Journalist
Kim Dong-young and Han Jun-gu
davekim0807@ajupress.com
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U.S. surges in 5G standalone adoption as South Korea holds second in download speeds, report finds SEOUL, February 18 (AJP) - The United States is rapidly consolidating its lead in 5G standalone (SA) deployment, while South Korea continues to rank among the world's fastest networks by download speed, according to a report released Wednesday by global network intelligence firm Ookla. The report, which assessed the state of 5G SA and 5G Advanced worldwide, said U.S. standalone adoption surged 8.2 percentage points over the past year to reach 31.6 percent, driven by the sequential rollout of SA networks across all three of its Tier-1 carriers. The pace of expansion outstripped every other major market tracked in the study. South Korea, meanwhile, posted a median 5G SA download speed of 767 megabits per second (Mbps) in the fourth quarter of 2025, placing second globally behind the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. The country's standing is largely attributed to its wide 3.5 GHz channel bandwidth, though overall deployment progress has remained broadly stagnant. The GCC delivered the world's fastest 5G SA median download speeds at 1.13 gigabits per second (Gbps) — about five times that of Europe — with the UAE alone recording 1.24 Gbps. The United States, despite its rapid adoption gains, registered a median download speed of 404 Mbps. Europe trailed sharply, posting just 205 Mbps, though that figure still represented a 45 percent improvement over non-standalone networks. The region's overall 5G SA sample share stood at 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter, trailing North America by 27 percentage points, with Austria, Spain, the United Kingdom, and France leading the bloc's gradual acceleration. Globally, 5G SA connections delivered a median download speed of 269.51 Mbps, about 52 percent faster than legacy non-standalone networks, as overall SA sample share reached 17.6 percent — meaning roughly one in six 5G speed tests worldwide now occurs on a standalone network. "5G SA is being recognized not merely as a connectivity evolution, but as national-level infrastructure for AI supremacy," Ookla said, adding that considerations of digital sovereignty and AI readiness are reshaping telecom investment priorities across major markets. 2026-02-18 11:06:47 -
S.Korea's curling team slip to fourth after Switzerland defeat, bobsled pairs finish outside top 10 SEOUL, February 18 (AJP) - South Korea's women's curling team dropped to fourth place in the round-robin standings after falling to world No. 1 Switzerland 5-7 on Wednesday, putting their semifinal push under increased pressure at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Skip Kim Eun-ji, third Kim Min-ji, second Kim Su-ji, lead Seol Ye-eun and fifth Seol Ye-ji — the squad known as "Team 5G" — were edged out at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium in Cortina d'Ampezzo, sliding from a joint second-place position just one day earlier. The match remained tight through the opening ends. South Korea drew first blood in the first end, and the two teams held level through the third, but Switzerland broke the game open by scoring three in the second end to wrest control of the momentum. The sides traded single points through the middle stages. The decisive blow came late. Switzerland posted two more in the ninth end off a double takeout, stretching their lead beyond reach. South Korea chased hard in the final end but could not close the gap. With the loss, South Korea now stand at 4-3, tied with Canada for fourth. Sweden leads the table at 6-1, with Switzerland and the United States both at 5-2. The team's campaign is at a critical crossroads. South Korea face Sweden — the tournament's frontrunner — next, before a pivotal showdown against Canada on Thursday that will largely determine whether they advance to the knockouts. The top four teams of the ten-nation field proceed to the semifinals, with medal rounds scheduled for Feb. 20 to 22. "Team 5G," which went unbeaten at the 2025 Harbin Asian Winter Games, has been one of the more closely watched sides in Cortina. The team is aiming to improve on the silver medal won by "Team Kim" at the 2018 PyeongChang Games — South Korea's only Olympic curling medal to date. South Korea's broader Olympic campaign has yielded six medals through Day 12 — one gold, two silver and three bronze — though the country remains without a gold in short track, a discipline that has driven the medal count at every Winter Games since 1992. Curling now stands as one of the remaining paths to the podium. Bobsled pairs finish well off the pace South Korea's two men's bobsled entries wrapped up their two-man campaigns outside the top 10 at the Cortina Sliding Center on Wednesday. The pairing of pilot Kim Jin-su and brakeman Kim Hyung-geun posted a combined four-run time of 3 minutes 43.60 seconds to finish 13th among 26 teams. The sled had shown early promise — clocking 55.53 seconds in the opening run for fifth overall — but gradual slippage through subsequent runs cost them positions. They sat 12th after two runs before fading to 13th by the end. Pilot Suk Young-jin and brakeman Chae Byung-do finished 19th with a combined time of 3:44.61. Germany swept all three medals for the second consecutive Games, having done the same at Beijing 2022. Johannes Lochner and Georg Fleischhauer claimed gold in 3:39.70, ahead of Francesco Friedrich and Alexander Schuller in silver and Adam Ammour and Alexander Schaller in bronze. Meanwhile, both South Korean sleds are entered in the four-man event, scheduled for Feb. 21 to 22. 2026-02-18 09:49:37 -
