Year-end office drinking binges quietly disappear in Korea SEOUL, December 12 (AJP) - December used to mean one thing at Korean companies: mandatory year-end dinners, overflowing soju bottles and long nights that spilled into second and third rounds. This winter, that ritual is quietly fading. Rising dining costs and MZ workers' allergy to after-work obligations have thinned corporate calendars, leaving December unusually light — and restaurants unusually empty. At a fried chicken pub near Gwanghwamun, the year-end peak barely registers. On a recent Friday night, a staff member said the owner hadn't even come in. Bookings were that thin. In Myeongdong, Kim, who runs a samgyeopsal (pork barbecue) restaurant, said it doesn't feel like year-end at all. "By early December, these streets are usually so crowded you can barely move," he said, gesturing outside. "But look — it's empty." Next door, the story is the same. "Business is down from last winter," an employee said. "And it's not just restaurants. Even people in real estate say it's slow." Inflation has taken much of the cheer out of the season. According to Statistics Korea, consumer prices rose 2.4 percent year on year in November to 117.2 (2020=100). While housing and public service costs stayed relatively stable, personal service prices climbed 3 percent, with dining-out prices up 2.8 percent — enough to make another round of grilled pork feel like a luxury. The pressure is showing in survival rates. The National Tax Service says the three-year survival rate for 100 major livelihood industries, including food service, has slipped to 52.3 percent, meaning fewer than half of new businesses make it past their third birthday. The figure has been falling steadily since 2022, a sign of cooling domestic demand. But what's happening on the ground is not just about prices. It's also about culture. Company dinners — once treated as an extension of work itself — are losing their grip. A nationwide survey by market research firm Embrain Trend Monitor of 1,000 salaried workers aged 19 to 59 shows how sharply attitudes have shifted since the pandemic. Nearly eight in 10 respondents (79.2 percent) said the overall workplace atmosphere now leans toward avoiding company dinners. Even when they do happen, they tend to end early: 76.2 percent said gatherings wrap up faster than before, and 57.5 percent said evening drinking sessions have increasingly been replaced by lunch-time meals. For many workers, that's a relief. More than 70 percent said the stress of attending company dinners has eased, while 63.9 percent said they feel less pressure — or guilt — about skipping them altogether. Not everyone is celebrating. Regret over the decline in company dinners is strongest among older workers and senior managers. While 60.5 percent of executives in their 60s said they miss the tradition, only 41.1 percent of entry-level employees felt the same. And despite the new "voluntary" label, social pressure hasn't disappeared. Six in 10 respondents (60.7 percent) said that while attendance is technically optional, they still feel they have little choice. Lower-ranking employees, in particular, worry that skipping dinners could still carry consequences. If dinners must happen, many workers now favor a new rule of thumb: "119" — a tongue-in-cheek nod to Korea's emergency fire number. One drink, one round, and home by 9 p.m. Park, 27, who works in the public sector in Seoul, puts it bluntly. "I really don't want to go," she said. "If we have to meet, lunch is enough — and it should be during work hours." Lee Chun-ae, 57, who works at a tax office in Seoul, agrees, with limits. "Once every three months is plenty," she said. "And if there is a dinner, it should end after the first round." For restaurants, the quiet December is painful. For many workers, it feels like progress — proof that the era of endless year-end drinking may finally be over. 2025-12-12 18:30:42

After game-curfew flop, Seoul unlikely to adopt Australia's drastic social media ban SEOUL, December 11 (AJP) - In every advanced society — from the United States to East Asia to Australia — one common reality defines modern childhood: kids and teenagers are glued to their screens. Whether scrolling through social media, watching YouTube, or toggling between both, their digital immersion is constant. Governments are responding with varying degrees of intervention, but only a few have taken dramatic steps. Australia is now the boldest example, and one that Seoul is highly unlikely to follow. According to Britain's Ofcom, 99 percent of children now spend time online, and nine in ten own a mobile phone by age 11. The regulator warns of "a blurred boundary between the lives children lead online and the 'real world,'" describing how deeply digital habits shape childhood. Ofcom also found that three-quarters of children aged 8 to 17 who use social media have at least