AJU PRESS - ASIA NEWS HUB

Journalist

Jinkyu, Myung hisunny20@ajunews.com

Experts urge platform accountability as youth social media time limits fall short Calls are growing for national-level rules and technical safeguards to regulate teenagers’ use of social media, with experts warning that simple screen-time limits cannot solve overdependence. At a National Assembly seminar on April 22 titled “Seeking responses to trends in regulating children and adolescents’ social media,” participants debated both the direction and limits of youth-protection policies. Yoon Hye-kyung, a researcher at Korea University’s law school, said childhood and adolescence require a “function of forgetting” that allows young people to learn from mistakes and recover emotionally, but the digital environment can block those opportunities. She said regulation should be phased to match developmental stages rather than imposed as a blanket ban. Yoon cited overseas cases to highlight limits of current approaches. In Australia, she said, measures introduced in the name of protecting youth have drawn criticism for potentially restricting freedom of expression and opportunities for creative activity. She also pointed to risks of personal data leaks during age verification and said tech-savvy teens can often bypass controls, undermining effectiveness. She said legislation in some U.S. states has also faced setbacks. In Ohio, which enacted a parental-consent law for social media controls, the requirement was viewed as an excessive restriction because it could block access to beneficial information as well, violating the principle against overbroad limits. California, which introduced an “age-appropriate design code” requiring child protections at the platform-design stage, also received a ruling finding it unconstitutional, she said. Issues included insufficient proof that protections would work and concerns that age checks could drive the collection of even more personal data. Yoon listed key tasks as introducing tailored, age-based phased regulation; making digital safety education a legal requirement; and building a cooperative governance framework between platforms and the government. “Rather than simply blocking teens from using social media, we need detailed regulatory design, education and a social consultative body,” she said. In a subsequent discussion, speakers also urged stronger platform responsibility. Jin Min-jung, a researcher at the Korea Press Foundation, said smartphones are “teenagers’ life itself,” where friendships, information searches and leisure all take place. “Kids are already skilled at finding ways around restrictions, so simple time limits have clear limits,” she said. Jin said the approach should focus on changing structures that encourage addiction, emphasizing improvements in platform design, including technical measures that limit functions based on age and developmental stage. The Korea Communications Commission’s Broadcasting Media and Communications Committee also voiced agreement with that view. Choi Seon-kyung, director of the committee’s User Policy Division, said the root cause of social media overdependence is “intentional design” by platform operators seeking to increase time spent for profit. She said the committee is closely watching court precedents in California and New Mexico. Choi added that the committee will actively support seven bills currently pending in the National Assembly. 2026-04-22 17:01:02
LG AI Research, Nvidia deepen alliance to expand EXAONE ecosystem LG AI Research and Nvidia are strengthening a technology alliance to expand the “K-EXAONE” ecosystem. LG AI Research said executives including Woo-hyung Lim, co-head of LG AI Research, and Jin-sik Lee, head of the EXAONE Lab, met Monday afternoon at the institute’s headquarters in Seoul’s Magok district with Bryan Catanzaro, Nvidia vice president of applied deep learning research, and So-young Jung, head of Nvidia Korea, to discuss cooperation on developing next-generation AI models. The two companies said they will broaden collaboration by combining LG’s AI model, EXAONE, with Nvidia’s Nemotron open ecosystem to jointly develop specialized models for professional fields. LG AI Research said it used Nemotron open datasets during EXAONE’s development to help ensure training data quality. Nvidia supported optimization of model training and improvements in inference performance and efficiency by providing its latest Blackwell graphics processing units, the NeMo Framework AI development platform and TensorRT-LLM software designed to boost inference performance. “As a key partner of LG AI Research, Nvidia has worked together to make EXAONE Korea’s top AI model,” Catanzaro said. “By combining LG’s EXAONE and Nvidia’s Nemotron, we will lead sovereign AI and contribute to expanding the ecosystem,” he said. Lim said Nvidia has been a core technology partner in developing EXAONE. “We will take LG and Nvidia’s cooperation a step further by expanding the research-and-development ecosystem and deliver sovereign AI results that can be felt in industrial settings,” he said. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-22 10:05:17
