Journalist
Kim Dong Young
davekim0807@ajupress.com
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Two firefighters killed in cold storage warehouse blaze in southern South Korea SEOUL, April 12 (AJP) - Two firefighters were killed after becoming trapped inside a burning cold storage warehouse in South Korea's southwestern county of Wando, authorities said, in a blaze that triggered a vapor explosion and prompted a national outpouring of grief. The fire broke out at about 8:25 a.m. Sunday at a seafood processing plant in Wando County, South Jeolla Province, according to fire authorities. A seven-member crew arrived within six minutes and entered the 3,693-square-meter facility to rescue a plant worker who had inhaled smoke. After pulling the worker to safety, the crew briefly withdrew. When fresh plumes of smoke appeared from another section of the warehouse, the team re-entered at about 8:45 a.m. to finish suppression, believing the fire was nearly contained. Minutes later, flammable vapors from epoxy and urethane materials that had accumulated near the sealed ceiling ignited, producing a flashover that sent flames erupting through the entrance. Commanders radioed evacuation orders three to four times, but two firefighters could not escape. A rapid intervention team located the body of a 44-year-old fire lieutenant from Wando Fire Station at about 10:02 a.m., roughly five meters from the entrance. A 31-year-old firefighter from Haenam Fire Station was found dead at 11:23 a.m. The blaze was fully extinguished three minutes later. Authorities believe the fire started when a worker used a blowtorch to strip paint from walls lined with urethane foam insulation and finished with sandwich panels. The sealed structure, designed to maintain freezing temperatures, trapped smoke and hindered rescue efforts. Police and fire investigators are probing the exact cause. President Lee Jae Myung paid tribute to the pair, saying they "rushed to the most dangerous scene to protect lives and fulfilled their duty to the very last moment," in a X post. He vowed the government would ensure all frontline personnel can operate in safer conditions. 2026-04-12 17:28:51 -
Search for escaped wolf at South Korean zoo drags into fifth day SEOUL, April 12 (AJP) - A wolf that tunneled its way out of a government-run zoo in the central city of Daejeon remained at large as search teams armed with thermal-imaging drones combed nearby hillsides for a fifth straight day without success. The two-year-old male wolf, nicknamed Neukgu, was last detected by a thermal camera mounted on a drone at about 1:30 a.m. on April 9, the day after its escape. Trackers lost the animal's trail when the drone was pulled back for a battery swap, and it has not been spotted since. Authorities deployed 12 drones on Sunday to sweep a radius of about 6 km around O World, the municipal theme park from which Neukgu escaped on April 8 by digging beneath an electrified wire fence surrounding its safari enclosure. Ground crews have been kept to a minimum over fears that a large human presence could spook the animal deeper into the forested terrain. Neukgu's last meal before the breakout was two chickens, fed the evening of April 7. Baited traps have been placed along likely travel routes, and experts estimate the wolf could survive about 10 days in the wild provided it finds water. But because Neukgu was born and hand-reared in captivity, it lacks hunting skills, and specialists warn it could perish if the search drags on much longer. The escape has drawn nationwide attention and a wave of public sympathy. President Lee Jae Myung weighed in, expressing hope for the wolf's safe return and urging that no one be harmed in the process. Citizens and animal-rights groups have demanded that Neukgu be captured alive, recalling a 2018 incident at the same zoo in which a puma was shot dead just four and a half hours after escaping its enclosure. The search has also been hampered by a flood of AI-generated fake photographs purporting to show the wolf at various locations around the city, with authorities saying the fabricated images caused confusion in the early stages of the operation and disrupted some media coverage. Reports say the search would continue through Monday before officials decide whether to launch a full-scale joint operation involving multiple agencies if no progress is made. 2026-04-12 15:40:52 -
