Korean won rises 1.3% after strong verbal intervention SEOUL, December 24 (AJP) - The Korean won surged more than 1 percent against the U.S. dollar in early trading Wednesday in Seoul, as suspected dollar-selling flows followed a strong verbal warning from authorities, amplifying a broader retreat in the greenback across major currencies. The dollar fell 22.8 won to 1,459.2 won as of 10 a.m., outperforming the dollar index’s 0.34 percent decline to 97.61. In a joint message issued before the market opened, senior officials at the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Bank of Korea warned of their "strong will and policy capacity" to curb what they described as "undesirable" and excessive weakness in the local currency. The warning came after the dollar briefly tested the 1,480-won level earlier this month, nearing its annual trough in April amid renewed market volatility triggered by Washington's tariff-related measures. A foreign-exchange trader, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a large volume of forward dollar selling and currency-hedging transactions appeared to enter the market in tandem with the authorities' verbal intervention. Earlier this month, the National Pension Service extended a US$65 billion foreign-exchange swap agreement, giving the fund greater flexibility to conduct strategic hedging when the exchange rate reaches certain thresholds. The suspected hedging activity has reinforced market expectations that authorities are effectively defending the 1,480-won level as a key psychological and policy line. 2025-12-24 10:30:13

Korean won nears annual trough despite all-out defense SEOUL, December 23 (AJP) - The Korean won is nearing its annual trough of 1,487.6 per dollar last seen on April 9, when global markets reeled from renewed risk aversion triggered by Donald Trump’s tariff barrage, despite all-out defensive efforts by South Korean authorities. The dollar closed Tuesday in Seoul at 1,483.6 won, up 3.5 won even as the dollar index eased 0.23 percent to 98.072 and the greenback softened against the Japanese yen — underscoring idiosyncratic weakness in the won rather than broad dollar strength. The dollar is down 0.96 yen at 156.12 yen. The won’s slide through the psychologically critical 1,480 “defense line” came against the tide of foreign equity inflows, with overseas investors buying 955 billion won worth of KOSPI shares amid a global technology-stock shopping spree. The breach has raised questions over the effectiveness and limits of authorities’ FX-defense capabilities, particularly as equity inflows failed to translate into currency support. Ha Joon-kyung, senior presidential secretary for economic growth, became the latest official to join the chorus of intervention, warning in a local media interview on Monday that “one-sided market behavior has become pronounced since November,” and that speculative bets on further won weakness are intensifying. “It would be a misjudgment to think the government will stand by in the face of excessive market concentration,” Ha said — a pointed signal that authorities are prepared to act. Authorities have hinted all possible actions to defend the won, including dollar-selling and hedging operations by the National Pension Service, heightened real-time monitoring of FX flows, and repeated assurances that disorderly, speculative moves will not be tolerated. The Bank of Korea has supplemented with liquidity incentives, including interest payments on banks’ FX reserve deposits and a temporary waiver of the FX stability levy, while signaling readiness for additional liquidity support and market-smoothing operations to counter disorderly won moves. 2025-12-23 11:11:21

K-ramyeon, AI chip and doll: Korean ramyeon joins WSJ's culture list for 2025 SEOUL, December 23 (AJP) -A vivid-red bowl of Korean instant noodles—slurped onscreen by a purple-braided K-pop heroine—has joined the Wall Street Journal’s list of the “20 objects defining culture in 2025,” placing Korean ramyeon alongside China’s viral toy craze Labubu and global pop phenomenon Taylor Swift. The ramyeon moment, drawn from Netflix’s animated smash KPop Demon Hunters, ranked third on the Journal’s list, following the monster-doll Labubu—produced by China’s Pop Mart—and Swift’s engagement to NFL star Travis Kelce. The list, presented as a playful guessing game, also featured viral markers of the year ranging from Nvidia chips to matcha lattes. At the center of the phenomenon was KPop Demon Hunters, which blended K-pop spectacle with Korean shamanistic motifs in a story about embracing one’s whole identity. Released in June, the animated film became the most-watched title in Netflix history across both film and television categories, surpassing even Squid Game. Directed by Korean Canadian filmmaker Maggie Kang, the U.S.-produced film follows Huntr/x, a fictional girl group that battles evil spirits using the power of music. Its original soundtrack proved equally potent. “Golden,” performed by Korean American artists Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami, topped the Billboard Hot 100 for eight nonconsecutive weeks and led the UK’s Official Singles Chart Top 100 for 10 nonconsecutive weeks. The song marked a new milestone for K-pop-linked music, seamlessly blending Western pop sensibilities with Korean melodic structures and partially Korean lyrics—an approach increasingly resonant with global audiences. The cultural spillover was not limited to music. Riding the momentum of the anime’s global success, South Korea’s ramyeon exports surged, surpassing $1 billion as of September, underscoring how pop culture continues to translate into tangible trade gains for Korean consumer brands. 2025-12-23 07:59:10