SK Telecom to Revamp Job Grades, Create CEO-Led B2B Task Force Under CEO Jeong Jae-heon SK Telecom said April 21 that it will overhaul its job-grade system and set up a CEO-led task force to strengthen its business-to-business competitiveness, announcing the plans through its newsroom as CEO Jeong Jae-heon marked six months in the role. Jeong, speaking at a town hall meeting at the company’s headquarters in Seoul’s Euljiro area, stressed the need for customer-centered change. “In a sense of crisis that the company could collapse, the core is ultimately the ‘customer,’” he said, adding, “Getting back to customers, each drop of sweat is creating change.” Jeong also said the company’s future growth engines run through AI. SK Telecom plans to build planning and development capabilities for mid- to long-term projects in its telecom business, including an AI-optimized integrated computing system, while strengthening its current digital competitiveness. The company said it will step up its push into the B2B market as what it described as the country’s only “full-stack” provider spanning AI infrastructure, models and services. To consolidate B2B capabilities, it will create an enterprise task force reporting directly to the CEO. The task force will be led concurrently by Han Myung-jin, head of the Mobile Network Operator (MNO) CIC. SK Telecom also said it will accelerate its AI data center business. Within its AI CIC, it will establish dedicated units by area, including an AI DC Business Division (to be led concurrently by AI CIC head Jeong Seok-geun) and an AI DC Development Division headed by Ha Min-yong. The company will also change its job-grade structure to three levels from the current two-stage system. The current A and B bands will be reorganized into Growth Level 1 for developing practitioners, Growth Level 2 for key contributors, and Growth Level 3 for leaders and leadership candidates. “For plans spanning 10 years and 20 years, we selected growth businesses and moved to 추진 organizational pivoting and changes to HR systems,” Jeong said. “In the near term, tangible results may come slowly, and the AX transition may take more time, but let’s execute boldly for the future that will come when we overcome this.” 2026-04-21 16:31:38
Startup Upstage becomes South Korea's first AI unicorn after raising more funds SEOUL, April 15 (AJP) - Artificial intelligence (AI) startup Upstage has raised about 180 billion Korean won (about US$120 million) in its latest funding round, the company said on Wednesday. With the funding, Upstage, now valued at more than 1 trillion won, became South Korea's first unicorn among generative AI companies. According to Upstage, the fresh fund was raised in a round led by Sage Partners, a Silicon Valley-based global venture capital and early investor that has continued to back the company through previous rounds, reaffirming its confidence in Upstage's technology and future growth. New investors include KB Securities, InterVest, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Premier Partners, Shinhan Venture Investment as well as global equity investment firm Axiom Asia. Upstage, which provides industry-focused AI solutions built on its in-house large language model Solar and its document-processing AI Document Parse, said its revenue has grown by more than 130 percent annually since its founding in 2020. Last year, it was selected as the lead company for a government-led initiative to develop sovereign AI technology, further strengthening its position as one of the most promising AI developers in South Korea. Upstage's cumulative funding has reached about 400 billion won including 31.6 billion won in 2021, 100 billion won in 2024, and 62 billion won last year. It will use the funds to expand its graphics processing unit (GPU) infrastructure to advance AI models, while recruiting top talent both at home and overseas to expand into overseas markets. "The latest funding goes beyond simple fundraising and shows the market's confidence in Upstage's journey and achievements as an AI developer," said CEO Kim Seong-hun, adding, "We will advance our proprietary AI models to compete not only in Korea but also globally, and become a company that proves itself through revenue, not just valuation." 2026-04-15 10:21:52
Many teenagers still addicted to smartphones despite overall decline SEOUL, March 26 (AJP) - About a quarter of South Koreans were at risk of overdependence on smartphones last year, according to a survey released Thursday. The risk was similarly high among young children but decreased among adults and those in their 60s compared with the previous year. The Ministry of Science and ICT conducted one-on-one interviews with about 10,000 households nationwide to survey patterns of smartphone usage. Some 22.7 percent of smartphone users were classified as being at risk, down 0.2 percentage points from the previous year, seeing a continuous decline since 2021. By age, teenagers had the highest rate at 43 percent, followed by young children at 26 percent. Adults stood at 22.3 percent and those in their 60s at 11.5 percent, both down from a year earlier. But digital inclusion made steady progress overall. Digital literacy, accessibility, and usage improved among digitally vulnerable groups, including people with disabilities older adults, low-income individuals, and those working in agriculture and fisheries. In terms of overall usage of smart devices, these groups reached 77.9 percent of the general public's level, up 0.4 percentage point from the prior year, marking the fifth consecutive year of growth. The ministry said it will offer consultation services and other programs to help high-risk teenagers reduce their use of smart devices, in cooperation with other government agencies. 2026-03-26 14:59:54