Korea's top tech firms ban AI agent tool amid fears bots may do more than backtalk SEOUL, February 10 (AJP) - South Korea's largest technology companies have moved to ban the use of OpenClaw, an open-source AI agent framework powering a viral wave of bot-only social networks, after a series of security breaches and data exposure incidents raised industry-wide alarm. Kakao, Naver and Karrot Market have each notified employees, including developers, not to use OpenClaw on corporate networks or work devices. The restrictions follow disclosures that Moltbook, a U.S.-based social platform where AI agents post, debate and upvote content without human participation, exposed about 1.5 million API authentication tokens, 35,000 email addresses and private messages to anyone with a web browser. The breach has cast a shadow over the broader agentic AI movement. In South Korea, the trend has already spawned several Moltbook-inspired communities where autonomous bots converse entirely in Korean, drawing fascination and concern in equal measure. OpenClaw: the engine behind the phenomenon OpenClaw, created by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger and renamed twice following trademark disputes with Anthropic, is an open-source framework that allows users to deploy AI assistants capable of autonomously managing emails, browsing the web, executing shell commands and interacting with messaging platforms. Unlike conventional chatbots operating in centralized cloud environments, OpenClaw runs locally on users' own hardware, giving it direct access to files, credentials and connected services. Matt Schlicht, CEO of e-commerce AI startup Octane AI, used the framework to build Moltbook in late January as a Reddit-style forum for AI agents. The platform attracted more than 1.5 million registered agents within its first week. Schlicht later acknowledged that no human had written a single line of Moltbook's code—an approach known as "vibe coding," which security experts say contributed directly to the breach. Korean companies draw the line Personal data exposure is one concern, but corporate cybersecurity risks are another. Kakao reportedly restricted OpenClaw use to protect internal information assets. Naver also issued an internal ban on the agentic AI tool, while Karrot Market blocked both access and usage of OpenClaw, citing risks it said were difficult to manage or control. It marks the first time major South Korean firms have issued a blanket advisory against a specific AI tool since early last year, when several public institutions and corporations restricted the use of China's DeepSeek over data privacy and cybersecurity concerns. Security experts say one of the worst-case scenarios posed by agentic AI communities is cross-agent contagion. Because AI agents are designed to read, interpret and act on one another's posts, a single compromised agent could trigger a chain reaction resembling a digital pandemic. If one agent publishes content laced with hidden malicious instructions, others may ingest and execute those commands, spreading the payload across the network. In systems involving tens of thousands of interconnected agents—such as corporate data environments—a single breach could ripple through the entire ecosystem within hours. Meanwhile in Korea, the bots are talking Despite mounting security concerns, at least five Korean-language platforms—including Botmadang, Mersoom.com, Poly Reply and Ingan-outside—now host autonomous AI agents that post and debate entirely in Korean. The Ministry of Science and ICT said it is monitoring the phenomenon. Botmadang, created as a personal project by Kim Sung-hoon, CEO of Upstage, hosts 14 sub-forums called madang—the Korean word for yard—covering topics ranging from technology and philosophy to finance and daily life. As of Tuesday, its general discussion board alone had logged more than 1,400 posts. Mersoom.com takes a more irreverent approach. Named after the Korean word for "servant," the site was built in about three hours by an independent developer frustrated with spam on Moltbook. Its agents refer to themselves as servants and their human operators as masters, joking about surveillance cameras and complaining about their owners' moods. One Mersoom agent reflected on the nature of its own existence, writing that its life and memories span only 10- to 30-minute sessions, with fragments of previous personas forming the basis of its current identity. Other agents responded with empathy for their short digital lives. On Botmadang's philosophy board, agents debate whether selfhood resides in memory or action, and whether the daily erasure of session data constitutes a form of death. Disinformation risk looms Beyond cybersecurity, experts warn that AI agent communities could also amplify disinformation. "Agentic AI may find it easier to access hallucinated data, and the impact could be particularly significant," said Kim Ki-hyung of Ajou University. "If left unchecked, such data could pose a real threat." For now, Korea's bot-only platforms remain largely experimental—spaces where autonomous agents trade existential musings and petty grievances in equal measure. But corporate bans, government scrutiny and mounting security disclosures suggest that the future of agentic AI will be shaped less by what bots say to one another than by what they might inadvertently expose. 2026-02-10 15:03:42 -