Korean Inc. braces for tougher 2026 on FX risk and import-driven inflation: FKI SEOUL, December 22 (AJP) -More than half of South Korea's big companies predict a tough year ahead, citing challenging foreign-exchange conditions and sluggish domestic demand weighed down by inflationary pressure. According to a survey on corporate management conditions for 2026 by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), 52 percent of respondents forecast difficult management conditions next year, including 18 percent who expect the environment to be “very challenging.” Only 3.4 percent anticipate a very favorable year. The business lobby surveyed the country’s 1,000 largest companies by sales, with responses collected from 150 firms. A weak industry outlook was cited as the most significant headwind, followed by a prolonged economic slowdown and persistent global uncertainty. On the domestic front, delayed recovery in demand topped corporate concerns at 32.2 percent, followed by sticky inflation at 21.6 percent and uncertainty over interest-rate policy at 13.1 percent. Externally, firms pointed to heightened foreign-exchange volatility, including exchange-rate fluctuations, as the leading risk at 26.7 percent. Rising trade barriers accounted for 24.9 percent, while concerns over a global economic slowdown (19.8 percent) and uncertainty surrounding energy and raw-material imports (15.3 percent) also featured prominently — underscoring how inflationary pressures linked to a weak won are emerging as a key challenge for Korean companies. Reflecting a more defensive posture, companies signaled restraint in capital spending. Rather than pursuing new growth engines, 34 percent said they would prioritize upgrades to existing operations, while 23.6 percent planned investment aimed at future growth. Another 8.2 percent indicated a focus on cost-cutting and business rationalization. 2025-12-22 09:34:00