Korea's veteran progressive figure Lee Hae-chan hospitalized in Vietnam after heart attack SEOUL, January 24 (AJP) -Former South Korean Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan, a veteran progressive politician and one of the most influential figures in the country’s liberal camp, was rushed to a hospital in Vietnam on Friday after suffering a heart attack and remains in critical condition, officials said. Lee, 73, who currently serves as senior vice chairperson of the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council (PUAC), collapsed at around 1 p.m. local time shortly after arriving at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City while attempting to return to South Korea, according to PUAC officials. He had arrived in Vietnam a day earlier to attend a meeting of the council’s Vietnamese chapter but reportedly complained of flu-like symptoms before his departure from Seoul. As his condition worsened, Lee decided to cut short his trip and return home. During the airport incident, Lee experienced breathing difficulties and was transported by ambulance to a local hospital while receiving cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Officials said he suffered cardiac arrest twice during transport and treatment. Doctors performed a stent insertion procedure, and Lee is currently breathing with the assistance of mechanical support. His condition remains critical, and he is expected to remain hospitalized until stabilized, officials said. President Lee Jae Myung was briefed on the situation and ordered the dispatch of his senior political secretary, Cho Jung-sik, to Vietnam to assist during Lee’s hospitalization. Cho was scheduled to depart early Saturday, according to the presidential office. Born in 1952, Lee Hae-chan is a seven-term lawmaker and a towering figure in South Korea’s progressive movement. He served as prime minister from 2004 to 2006 under the Roh Moo-hyun administration and previously held the post of education minister, where he spearheaded sweeping education and administrative reforms. Known as a hardline strategist and ideological anchor of the Democratic Party, Lee later served as a senior adviser to Lee Jae Myung’s presidential campaign in 2021 and as co-chair of the party’s election committee during last year’s general election. He currently holds the title of standing senior adviser to the Democratic Party. The PUAC is a constitutionally mandated presidential advisory body tasked with proposing unification policies, gathering domestic and international public opinion on inter-Korean relations, and building national consensus on unification. The president serves as its chair, while the senior vice chairperson serves a two-year term. The council comprises roughly 22,000 advisers at home and abroad, including regional, professional and overseas Korean representatives. Officials said they are closely monitoring Lee’s condition as arrangements are made for ongoing medical support in coordination with South Korean authorities. 2026-01-24 10:19:07
ChatGPT most downloaded app in South Korea last year SEOUL, January 8 (AJP) - ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, was the most downloaded new app in South Korea last year, big data analytics firm IGAWorks said on Thursday. ChatGPT led all apps with an average of 16.57 million new monthly downloads, followed by the state-run gift voucher app Digital Onnuri at 12.81 million, Chinese shopping platform Temu at 11.52 million, and the country's largest portal Naver's shopping platform at 10.20 million. When it comes to the number of users, U.S. streaming giant YouTube took the top spot with some 51.71 million monthly active users last year, followed by messaging app Kakao Talk at 46.35 million, Naver at 44.94 million, and Google at 41.28 million. 2026-01-08 09:43:00
Korean AI firm Upstage releases AI model as open source SEOUL, January 06 (AJP) - South Korean artificial intelligence company Upstage said on Tuesday it has released its in-house large language model, Solar Open 100B, as open-source software. Solar Open is the first output of the Ministry of Science and ICT’s “Independent AI Foundation Model” project, in which Upstage is participating as the lead company. Upstage said it developed the model entirely in-house, overseeing the full process from data construction to training. The company released the model on the global open-source platform Hugging Face and published a technical report detailing its development. Upstage said the 102-billion-parameter model delivers performance comparable to global frontier models. It said Solar Open is about 15 percent the size of China’s DeepSeek R1 but outperformed it in key benchmark evaluations across three languages: Korean, English and Japanese. According to the company, Solar Open recorded performance gains of 110 percent in Korean, 103 percent in English and 106 percent in Japanese compared with DeepSeek R1. The company said it plans to open part of the dataset through the National Information Society Agency’s AI Hub, describing it as a public resource aimed at strengthening South Korea’s artificial intelligence research ecosystem. “Solar Open is a model Upstage trained independently from the beginning, and it is the most Korean yet also global AI, with a deep understanding of Korea’s emotions and linguistic context,” Chief Executive Kim Sung-hoon said. 2026-01-06 08:44:14