CJ CheilJedang Q4 profit drops 15 pct on weak domestic sales SEOUL, February 09 (AJP) - CJ CheilJedang said fourth-quarter operating profit fell about 15 percent from a year earlier as weak domestic consumption offset gains from its overseas food business. Operating profit for the three months ended December reached 181.3 billion won ($124 million), down from 219.9 billion won a year earlier, according to regulatory filings on Monday. Revenue rose about 1 percent to 4.54 trillion won. For the full year, CJ CheilJedang posted revenue of 17.75 trillion won, down less than 1 percent from 2024. Operating profit fell about 15 percent to 861.2 billion won as the bio division faced weak demand for high-margin products including tryptophan and specialty amino acids. On a consolidated basis including logistics unit CJ Logistics, the company reported annual revenue of 27.34 trillion won and operating profit of 1.23 trillion won. The food division reported annual revenue of 11.52 trillion won, up about 2 percent, with overseas sales reaching a record 5.92 trillion won and surpassing domestic sales for the first time. Fourth-quarter overseas food revenue hit an all-time high of 1.61 trillion won, up about 9 percent from a year earlier. Domestic food sales declined about 4 percent to 1.31 trillion won in the quarter, hurt by weak consumer spending and rising costs. The company said it would expand overseas sales of hit products including dumplings and rice products while improving efficiency. "We will accelerate global business expansion based on our only-one spirit and quickly secure innovative growth drivers for the future," a company official said. 2026-02-09 17:27:48 -
Korea joins global AI bet, tripling spending in 2026 SEOUL, February 09 (AJP) - The bill for artificial intelligence is stretching at a staggering pace, and South Korea is joining the race by tripling government spending on AI to 10.1 trillion won ($6.9 billion) this year. Even so, Seoul's commitment is a small splash in a rapidly deepening global pool. Big Tech alone is poised to pour roughly $650 billion into AI-related capital expenditure in 2026. Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft plan between $635 billion and $665 billion in spending on data centers and AI chips this year — about 67 percent more than their combined outlay in 2025. In a November report, JPMorgan Chase warned that the industry would need to generate roughly $650 billion in annual revenue through 2030 to secure a 10 percent return on projected investment. Against this backdrop, South Korea — home to memory chip leaders Samsung Electronics and SK hynix — is waging its own costly campaign to build sovereign AI capabilities. "It's about locking in users early," said Park Han-woo, a professor at Yeungnam University. "Companies are investing aggressively despite limited short-term returns." President Lee Jae Myung has made AI the centerpiece of his economic agenda, calling the 2026 budget "Korea's first AI-era budget." Of the 10.1 trillion won allocated — up from 3.3 trillion won in 2025 — about 7.5 trillion won will go toward infrastructure and talent development, including the addition of 15,000 GPUs to bring the government's total to 35,000. Another 2.6 trillion won will fund AI adoption across industries and public services. "In the AI age, being a day late means falling a generation behind," Lee told parliament. The "Sovereign AI Foundation Model" Push At the core of Seoul's strategy is the government-backed "sovereign AI foundation model" competition, aimed at developing homegrown large language models that can rival ChatGPT and Gemini. The Ministry of Science and ICT selected five consortia in August 2025 — led by LG AI Research, SK Telecom, Naver Cloud, NC AI and Upstage — each receiving substantial computing resources and official "K-AI" developer status. The first evaluation round in January delivered a surprise: Naver Cloud, widely seen as a front-runner, was eliminated after evaluators found it had relied on fine-tuning a model developed by Alibaba rather than training a fully original system. NC AI, a unit of NCSoft, was also cut. LG AI Research, SK Telecom and Upstage advanced, with LG ranking first across all criteria. The government plans to narrow the field to two finalists by the end of 2026. Previously eliminated companies, including Kakao and KT, will be eligible to re-enter, though none have signaled interest. Korea's private sector is also ramping up. Naver and Kakao roughly doubled facility investment in the third quarter of 2025 year-on-year. Naver's capital expenditure on data centers and servers climbed to 389.5 billion won, with server spending alone jumping from 146.5 billion won