OPINION: When all that glitters mixes with FX markets For decades, gold sat politely outside the foreign-exchange conversation. It was a hedge against inflation, a shelter in crises, an asset of last resort—but rarely a variable that moved currencies themselves. Exchange rates were explained in the familiar grammar of trade balances, interest-rate differentials and capital flows. Gold belonged to another chapter. That separation is beginning to fray in Asia. The first clear signal has come from Thailand. In recent months, the baht has emerged as one of Asia’s strongest currencies, an outcome that sits uneasily with the country’s weak growth, high household debt and persistent political uncertainty. Conventional explanations—exports, rates, fiscal policy—only go so far. Markets have increasingly looked elsewhere. They have looked to gold. Thailand is unusual in one important respect: private ownership of physical gold is widespread, and gold trading is deeply embedded in the domestic economy. When global gold prices rise, households and traders sell physical holdings, receive dollars and convert them into baht. In effect, higher gold prices translate directly into foreign-exchange demand. Thailand’s central bank has acknowledged this linkage openly. Officials estimate the correlation between gold prices and the baht at around 0.7, among the highest in Asia, and note that on certain days gold transactions account for a substantial share of currency flows. In some episodes, gold trading has reportedly driven close to half of the upward pressure on the baht. This matters because it challenges a long-standing assumption: that gold is a passive store of value rather than an active force in currency markets. The global backdrop reinforces the point. According to the World Gold Council, headline gold demand reached 1,257.9 tonnes in the third quarter of 2025, up 5 per cent year on year. Jewellery consumption continued to contract under the weight of record prices, but investment demand surged 47 per cent, while central banks added 219.9 tonnes, a 10 per cent increase from a year earlier. Gold is no longer merely being hoarded; it is being mobilised. Thailand’s trade data shows how directly this feeds into the currency. Between January and September 2025, gold imports reached 207.9 tonnes, up 41.9 per cent from a year earlier, with the import value rising 18.4 per cent to 462.7 billion baht. Over the same period, the baht appreciated roughly 9–10 per cent against the dollar, making it one of the region’s best-performing currencies. What makes this episode more than a local curiosity is that it coincides with a second structural shift: the digitisation of gold itself. Gold is quietly being rebuilt for a financial system that no longer runs exclusively through banks. Tokenised gold—digital tokens backed one-for-one by physical bullion—now trades around the clock, across borders, without reference to foreign-exchange market hours or banking intermediaries. The combined market capitalisation of tokenised gold has climbed to roughly $4.3 billion, with a single product, XAUT, accounting for just over 52 per cent of the total. This is not a return to a gold standard, nor is it a substitute for fiat currency. But it does introduce a new channel for capital movement—one that sits outside traditional FX statistics. When savings migrate from local currency not into dollars, but into gold value directly, the pressure on exchange rates becomes harder to trace, and easier to misread. Asia is particularly exposed to this shift. Trust in gold remains high, digital adoption is rapid, and cross-border financial experimentation is already well advanced. Thailand has demonstrated how physical gold can feed straight into currency strength. Tokenised gold has the potential to accelerate that mechanism, compressing time and distance, and moving value without ever passing through the visible plumbing of the FX market. The implications extend beyond Thailand. In countries such as South Korea, persistent currency weakness has become harder to reconcile with headline trade surpluses. Policymakers have tended to blame outward portfolio investment or global dollar strength. Those factors matter—but they may no longer be the whole story. If part of the capital outflow is bypassing foreign-exchange markets altogether, moving instead into gold or gold-linked digital assets, the traditional diagnostic tools are incomplete. This is not a revolution. No central bank is anchoring its currency to bullion. But gold is reclaiming a quasi-monetary role at the margins of the system—acting less as insurance, and more as an alternative expression of trust. Thailand is already feeling the effects in its exchange rate. Others may follow. The foreign-exchange market still speaks the language of banks and dollars, but capital is learning new dialects. Gold, characteristically, is doing so without saying a word. *The author is the managing editor of AJP 2025-12-20 19:17:23

OPINION: Oscar Night in 2030 - except that it won't end in one night On a spring evening in 2030, few people will reach for a television remote. They will tap the YouTube icon on the living-room screen instead. The Oscars will not appear on a numbered channel, but at the top of an algorithmic feed, marked simply: "Live now". The ceremony will begin—and almost immediately, it will splinter. Acceptance speeches will circulate as concise summaries. The red carpet will resurface as tagged video clips. Jokes will dissolve into memes. A small audience will still watch the broadcast from beginning to end. Most will not. Yet nearly everyone will encounter the Oscars in one form or another. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has agreed to stream the Academy Awards exclusively on YouTube for five years starting in 2029. The partnership will bring to a close nearly half a century of broadcast exclusivity with ABC, which began in 1976 and will end after the 100th ceremony in 2028. To frame the decision as an attempt to court younger viewers misses the larger point. The question is not age, but where attention gathers. Audiences no longer assemble around broadcast schedules. Live events migrate to platforms where people already spend their time. YouTube has long dominated mobile screens. It has now become a default presence on television sets themselves. Measured by TV viewing time, YouTube has surpassed Netflix—an inflection point that speaks less to the triumph of streaming than to the quiet replacement of broadcasting by platforms as the central architecture of media consumption. The more profound shift lies in what has happened to the live event itself. The Oscars no longer exist as a single night sealed off from the rest of the year. Red-carpet arrivals, backstage exchanges, interviews and short clips circulate continuously, resurfacing through search and recommendation long after the ceremony has ended. AMPAS’s decision to digitize its vast archive with Google reflects the same logic. The awards show is evolving from a one-off spectacle into a perpetually accessed repository of content. For audiences in South Korea, this transformation feels familiar. We no longer speak of “watching television” so much as opening apps. Messaging platforms sustain relationships; video platforms absorb hours; news reaches readers increasingly through summaries, clips and recommendations rather than full articles. As artificial intelligence settles into this environment, the contours sharpen further. Summaries precede full viewing. Experience is completed through circulation. Advertising slips away from traditional commercial breaks into short-form video, commerce and live sales. Viewers are no longer merely audiences; they function as editors, amplifiers and distributors all at once. The Oscars’ move to YouTube does not herald the death of broadcasting. It confirms that broadcasting as a format has already begun to dissolve. What matters now are the questions that follow: Where does public value attach in a platform-dominated media order? When editorial power drifts toward algorithms, who bears responsibility for diversity and balance? And who controls the record? The Academy’s renewed emphasis on archiving acknowledges a reality that extends far beyond Hollywood: platforms are becoming not just spaces of consumption, but custodians of cultural memory. The Oscars of 2030 will likely feel quieter. Some will watch live. Others will catch up the following morning. Many will decide that a handful of clips is sufficient. The ceremony will not vanish—but it will no longer be a moment experienced collectively, in real time. In truth, we already inhabit that world. The Oscars are simply arriving late. 2025-12-18 14:16:38