S. Korea secures 80 pct of May crude needs without tapping reserves, minister says SEOUL, April 12 (AJP) - South Korea has secured about 80 percent of its crude oil import needs for May and expects to weather the ongoing supply disruptions triggered by the Middle East conflict, Minister of Trade, Industry and Resources Kim Jung-kwan said. Kim said the volume of crude oil locked in for May had risen by 10 percentage points from the previous week, bolstered by private-sector stockpiles held by domestic refiners. "We believe we can get through April and May without releasing government reserves, unlike during the Russia-Ukraine war when such a release was necessary," Kim said. The minister, who returned Friday from a four-nation envoy trip, struck a guarded tone on the fate of seven South Korean-linked oil tankers stranded near the Strait of Hormuz. He said Seoul was working to secure their passage but cautioned that the outcome remained unpredictable. As an alternative to the choked strait, Kim said the government was preparing to route South Korean vessels through the Red Sea via Saudi Arabia's Yanbu port, with escort support from a destroyer. He added that Riyadh had pledged to give South Korean shipments top priority in allocating Yanbu port capacity. To diversify away from its heavy reliance on Middle Eastern crude, Seoul is pursuing imports from the United States and Kazakhstan. Kim said negotiations with Astana had made considerable headway and that specifics on volumes and terms could be announced early next week. Naphtha supply, a critical petrochemical feedstock often called the lifeblood of South Korea's manufacturing sector, is also stabilizing. Kim said procurement is projected to recover to about 80 percent of normal levels in April and May, with daily monitoring in place alongside industry partners to prevent further disruption. The government has earmarked 869.1 billion won (about $585.4 million) in a recently enacted supplementary budget for supply chain stabilization, including subsidies covering half the cost increase on naphtha imports for domestic petrochemical producers. Kim said the intervention was urgent because soaring feedstock prices had made it more economical for some firms to idle their plants entirely. On helium — a gas essential to semiconductor fabrication — Kim said supplies from U.S. sources had been secured through the end of June, ensuring that no chip production facility would face a shutdown over the interim. 2026-04-12 14:11:48 -
EcoPro secures C$6 mln from Canada to develop all-solid-state battery materials SEOUL, April 12 (AJP) - South Korean battery materials maker EcoPro said it has secured 6 million Canadian dollars (about $4.3 million) in research funding from Canada's federal government to develop lithium metal anode technology for next-generation all-solid-state batteries. The grant, awarded to EcoPro Lithium — a unit of subsidiary EcoPro Innovation — falls under Ottawa's Energy Innovation Program, which aims to bolster domestic battery supply chains. EcoPro Innovation signed a joint development agreement with Quebec state utility Hydro-Quebec in March last year to co-develop lithium metal anodes. The funding will bankroll efforts to build and demonstrate a full lithium metal anode value chain on Canadian soil by March 2027, spanning lithium metal production, high-purity refining, ultra-thin foil fabrication and performance validation. The company also plans to accelerate construction of a semi-mass-production pilot line for the material. Lithium metal anodes offer about 10 times the energy density of conventional graphite-based anodes, a leap that could dramatically extend electric vehicle driving range and position the technology as a linchpin of the all-solid-state battery era. Beyond anodes, the EcoPro group is developing solid electrolytes, solid-state cathode materials and lithium sulfide. Its solid electrolyte program, targeting commercialization next year, has a pilot facility at the company's Ochang headquarters in North Chungcheong Province producing samples at a rate of 40 tons per year. "We are advancing lithium metal anode technology in collaboration with the Canadian government and local partners to lead the all-solid-state battery market," an EcoPro Innovation spokesperson said. "This government funding is expected to significantly accelerate the pace of development." 2026-04-12 10:27:15 -
UPDATE: U.S.-Iran talks collapse in Islamabad over nuclear, Hormuz disputes SEOUL, April 12 (AJP) - The United States and Iran failed to reach an agreement after 21 hours of grueling negotiations in the Pakistani capital, plunging the fragile two-week ceasefire into uncertainty with its April 21 expiration now looming. The marathon session, mediated by Pakistan, stretched across multiple rounds from Saturday evening through Sunday morning but ultimately foundered over deep divisions on Iran's nuclear program and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who led the American delegation, told reporters after the talks that Washington had yet to see a fundamental commitment from Tehran. "We leave here with a very simple proposal: a method of understanding that is our final and best offer," Vance said. "We'll see if the Iranians accept it." Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency struck a defiant tone, reporting that the Iranian delegation had rebuffed what it characterized as Washington's attempt to extract through negotiation concessions it could not win on the battlefield, including the dismantling of Iran's uranium enrichment program and the immediate opening of the strait. The United States sought not only the surrender of Iran's existing stockpile of highly enriched uranium but also curbs on its enrichment capabilities — an effort to eliminate both Tehran's present nuclear capacity and its future weapons potential. Iran, for its part, refused to relinquish what it called its right to peaceful nuclear energy. The Strait of Hormuz emerged as an equally intractable flashpoint. Washington demanded the immediate reopening of the vital waterway, whose blockade has driven up global oil prices and rattled international markets. Tehran, however, views the strait as its most powerful bargaining chip and insisted it would lift the blockade only after a comprehensive deal is sealed, senior Iranian officials cited. Tensions along the waterway underscored the stakes. U.S. Central Command said it had begun preparations for mine clearance in the strait, with two Navy guided-missile destroyers transiting the passage. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that any warships attempting to pass would face a forceful response. The breakdown of the first face-to-face encounter between the two adversaries casts a shadow over the ceasefire brokered on April 8. With the truce set to expire in nine days, concerns are mounting that Israel could intensify its military operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, further complicating any return to the negotiating table. Experts note that Iran appears to believe time is on its side, calculating that the economic pain inflicted by the Hormuz blockade gives Washington greater incentive to make concessions. The United States and Israel, meanwhile, have signaled they reserve the right to strike Iran's nuclear facilities at any time. 2026-04-12 09:33:28 -
PlayStation's March pick Crimson Desert storms past 4 million sales SEOUL, April 10 (AJP) - Action-adventure game Crimson Desert has surpassed 4 million copies sold in just 12 days, turning its turbulent launch by Pearl Abyss into one of the most dramatic comeback stories in recent gaming history and cementing the South Korean studio's first single-player title as a global commercial juggernaut. The open-world game, built on Pearl Abyss' proprietary BlackSpace Engine, logged 2 million sales on its first day on March 20 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X,S and PC. It crossed 3 million within four days and breached the 4-million mark by March 31, generating an estimated $200 million in revenue, according to Alinea Analytics. PlayStation Blog on April 1 named the new game the "Players' Choice Winner" for March 2026, with the title outpolling major releases including Marathon, MLB The Show 26 and Scott Pilgrim EX in a monthly user vote. From 'mixed' to 'very positive' The recognition adds to a growing list of accolades for a game that initially stumbled out of the gate. Crimson Desert's launch was anything but smooth. Critics flagged clunky controls and a convoluted narrative, dragging the game's Steam rating down to "mixed" within hours of release. But the studio moved fast. Pearl Abyss rolled out a series of rapid patches, overhauling the control scheme, expanding storage systems, adding fast travel points, and tuning boss difficulty, all of which steadily reversed the tide. The Steam rating climbed to "very positive," with about 82 percent of more than 121,000 user reviews now positive. Industry watchers estimate the game's break-even point at about 2.5 million copies. With sales already well past that threshold, the revenue flowing in from here feeds directly into Pearl Abyss' bottom line. When Pearl Abyss disclosed that Crimson Desert had crossed 3 million copies sold in just four days, the stock surged 23.34 percent on March 25 and extended its rally over three consecutive trading sessions, closing at 58,800 won on March 27. Shares later touched 72,000 won, their highest level since April 2022, before settling at 55,600 won as of Friday. Seven years and $133 million in the making Crimson Desert's journey to release was as sprawling as its open world. First announced in November 2019 as a prequel to the studio's flagship MMORPG Black Desert Online, the project underwent a fundamental identity shift during development as Pearl Abyss pivoted from an MMO format to a standalone single-player action-adventure — a bold gamble for a studio that had built its reputation on persistent online worlds. The seven-year development cycle, carried out by a team