one account, even though most platforms set a minimum age of 13. Among 8- to 12-year-olds, six in ten maintain their own profiles. The United States shows a similar pattern. A Pew Research Center report released Tuesday found that most American teenagers use YouTube and TikTok daily, and about one in five are on one of the two platforms "almost constantly." Experts warn of risks ranging from diminished attention spans to delayed cognitive development, but few governments have enacted hard rules. Australia stands out for enforcing a complete ban on social media accounts for anyone under 16, prohibiting minors from creating or maintaining profiles on designated platforms. The measure has sparked intense debate. The Australian Human Rights Commission has warned that VPNs and fake age declarations could undermine the law and argues that an account ban "does not address the root causes of online risks or make platforms safer for everyone." For Seoul, such a prohibition would be politically and socially untenable. Korea's last attempt at sweeping digital regulation — the so-called shutdown law, which barred anyone under 16 from online gaming between midnight and 6 a.m. — was repealed in 2021 after a decade of resistance and ridicule. It had little impact on gaming habits, even as Korean gamers became world-class e-sports competitors. "I don't think parents would tolerate it," said Song Ki-chang, professor of education at Sookmyung Women's University. "Parents and children communicate through these apps these days. They check things or send messages whenever needed. I'm not sure a ban on SNS accounts is even feasible." The Ministry of Science and ICT's 2024 smartphone dependency survey shows why the concern persists but heavy-handed controls are unlikely. More than four in ten Korean adolescents fall into the "risk group" for smartphone overuse — including both high-risk and potential-risk users. Dependency risk in 2024 reached 42.6 percent among adolescents aged 10 to 19 and 25.9 percent among children aged 3 to 9, compared with 22.4 percent among adults aged 20 to 59 and 11.9 percent among seniors. The OECD notes that governments have a critical role in shaping safer digital environments, yet reliable global data on youth digital behavior remains limited, hampering evidence-based policymaking. For educators, the answer lies less in prohibition and more in resilience-building. "It's not going after the companies that can really do something, which are Apple, Google, and Microsoft," said Douglas Weir, 33, a principal at an international school in Seoul. Larger schools face greater challenges in monitoring usage, he said, but the underlying problem is universal. "When we were kids, we had to learn how to use search engines and computers for the first time. The same conversations were happening then about whether it was appropriate or dangerous. I don't think we're going to solve this overnight — but the approach needs to be about educating kids, not banning." 2025-12-11 16:43:38

Korea takes more active approach to find missing persons through AI and viral media SEOUL, December 10 (AJP) - Kim Tae-hee had a habit of staring at things a little longer than others, narrowing his eyes to make sense of a world blurred by poor sight. His speech was halting, shaped by a lifelong mental disability, but he could say his name and home phone number. None of it helped on April 23, 1988, when he disappeared in Seoul's Gangnam District at age 14. Thirty-seven years have passed since. Today, at 51, this is what he might look like. What once required foreign outsourcing, weeks of processing time, and high cost is now being done in Korea in a matter of moments. Using homegrown generative AI, researchers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) are reconstructing the faces of long-term missing children — not as faded memories, not as sketches, but as people who might walk among us today. Sixty such individuals have been reimagined in collaboration with the government, the Korean National Police Agency (KNPA), KIST, and private partners. They reappear in middle age with softened jaws, thinning hair, or the deepening lines of a life lived elsewhere — a life their families never got to witness but still yearn to reclaim. "In the past, aging technology meant adding wrinkles or altering facial shape — what we used to call an 'aging function,'" said Kim Ig-jae, head of KIST's AI & Robotics Research Center, in an interview with AJP. "Generative AI learns the distribution of real human faces. When features such as skin texture, hair color, and contours change, the model interprets those variations as probabilities and generates new images based on them." "All of this happens in what we call a 'latent space,'" he said. "It's an abstract map of human characteristics. By modeling how attributes shift over time, the AI can estimate how a missing child might realistically