by reduced inflows from Russia's dammed Volga River and accelerating evaporation. Rail tank car ferry transport on the Baku-Kuryk route, one of the main trans-Caspian passages, fell 22 percent as shallowing began to restrict vessel movement. Ports built for a deeper sea now require continuous dredging to stay open. Damen already has a stake in that problem: the company signed a contract with Azerbaijan's Baku Shipyard last year to build a dedicated dredging vessel for Baku's main port. That prior work gives Damen direct knowledge of the Caspian's physical conditions that a new entrant to the region would not have. Founded in 1927 in Gorinchem in the Netherlands, Damen Shipyards Group is one of the world's largest commercial shipbuilders, with a portfolio spanning ferries, tankers, tugs, dredgers, and offshore support vessels. The company has long supplied Caspian operators. Caspian Offshore Construction, a regional client, operates a fleet in which half the vessels are Damen-built. Operating in the Caspian requires vessels with a shallow draft, meaning they sit close to the water's surface and extend only minimally below it, unlike standard ocean ships, engineering choices Damen has already had to make. A local shipyard in Mangystau would let Kazakhstan build, maintain, and expand its Caspian fleet without depending on yards in Baku or further afield. The vessels most immediately needed are ferries, tankers, and support craft, the categories that determine how fast and how much cargo crosses the sea in any given week. The deal was one of more than 30 commercial agreements totaling over €10 billion signed during President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's official visit to Brussels on June 22 and 23. Tokayev met European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and the joint statement issued by all three leaders explicitly highlighted the Trans-Caspian route. The European Investment Bank separately agreed to finance road rehabilitation along the Middle Corridor. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development signed a transport digitalization agreement with Kazakhstan. "Kazakhstan is a global gateway, and so is Central Asia," von der Leyen said at the summit. "We are ready to turn that gateway into a pathway for jobs, business opportunities, and common prosperity." The agreement carries significant caveats. It is a framework, not a signed contract. The €100 million figure is an estimate, not committed financing. Site selection, permitting, detailed engineering, and financial close all remain ahead. Past Caspian shipyard announcements in Kazakhstan, including a joint project by Italian energy company Eni and Kazakhstan's national oil company KazMunaiGas at Kuryk, which entered planning more than a decade ago, took years to advance and ran into repeated delays. The Middle Corridor faces pressures beyond the Caspian. Georgia's Anaklia deep-water port, widely seen as the most important missing piece of western infrastructure on the route, remained stalled in 2026, with its Chinese developer's commitment in question and state funding sharply reduced. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, the main land link from Azerbaijan to Turkey, has effectively reached physical capacity. The corridor currently carries roughly 4.1 million tons annually, around six percent of the 100 million tons that once moved along the northern route through Russia. 2026-06-25 14:48:02
  • World Cup rivals cheer as one in central Seoul
    World Cup rivals cheer as one in central Seoul SEOUL, June 25 (AJP) - Gwanghwamun Square turned red on Thursday morning. Some 11,000 fans packed the plaza in South Korean football jerseys, scarves around their necks and cheering sticks in hand, their chants filling the air around the iconic statue of King Sejong the great. Among them stood South Africa's ambassador to South Korea, Sindiswa Ntombolimo Mququ, dressed in the green and yellow of her national team, and dozens of South Africans, also wearing their national color, mingling with South Korean supporters. The match took place on June 25, the 76th anniversary of the Korean War. Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon made the connection before kick-off. South Africa, he told the crowd, was the first country to send a combat air squadron to the Korean peninsula in 1950, a fact commemorated in the Garden of Gratitude, a memorial park just steps from the square. "The South African team is a wonderful rival on the pitch," he said, "but we must win today. And when South Africa plays well, please give them generous applause and cheers too." The jersey swap had come moments earlier. Oh wore his South Korean uniform kit, Red Devils scarf around his neck, cheering stick in hand, on as fans around them waved Taegukgi, South Korea's national flag, and South African flags side by side across the square. South Africa took all three points. The winning goal came in the 63rd minute. South Korea dominated possession, 69 percent to South Africa's 31, but managed just 2 shots on target. Lee Kang-in came closest in the eighth minute, his effort sliding wide of the post. 2026-06-25 13:46:13