of fewer than 200 developers, carried an estimated price tag of about 200 billion won ($135 million). The result is a sprawling fantasy continent called Pywel, rendered seamlessly with no loading screens, where players control three characters through faction warfare, dragon riding, mech combat and an ecosystem of side activities that have kept players exploring well past the main storyline. Players find their own fun The game's community has wasted no time making Crimson Desert their own playground. One popular meme on Reddit's r/CrimsonDesert forum captures the prevailing mood: a "distracted boyfriend" template showing a helmeted Kliff turning away from the main story to ogle side activities — tackling goats, assembling a cat army, dyeing clothes, fighting stone worms, and chasing waterfalls. Others have shared clips of players accidentally blowing themselves up with their own explosive arrows or ragdolling the first boss off a cliff. Kwon Min-gu, a 28-year-old AI instructor who has logged more than 50 hours in the game, said Crimson Desert was his first experience with a single-player open-world RPG. While the early story left him reaching for explanations — "the protagonist's resurrection goes completely unexplained," he noted — the combat system won him over once he began experimenting with the skill tree. "Every time you unlock a new branch, the combat style changes completely," Kwon said. "I ditched the shield for dual blades, slotted in an attack-speed rune, and started clearing camps like a blender. But you have to be careful. If you accidentally slash an explosive barrel, it kills you too." Kwon said he learned to shoot explosive barrels with arrows from a distance before engaging enemies, and later picked up an electric element ability to fill out his area-of-effect toolkit. "You go from fist fighting to fanning out electric arcs with a combat fan," he said. "The variety is real." He added that he has largely ignored the main storyline in favor of challenge objectives and side quests, a playstyle that appears increasingly common among the game's most devoted users. DLC, co-op and the road ahead Pearl Abyss has signaled that Crimson Desert's story is far from over. "We will upgrade the game based on user feedback and strive to make Crimson Desert a title that is loved for a long time," Pearl Abyss CEO Heo Jin-young said at a shareholders meeting. On the question of future downloadable content, Heo struck a strategic tone. "We believe we should focus DLC on the areas where we excel most," Heo said. "Our priority is to continuously provide satisfaction to users. While an expansion pack sales model is also a good approach, we intend to make the strategic choice that drives more sales of the original Crimson Desert." Speculation about cooperative multiplayer content has swirled since before launch, fueled by early-stage development materials that once referenced large-scale battles and co-op mechanics. Pearl Abyss has not confirmed a multiplayer expansion but has not ruled one out either, with Heo's emphasis on "user feedback" leaving the door open. A roller coaster on the KOSDAQ Pearl Abyss shares have traced a trajectory almost as dramatic as Crimson Desert's storyline. The stock rallied from about 49,450 won in late February to an intraday high of 71,500 won on March 16 as pre-launch hype peaked, only to crater 29.88 percent in a single session on March 19 — the day review embargoes lifted and Metacritic scores landed below investor expectations — hitting the daily limit down at 46,000 won. The freefall proved short-lived. When Pearl Abyss disclosed that Crimson Desert had crossed 3 million copies sold in just four days, the stock surged 23.34 percent on March 25 and extended its rally over three consecutive trading sessions, closing at 58,800 won on March 27. Shares later touched 72,000 won, their highest level since April 2022, before settling at 55,600 won as of Friday. A record year within reach Pearl Abyss, founded in 2010 by Kim Dae-il and Youn Jae-min, has long been synonymous with Black Desert Online, the technically ambitious MMORPG that put the studio on the global map. Crimson Desert now represents a second pillar, and analysts say the title could propel the company to record revenues this year. With a Nintendo Switch 2 port reportedly in the research-and-development phase and the potential for DLC and cooperative content on the horizon, the story of Crimson Desert, much like its open world, appears to have plenty of territory left to explore. 2026-04-10 16:33:59 -