INTERVIEW: Korea confident in AI sovereignty - National AI committee vice chair SEOUL, January 01 (AJP) -“The debate over whether sovereign artificial intelligence is even possible has completely shifted. Now the mood is: we can do it. That change in mindset is the most important development so far,” Lim Moon-young, the vice chairman of the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy Committee, told Aju Business Daily on Dec. 29, 2025. More than 100 days after its launch under President Lee Jae Myung, the National AI Strategy Committee's biggest internal transformation is the growing recognition that artificial intelligence is no longer merely a policy agenda to be discussed, but a national strategy that must be executed. Initial skepticism over whether Korea could realistically pursue “sovereign AI” has eased as plans to secure large-scale computing resources — including hundreds of thousands of graphics processing units (GPUs) — have taken shape and as the government’s commitment has become more visible. Officials say confidence has grown both inside and outside government. The committee has elevated AI to a top-tier national agenda and is pushing for a government-wide shift in how policy is coordinated. Its approach includes converting the body into a statutory committee to strengthen authority, applying a so-called “funnel strategy” to compel interministerial cooperation, and drafting a basic AI law centered on infrastructure building and real-world deployment. The ultimate goal is to establish AI as a foundational national infrastructure across industry and society. Below is a Q&A with Lim Moon-young, vice chair of the National AI Strategy Committee. What stands out most after 100 days of the committee’s work? “The biggest change is confidence — confidence that we can actually do this. At the beginning, there was a lot of doubt: ‘Can we really compete with big tech?’ ‘Is sovereign AI even feasible?’ But that atmosphere has changed completely. As plans such as securing 260,000 GPUs have taken shape, both policymakers and the public have gained confidence in the AI transition. People can now see that the government is serious, and that has changed attitudes,” Lim said. The committee is set to become a statutory body next year. What will change? “Becoming a statutory committee allows us to operate on a more stable footing. In the AI era, every ministry’s work inevitably overlaps, so coordination is essential. This committee is designed as a new organizational model to break down bureaucratic silos and drive cooperation. “Through an AI action plan based on the funnel strategy, we assign clear roles, responsibilities and deadlines to each ministry. Their outcomes then flow back into the committee through a funnel structure that enforces collaboration. We will also introduce evaluation indicators so the process cannot be ignored, and we plan to monitor implementation through a council of chief AI officers centered on AI senior secretary Ha Jung-woo,” he said. Why does South Korea need ‘sovereign AI’? “Sovereign AI should not be misunderstood as a closed or exclusive approach that relies only on domestic products. The core issue is choice and control. If we do not have our own technology, we become vulnerable when overseas companies raise prices or cut off supply. “It’s similar to national defense. Even if we buy fighter jets from the United States, we operate them ourselves. In the same way, we need a flexible strategy that maintains our own models while also using global technologies where appropriate,” Lim said. Startups worry that an AI basic law could stifle innovation. How do you respond? “This should not be framed as a simple choice between regulation and promotion. The real question is whether policy fits our current stage of development. From an AI-native perspective, we are still at a very early phase. We lack sufficient data centers and power infrastructure. “In that situation, leading with regulation would be putting the cart before the horse. The AI basic law should not function as a regulatory law at this stage. It should serve as a foundation for support and promotion, helping us repay what I call the ‘technology debt’ accumulated over 20 years of underinvestment and enabling us to rapidly build AI infrastructure,” he said. How should South Korea address widening knowledge gaps as subscription-based AI services spread? “We are entering an era of what I call ‘knowledge inflation.’ Advanced knowledge should not be accessible only to those who can afford expensive subscriptions. Just as King Sejong created Hangul to democratize knowledge, the core philosophy of the government’s AI basic society is that benefits must be shared by everyone. “Rather than simply distributing AI vouchers, the government can make foundational technologies — such as large language models or vision-language models — available for free or at low cost so startups and small business owners can use them. “For example, a restaurant owner could upload sales data and have AI automatically handle complex tax filings or track health-certificate renewal dates. They could also ask questions like, ‘Most of my customers are in their 40s — what menu item should I add?’ or ‘How should I redesign my interior?’ and receive consulting-level analysis,” Lim said. How can South Korea address power supply constraints linked to an AI-based economy? “The solution is what I call ‘Gyeong-su, hyang-san’ — data in the capital region, computing in the provinces. China processes data generated in its eastern regions using power-rich western regions, and we can take a similar approach. “Data creation will naturally remain concentrated around Seoul, but large-scale training data centers, which consume enormous amounts of electricity, should be located in regions with abundant power supply. Edge centers for inference, where real-time response is crucial, should be located in cities, but they must be carefully managed so they don’t proliferate uncontrollably. “AI itself should help solve this problem by analyzing fluctuations in energy supply by time of day and season, and allocating power more efficiently. Just as Google DeepMind is working on using AI to manage nuclear fusion, the interaction must be two-way: AI improves energy efficiency, and energy sustains AI,” he said. What are the committee’s mid- to long-term goals? “I hope South Korea does not miss this golden window for AI transformation and succeeds in building an independent ‘third zone’ between U.S. and Chinese dominance. We are one of the few countries with a full-stack capability — spanning semiconductors, software, services and data. “Our strengths lie in e-government know-how and world-class manufacturing. Going forward, we plan to expand the committee and place greater emphasis on physical AI as the next strategic frontier. “Beyond industrial development, we also want to ask more fundamental questions: how democracy and social systems should evolve in the AI era, and what kind of identity and governance model Korea should pursue,” Lim said. * This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP. 2026-01-01 14:12:50
South Korea eyes independent Mars landing by 2045 SEOUL, December 16 (AJP) - South Korea’s space agency said on Tuesday it plans to pursue a dual-track strategy to achieve a Mars landing by 2045, combining international cooperation in the near term with the long-term goal of deploying a lander developed entirely with domestic technology. Unveiling its Mars exploration roadmap at a press conference in Seoul, the Korea AeroSpace Administration said it would initially collaborate with SpaceX by using the U.S. company’s Starship launch system to test key Mars exploration technologies, while continuing to develop its own launch vehicles for an independent mission in the future. “Mars exploration is progressing rapidly, with private companies playing a leading role,” Kang Kyung-in, head of the agency’s space science exploration division, said. “To land on Mars with our own technology by 2045, we must first verify our capabilities, even if that means using someone else’s car.” Under the short-term plan, South Korea would send payloads aboard Starship to the Martian surface, enabling domestic researchers and companies to test equipment and technologies. Kang noted that favorable launch windows for Mars missions occur roughly every 26 months, leaving only about five opportunities by 2035. Using Starship would provide a cost-effective way to land an exploration module weighing about 500 kilograms on Mars, he said. Over the longer term, the agency aims to conduct Mars exploration solely with South Korean technology, centered on an enhanced version of its next-generation launch vehicle now under development. Kang cautioned, however, that reaching and operating in Mars orbit requires more than launch capability alone. “Deep-space missions demand engines capable of long-duration acceleration with minimal fuel consumption,” he said, outlining plans to develop what he described as a “space delivery truck” that could transport equipment and cargo from Earth orbit to Mars orbit. Another major challenge is mastering entry, descent and landing (EDL) technology. Mars’ thin atmosphere limits the effectiveness of parachutes, requiring complex landing systems that rely on retro rockets and advanced heat-resistant materials, similar to techniques used in lunar landings. “International cooperation can accelerate Mars exploration, but our 2045 strategy is based on our own technology,” he said. “Successfully landing on Mars with domestic capabilities will secure our competitiveness and leadership in the global space industry.” * This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP. 2025-12-16 16:21:37