HOT STOCK: Ford's EV retreat delivers 10% blow to LG Energy Solution SEOUL, December 18 (AJP) -Shares of South Korea’s top battery maker LG Energy Solution have fallen more than 10 percent over the past week after Ford Motor announced it was withdrawing several electric-vehicle models amid changing market conditions. The move triggered the cancellation of a long-term battery supply agreement with LG Energy Solution valued at 9.6 trillion won ($6.5 billion). Shares of LG Energy Solution — the third-largest stock on the KOSPI by market capitalization — slid 6 percent to 388,500 won on Thursday, following the disclosure released after the market closed Wednesday. The stock had already fallen another 6 percent on Tuesday after the U.S. automaker said it would offer steep discounts on several EV models, including the F-150 Lightning. The fallout spread across the battery sector. Samsung SDI shares were down 4.2 percent, EcoPro BM fell 4.8 percent, and L&F, a key cathode material supplier to LG Energy Solution, dropped 6 percent. Ford’s EV pullback has also hit SK On, the unlisted battery arm of SK Group. The U.S. automaker recently walked away from a planned $11.4 billion battery joint-venture plant in Stanton, Tennessee, dealing another blow to Korea’s battery industry. The dissolution of the JV is expected to be finalized in the first quarter of 2026. 2025-12-18 10:11:58

Korea's Doosan Corp. named preferred bidder for wafer maker SK siltron SEOUL, December 18 (AJP) - Heavy-equipment-strong South Korean conglomerate Doosan Group has moved closer to the chipmaking segment after being named the preferred bidder to acquire SK siltron, the world’s third-largest maker of silicon wafers. SK Inc. said in a regulatory filing Wednesday that it had notified Doosan Corp. of its selection as the preferred negotiating partner for the sale of its stake in SK siltron. SK Inc. holds 70.6 percent in the wafer entity. Given the market-estimated valuation of around 5 trillion ($3.4 billion), the transaction is expected to be worth roughly 3 trillion to 4 trillion won, depending on final terms. It remains unclear whether the deal will involve remaining 29.4 percent stake held by SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won. “Details of the transaction will be determined through negotiations with the preferred bidder,” SK Inc. said, adding that a follow-up disclosure would be made once terms are finalized or within three months. SK siltron-held technology is labeled "national core technology" as it is the country's sole specialized producer of semiconductor wafers, a core base material for chip manufacturing, and ranks third globally by market share in 12-inch wafers. It supplies Samsung Electronics and SK hynix and has not posted a loss since joining SK Group. Its medium- to long-term outlook is viewed as relatively solid, supported by expanding AI-driven chip demand and rising utilization rates at major customers. The potential acquisition comes as Doosan accelerates a strategic pivot toward semiconductors as part of a broader portfolio reshuffle. The group has already expanded into the sector through the acquisition of semiconductor testing company Doosan Tesna and its subsidiary Enzion, while also strengthening its materials and equipment businesses. If the SK Siltron deal is completed, Doosan would build a vertically integrated semiconductor portfolio structured around three pillars: Doosan Tesna, which specializes in non-memory chip testing; Doosan Corp.’s Electronics BG unit, which produces copper-clad laminate (CCL) used in semiconductor substrates; and SK Siltron, which would supply customized wafers. Doosan Corp.’s Electronics BG unit posted standalone revenue of 439.9 billion won in the third quarter, with cumulative revenue through September reaching 1.319 trillion won — already surpassing last year’s full-year figure of 1.0072 trillion won. SK Group has sought to divest SK siltron since early this year as part of an ongoing restructuring aimed at reallocating resources toward core growth engines. Several domestic and overseas private equity funds conducted preliminary due diligence in the first half of the year, but talks stalled amid differences over valuation and deal terms. 2025-12-18 07:59:54