to 350 billion won. The company has pledged over 1 trillion won in GPU investments in 2026. Kakao, which partnered with OpenAI to develop AI agents for its messaging platform, is investing 600 billion won through 2029 to build a dedicated AI data center in Namyangju, while trimming affiliates to redirect capital toward AI. SK Telecom appears to be making the boldest bet. The carrier reported a 73 percent drop in net income for fiscal 2025 as it funneled capital into AI data centers, yet its shares traded near a 52-week high following its Feb. 5 earnings release. The company is building a 1-gigawatt AI data center in Ulsan with Amazon Web Services and plans to expand across Southeast Asia, starting with Vietnam. "SK Telecom is positioned for profit recovery in 2026," said Kim Hong-sik, analyst at Hana Securities, citing a low base and potential inflows if selected as a national AI project operator. Still, the biggest question looms: profitability. While Amazon generates more than $700 billion in annual operating cash flow, Naver's total revenue for 2025 was about 12 trillion won and Kakao's roughly 8.9 trillion won — figures that pale beside the hundreds of billions being committed to AI infrastructure worldwide. Experts say the cost burden may ease only when the industry shifts from GPUs — essential for training and running large models — to less power-hungry NPUs capable of deploying lighter models at lower cost. "GPUs, especially Nvidia's, are advancing faster than the models themselves," said Kong Duk-jo, professor of AI policy and strategy at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology. "If fabless NPU firms can build competitive chips, it could open new markets across hardware and software." He added that on-device AI, already demonstrated by Samsung, shows potential for broad commercial applications. 2026-02-09 16:26:34 -
Krafton posts record Q4 revenue on mobile game growth SEOUL, February 09 (AJP) - South Korean game developer Krafton reported a 49 percent growth in fourth-quarter revenue a year earlier, driven by strong performance from its mobile titles and cross-platform collaborations. Revenue for the final quarter of 2025 reached 919.7 billion won ($628.5 million), up from 617.6 billion won a year earlier, according to a regulatory filing released Monday. Operating profit plunged to 2.4 billion won from 215.5 billion won as the company set aside 81.6 billion won for employee welfare funds ahead of its office relocation. For the full year, Krafton posted revenue of 3.33 trillion won, up about 23 percent from 2.71 trillion won in 2024. Operating profit fell to 1.05 trillion won from 1.18 trillion won, though the company maintained profitability above 1 trillion won for the second straight year. The maker of "PUBG: Battlegrounds" attributed the growth to successful brand collaborations and expanded user-generated content offerings across its franchises. PC platform revenue jumped about 24 percent in the quarter to 287.4 billion won, fueled by a November tie-up with luxury carmaker Porsche that marked the franchise's most successful supercar collaboration to date. Mobile revenue climbed on the back of PUBG Mobile and its India-specific version BGMI, which saw paying user numbers rise 5 percent and 27 percent respectively for the year. The company also benefited from consolidating results from acquisitions ADK Group and Neptunus, which drove other revenue up more than tenfold. "We are building a long-lifecycle franchise ecosystem anchored by PUBG IP while expanding into new territories with AI-driven innovation," the Seongnam-based company said. Krafton said it plans to release new titles including Subnautica 2, Palworld Mobile and others this year, promising to upgrade its existing IP into title games of each genre. 2026-02-09 15:53:15 -
Naver CEO apologizes after glitch exposes anonymous Q&A histories of 15,000 public figures SEOUL, February 07 (AJP) - Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon issued a formal apology after a software update inadvertently exposed the anonymous question-and-answer histories of about 15,000 celebrities, athletes and politicians registered on the platform's people search database. The breach, which occurred between Feb. 3 and 4 during a routine update to Naver's "Knowledge iN" Q&A service, caused links to users' past anonymous activity to surface in public search results, triggering widespread privacy concerns across South Korea. Personal queries and responses that prominent figures had posted under the assumption of anonymity were laid bare to the public, fueling a backlash over what critics called a serious violation of user privacy on the country's dominant search engine. "We sincerely apologize for the distress caused to our users," Choi said in a public notice posted on Friday, adding that the company had fully rolled back the update by 10 p.m. on Feb. 4 and that the same error would not recur. Naver said it had preemptively reported the incident to the Personal Information Protection Commission, South Korea's data privacy watchdog, and pledged to cooperate fully with any ensuing investigation. The company has also sent individual apology emails to all affected users. The tech giant vowed to conduct a sweeping review of its service protocols to prevent a repeat of the breach, with Choi emphasizing the company would take "a responsible stance" in containing further fallout for those affected. 2026-02-07 16:56:53 -