S. Korea's KIMM urges rapid pivot as humanoid era dawns SEOUL, April 08 (AJP) - South Korea's Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM) said that 2026 marks the year humanoid robots cross into commercial viability, urging the nation to exploit its manufacturing prowess within a five-year window before the global pecking order hardens. In its 122nd policy report uploaded Wednesday, KIMM said the industry has entered a "commercial tipping point" — the moment where humanoids shed their laboratory origins and begin generating revenue on factory floors and in service settings. The pivot is underpinned by a sharp decline in manufacturing costs. Per-unit expenses currently hover at about $35,000 but are expected to fall to between $13,000 and $17,000 within five years as mass production scales up and component designs mature. China's Unitree Robotics has led the price collapse, driving its flagship model from $90,000 for the H1 in 2024 down to $5,900 for the R1 in 2025 — a trajectory KIMM attributes to Wright's Law, under which unit costs drop 15 to 20 percent each time cumulative output doubles. Shipment volumes are poised to follow a similar exponential curve. Bank of America projects global humanoid deliveries will surge from a cumulative 18,000 units in 2025 to about one million annually by 2030 to 2035. Goldman Sachs forecasts sales climbing from roughly 8,000 units in 2025 to 136,000 in 2030 and 2.1 million in 2035, entering what the bank calls a J-shaped acceleration phase. The United States leads the race with big-tech-driven AI foundation models and semiconductor design advantages spearheaded by Tesla, Nvidia and Figure AI. China, meanwhile, has mobilized more than 140 companies into mass-production competition, with Chinese firms accounting for about 70 percent of newly unveiled humanoid models in 2025 and rapidly consolidating market share through vertically integrated supply chains and state subsidies. South Korea possesses world-class semiconductor, battery and telecommunications infrastructure but remains hobbled by a shortage of indigenous AI foundation models and a fragile supply chain for humanoid-specific components such as actuators and reducers, the report said. To close the gap, KIMM prescribed a "two-track" strategy: the first track calls for localizing core hardware — precision actuators, control systems and dedicated batteries — by leveraging the country's existing manufacturing base. The second track urges swift partnerships with global AI leaders such as OpenAI and Google to bridge the foundation-model deficit rather than attempting to build one from scratch. KIMM itself is spearheading a 220.8 billion won ($149.8 million) national project to develop a mass-production-ready humanoid platform, a self-learning AI brain and an open data factory where industry and academia can jointly train robot models. The institute plans to unveil the first version of its own humanoid, KAIROS, by April 2027. "The era of flashy tech demos is over — what matters now is how quickly a robot can earn its keep on a real factory floor," said Kim Hee-tae, a senior researcher at KIMM's center of R&D policy. "The window through 2030 is the golden time that will determine who commands this market, and Korea must convert its manufacturing edge into robotics leadership before that door closes." 2026-04-08 15:02:09 -
KIST cracks long-elusive reaction mechanism in next-gen hydrogen fuel cells SEOUL, April 08 (AJP) - South Korean researchers have unraveled a reaction mechanism at the heart of next-generation hydrogen fuel cells that had eluded scientists for years, a breakthrough that could accelerate the development of cleaner and cheaper energy systems. A team led by Ji Ho-il at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) devised a new analytical protocol that pinpointed for the first time how oxygen reduction reactions unfold inside the cathodes of protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs), the institute said on Wednesday. PCFCs operate at temperatures below 500 degrees Celsius, well under the threshold required by conventional solid oxide fuel cells, which translates into lower manufacturing costs and significantly longer lifespans. The technology has drawn growing attention as a pillar of the global shift toward hydrogen-based energy, yet progress has been hampered by the sheer complexity of the electrochemical reactions occurring at the cathode, where oxygen, electrons and protons collide simultaneously. Previous studies relied on researchers selecting one assumed reaction pathway from hundreds of possibilities — a method prone to decisive bias. Ji's team upended that convention by developing a protocol that identifies the rate-determining step through precision experiments first, then traces the reaction pathway backward without any prior assumptions. When the protocol was applied to two widely studied cathode materials — PBSCF and BCFZY — the team confirmed for the first time that the two materials follow entirely distinct reaction pathways. One material showed a sharp drop in resistance as water vapor increased, while the other remained virtually unchanged, offering direct experimental proof of the divergence. "This study fundamentally reveals why hydrogen fuel cells suffer from low efficiency," Ji said. "We expect it to serve as an important foundation for developing the high-performance fuel cells essential to realizing a clean hydrogen economy." Beyond fuel cells, the researchers said the analytical framework could be applied broadly to other electrochemical devices, including systems that produce green hydrogen by running the cells in reverse to harness solar, wind and nuclear energy. 2026-04-08 14:05:53 -