LG Energy Solution ends $6.5 bn deal with Ford amid EV slowdown SEOUL, December 17 (AJP) -South Korea's LG Energy Solution said Wednesday it has terminated an electric vehicle battery supply contract with Ford Motor worth an estimated 9.6 trillion won ($6.5 billion), after the U.S. automaker decided to halt production of some EV models amid shifting policy conditions and a softer demand outlook. In a regulatory filing after the stock market closure, the South Korean battery maker said the termination followed formal notice from Ford, which recently reassessed its EV production plans in response to changes in the policy environment and cooling expectations for electric vehicle demand. The contract, originally disclosed on Oct. 15, 2024, was signed on Oct. 14 and covered battery supplies for multiple Ford EV models. LG Energy Solution said the disclosed termination amount was calculated by applying battery prices at the time of contract signing to the originally agreed supply volume, making the figure an estimate rather than a realized loss. The company added that the reference to recent sales in the filing was based on its consolidated financial statements as of the end of 2023, while the termination date reflects the day it received the cancellation notice from Ford. Ford has been scaling back its EV ambitions as costs rise and demand growth proves slower than initially expected. The automaker recently canceled or delayed several EV models, signaling a more cautious rollout strategy amid weaker consumer uptake, margin pressure and lingering infrastructure constraints. Shares of LG Energy Solution closed Wednesday, mildly down 0.6 percent at 415,500 won after a 6-percent slide on the previous day. LG Energy Solution, one of the world’s largest EV battery suppliers with clients spanning North America, Europe and Asia, has recently emphasized efforts to protect its intellectual property and diversify its customer base as competition intensifies and growth expectations moderate. 2025-12-17 18:20:05

USD-KRW tests 1,480 on capital outflows amid Japan rate-hike fears SEOUL, December 17 (AJP) - The South Korean won fell past the 1,480 mark against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday, defying a broadly weaker greenback as fears of capital outflows resurfaced on expectations of a rate hike by the Bank of Japan. The dollar index slipped 0.16 points to 97.79 following higher-than-expected U.S. jobless data. Yet the won weakened sharply, underscoring its vulnerability to shifts in global capital flows rather than dollar strength alone. Institutions came to rescue the Korean markets, buying 335.3 billion won in KOSPI alone versus heavy foreign selling, a move widely seen as led by the National Pension Service (NPS) under government guidance to shore up the currency through foreign-exchange hedging. Earlier this week, South Korea’s foreign-exchange authorities extended a $65 billion currency-swap arrangement with the NPS through the end of 2026, signaling official resolve to stabilize the won amid rising external risks. The defense, however, appeared insufficient against growing volatility in global markets. The dollar slipped back to 1,479.90 won, still up 5.40 won from previous close, as of 5:00 p.m. Foreigners also dumped 223 billion won worth of KOSDAQ shares, pointing to a broader pullback reminiscent of the “yen shock” seen in August, as investors brace for a second rate hike by the BOJ this year. The Japanese central bank is widely expected to raise its policy rate by 25 basis points to 0.75 percent at Friday’s meeting, up from 0.50 percent, which would place borrowing costs at their highest level in roughly three decades. A BOJ tightening is feared to unwind the yen carry trade — a strategy that borrows in ultra-low-yielding yen to invest in higher-return assets abroad — a key source of funding for emerging markets including South Korea. Morgan Stanley estimates that about $500 billion in yen-funded carry positions remain outstanding globally. 2025-12-17 14:37:53