appear today." The shift is transformative. Instead of outsourcing to U.S. firms at high cost, domestic researchers can now produce images rapidly, leaving stylization — hair, clothing, the personal signatures of a face — for manual adjustment. The National Center for the Rights of the Child (NCRC) has woven these images into public awareness campaigns with the KNPA, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare worked with KIST to generate current-age portraits for 60 of the 189 long-term missing children. While 99.6 percent of children reported missing in 2024 were found within a year, 1,417 remain lost for more than a year — including 1,128 missing for over two decades. To amplify recognition, Daehong launched "Runway to Home," a campaign that transforms the AI-generated adults into virtual models walking a fashion runway — paired alongside their younger selves. A symbolic reunion in digital form, the two versions walk side by side, asking commuters to look twice. "Hairstyles or clothing can dramatically change how someone is perceived, so we created multiple versions to spark associations," a Daehong manager said. The campaign is running on billboards in downtown Seoul during rush hour — a deliberate attempt to draw attention in an age when video captures more eyes than posters ever could. Families who viewed the campaign responded emotionally, according to the NCRC. "Both parents wear glasses, so we think he would too," one family said. Another pointed to the neatly tied hair in the AI rendering, saying, "It looks just like his aunt." For KIST's Kim, the effort carries both scientific promise and human weight. 'After we distributed an early version of this technology nearly ten years ago, one missing child was found after 38 years," he said. "Even when someone cannot be located, families tell us the images are a gift — a reminder that their children are still with them." Anyone with information or possible sightings is urged to call the Korean National Police Agency at 182 (no area code needed) or contact the National Center for the Rights of the Child at 02.777.0182. 2025-12-10 16:43:17

KTX-SRT integration after 10 years enabling easier rail access from southern Seoul SEOUL, December 09 (AJP) - Korea will merge its two high-speed rail operators — KTX, run by the state-owned Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL), and SRT, operated by SR Corporation — by the end of next year, which can enable easier rail travel from southern part of Seoul and reduce overlapping costs. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced Monday that the two services will begin cross-operating their trains in March. Under the plan, SRT trains, which currently depart exclusively from Suseo Station in southern Seoul, will also run from Seoul Station, the city's largest rail terminal. KTX trains, normally operating from Seoul or Yongsan stations, will start departing from Suseo as well. The government expects the shift to ease seat shortages on popular routes. The KTX trains scheduled to operate from Suseo have 955 seats across 20 cars — more than double the 410 seats on a standard 10-car SRT train. KORAIL estimates the integration will add about 16,690 seats nationwide on peak-demand weekends, raising daily high-speed rail capacity by roughly 6.5 percent from the current level of 255,000 seats. Authorities also said reducing duplication between the two operators could allow KTX fares to be lowered by up to 10 percent. Seat shortages at Suseo have become a persistent problem since SRT launched in 2016. Because all SRT trains depart from Suseo, passengers in the busy southern Seoul region — including Gangnam and Bundang — overwhelmingly rely on the station, especially during peak travel times such as Friday evenings or Monday mornings, when tickets routinely sell out within minutes. Capacity limitations are made worse by SRT's smaller trains and the lack of flexibility to redeploy rolling stock between the two systems, as KTX and SRT have been operated separately. Following the operational transition next year, the government plans to merge ticketing platforms and allow passengers to book all high-speed services through a single application. Full institutional consolidation between KORAIL and SR is expected by the end of 2026, marking the first such merger since SR was established in 2013 and 10 years after SRT first entered service. However, critics argue that the key problems behind the initial decision to separate the two operators — including heavy debt loads and repeated safety incidents — remain unresolved. KORAIL's debt ratio rose from 242 percent in 2020 to 265 percent last year, while SR's stood at 173 percent. Concerns have also been raised that combining KORAIL's nearly 30,000-person workforce with SR's 700 employees will expand the organization without structural reform. Safety remains another major issue. KORAIL