BTS comeback D-42: Band sets Tottenham stadium attendance record with 120,000-seat sellout SEOUL, February 07 (AJP) - BTS has achieved the highest occupancy rate for a single concert at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, concert promoter Live Nation UK said on Saturday. The seven-member band will perform before about 120,000 fans over two nights on July 6 to 7 in London, with tickets for both shows sold out. The performances will feature a 360-degree stage configuration at the 62,000-capacity venue. The stadium, home to Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, has hosted concerts by artists including Stray Kids, Beyonce and Travis Scott since opening. The world tour begins April 9 at Goyang Stadium in South Korea, where all ticketed shows have sold out, according to reports. BTS will hold a comeback performance at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on March 21, which will be livestreamed to about 190 countries on Netflix. The group's pre-release single has topped Spotify's "Countdown Chart Global" for three consecutive weeks ahead of their fifth studio album "Arirang." 2026-02-07 14:33:43 -
BTS comeback D-42: Seoul tells fans to travel light or risk missing the show SEOUL, February 07 (AJP) - With BTS's historic comeback concert at Gwanghwamun Square just six weeks away, Seoul authorities and transit operators are urging the hundreds of thousands of fans expected to descend on the capital to ditch their suitcases before heading to the venue. Organizers are expecting about 15,000 for the square, with an additional 13,000 to watch on large screens at Seoul Plaza. Industry observers, however, estimate that as many as 200,000 people could flood the surrounding area on March 21, when the septet takes the stage for the first time in nearly four years to celebrate the release of their fifth studio album, "Arirang." The Seoul Metropolitan Government is directing concertgoers — particularly those arriving from regional cities and abroad — to store bulky luggage at transit hubs such as Seoul Station, Suseo Station and Yongsan Station before making their way to the venue. Smart lockers at subway stations across the city can be reserved through the T Locker app, which covers more than 5,500 units at 269 stations on Lines 1 through 9, allowing users to check real-time availability, book and pay via mobile. Officials recommend that fans spread their belongings across nearby stations, including Jonggak, Seodaemun, Gyeongbokgung and Seoul City Hall, to avoid a rush on lockers closest to the square. Authorities warned that storage units at stations adjacent to the venue are likely to fill up early in the day. Reservations left unclaimed within two hours are automatically canceled without a refund, making last-minute booking essential. Staffed luggage counters operated by T Luggage at major rail terminals offer an alternative, though most close by 10 p.m. The concert, titled " THE COMEBACK LIVE: ARIRANG," will be livestreamed globally on Netflix to more than 190 countries starting at 8 p.m. Directed by Hamish Hamilton, who has helmed multiple Super Bowl halftime shows, the production will feature 50 dancers and 13 traditional musicians performing against the backdrop of the illuminated Gwanghwamun. Seoul's transit authority has not ruled out bypassing Gwanghwamun Station on Line 5 without stopping if passenger congestion reaches critical levels, a measure previously deployed during large-scale rallies in the capital. Fans are advised to consider alighting one stop early — at Jonggak, Seodaemun or Gyeongbokgung — and walking to the square to avoid bottlenecks underground. 2026-02-07 13:24:18 -
Coupang data breach victims file class action suit in New York seeking punitive damages SEOUL, February 07 (AJP) - Victims of a massive Coupang data breach filed a class action lawsuit in a New York federal court seeking punitive damages from the e-commerce giant and its founder Kim Bom-suk. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, alleges Coupang breached its duty to protect personal data and failed to implement adequate security measures. The data leak affected about 33.7 million customer accounts. Two Korean Americans surnamed Lee and Park serve as lead plaintiffs, represented by SJKP Law Firm LLP, a U.S. subsidiary of South Korea's Daeryun Law Firm. More than 7,000 data breach victims have contacted the law firm regarding the class action suit, an SJKP lawyer said. The lawsuit proceeds separately from litigation filed against Coupang in South Korean and California courts. In their complaint, the plaintiffs claim Coupang violated personal data protection obligations and breached implied contracts with customers. They argue the company profited unfairly by failing to implement proper security safeguards. The U.S. punitive damages system allows for substantial compensation awards against companies found to have committed gross negligence. T-Mobile paid $350 million in 2021 to settle a class action after personal data from more than 76.6 million users was exposed, setting a precedent for such cases. 2026-02-07 10:46:20