LG Energy Solution sinks deeper into red with second straight quarterly loss SEOUL, April 07 (AJP) - LG Energy Solution posted a widening operating loss for the first quarter of 2026, marking its second consecutive quarterly deficit as a prolonged slump in global electric vehicle demand and a sharp drop in U.S. tax credits eroded profitability at the world's No. 2 battery maker. The company said in a preliminary regulatory filing on Tuesday that it logged a consolidated operating loss of 207.8 billion won ($138.7 million) for the January to March period, swinging from a 374.7 billion won profit a year earlier and deepening from a 122 billion won loss in the preceding quarter. Revenue slipped 2.5 percent on-year to 6.555 trillion won, dragged down by sluggish North American EV sales and production halts at Ultium Cells, the company's joint-venture plants with General Motors, whose first two facilities suspended operations in early January. ‘ A shift in accounting treatment compounded the decline. LG Energy Solution said it began sharing a portion of the Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit proceeds with customers at standalone and formerly joint-venture plants this year, booking only the net figure as other revenue — a change that effectively reduced the recognized subsidy relative to actual production volumes. Rising costs tied to the ramp-up of five North American energy storage system production sites and elevated expenses stemming from the U.S.-Iran conflict also weighed on results. Industry analysts nonetheless expect the first half to mark the trough. Surging demand for grid-scale and data center-linked ESS batteries, fueled by the global build-out of artificial intelligence infrastructure and power grids, is widely seen as the catalyst for a second-half turnaround. LG Energy Solution has been channeling resources toward the segment, aiming to more than triple ESS-related revenue and to expand global ESS battery production capacity to over 60 gigawatt-hours by the end of 2026. "We plan to raise the combined share of ESS and new businesses from about 20 percent today to the mid-40 percent range, building a more stable and balanced portfolio," CEO Kim Dong-myung said at the company's annual shareholders' meeting in late March. Shares of LG Energy Solution closed at 408,500 won, 0.97 percent lower than the day before. 2026-04-07 17:54:06 -
Naver partners with EBS to build trusted knowledge video content SEOUL, April 07 (AJP) - Naver and the Korea Educational Broadcasting System (EBS) signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly produce large-scale knowledge and educational video content, the companies said. Under the agreement, inked at Naver's headquarters on Tuesday in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, the two sides will co-produce content spanning health, finance and economics as well as material aligned with South Korea's elementary, middle and high school curricula. The partners plan to steadily expand a knowledge video archive by tapping into a broader range of topics. EBS is South Korea's public educational broadcaster, operating under guidance of the Ministry of Education with a mandate to provide nationwide learning resources across television, radio and digital platforms. The content will be distributed across Naver's search engine, home feed and online encyclopedia services, aiming to help users access more accurate and in-depth information throughout the portal's ecosystem. "High-quality data has emerged as a core competitive edge in the AI era, and the combination of Naver's AI technology and platform capabilities with EBS's proven content production expertise will drive the expansion of a trustworthy knowledge content ecosystem," Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon said. EBS President Kim Yu-yeol called the agreement "a starting point for innovation that merges EBS's production know-how with Naver's AI technology." He added that, at a time of growing vigilance over AI hallucinations, the broadcaster would work to ensure its credible video content is properly utilized through Naver's AI services, contributing to a more reliable digital environment. 2026-04-07 16:09:54