currently holds exclusive responsibility for maintenance, yet serious accidents have continued. In August, seven workers were killed or injured during track maintenance in Cheongdo, North Gyeongsang Province, prompting renewed criticism of oversight. A KORAIL public relations official, responding to questions about concerns over maintenance responsibilities remaining solely with KORAIL after the merger, said, "This is a roadmap that now requires discussion and agreement between labor and management. Nothing is finalized yet." Labor-related risks have also drawn attention. KORAIL's union is affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), while SR's union is independent. At present, even if KORAIL workers strike, SRT trains continue running. After the merger, a nationwide strike could halt all high-speed rail operations, raising concerns about the country's logistics infrastructure. Transport experts say the merger could benefit passengers if executed effectively, but warn that without financial reform, safety investment, and labor restructuring, consolidation could simply enlarge an already inefficient system. For now, the public remains divided on whether the integration will ultimately improve service or create new vulnerabilities. "Integration is now the government's decided direction, and any side effects from institutional consolidation must be assessed objectively, and we hope decisions regarding structural changes will be made rationally and based on objective data," a high-speed rail industry official said. 2025-12-09 16:29:12

With too many skeletons out of the closet, Coupang founder Kim may have to come out SEOUL, December 04 (AJP) - Coupang earns roughly 90 percent of its estimated $34 billion in revenue from Korea, yet operates and trades as a U.S.-based company often dubbed "Korea's Amazon." Increasingly, however, it resembles something closer to a Chinese tech firm—with opaque recruiting practices and oversight failures that culminated in the mass-scale data leak exposing virtually all of its online shoppers. For negligence and liability related to the loss of data on 33.7 million users, Coupang could face penalties of up to 3 percent of revenue, or as much as $1 billion, in addition to a raft of civil and criminal lawsuits. Bom Kim, the Korean-born American who owns 76 percent of the New York Stock Exchange-listed Coupang Inc., remains out of sight as domestic CEO Park Dae-jun is hounded by police investigators, lawmakers and furious consumers. The breach has shed light on Coupang's extensive reliance on foreign developers, including a sizable cohort of Chinese engineers. The alleged perpetrator is a former Chinese employee. Coupang has refused to disclose the nationalities of its engineering workforce, saying only that it recruits "talent from diverse backgrounds." Activity on Maimai, China's equivalent to LinkedIn, suggests the company has maintained steady recruitment pipelines there. Verified accounts claiming Coupang affiliation have remained active through the second half of this year, alongside postings from headhunters and industry insiders seeking candidates for the company. One user identifying himself as a senior vice president of a Chinese holding company ranked Coupang eighth among the most attractive foreign IT employers in Shanghai, behind Google, Amazon and Apple. In a June post, he wrote that Coupang's Shanghai office in Changtai Plaza pays competitively with Alibaba and employs numerous former Alibaba engineers across functions, adding that the attraction is "no overtime work." Operationally, Coupang resembles Alibaba and JD.com more than Amazon. Instead of a marketplace model connecting external sellers to buyers, the company directly purchases inventory, stores it in proprietary warehouses and fulfills orders through its own vertical logistics network. Despite investing 89 billion won annually in cybersecurity and employing more than 200 security engineers, the leak did not result from a sophisticated attack but a basic managerial lapse. A former employee kept access through an unrevoked JWT (JSON Web Token) signing key after leaving the company, enabling unrestricted entry for five months without triggering security alerts. Coupang Corp., the Korean operating subsidiary, is wholly owned by Coupang Inc., a Delaware-registered holding company. Kim controls 76 percent of the voting rights, effectively placing the company under his personal authority. While the Korean unit is the legal entity liable for the breach, Coupang Inc. argues that it neither stores nor manages user data directly. "A corporation and its CEO or shareholders are legally separate entities since a joint-stock corporation is based on limited liability. It is generally difficult to hold an individual—such as Chairman Bom Kim—personally accountable unless there are exceptional circumstances," said Um Kyong-chon, attorney at Lawfirm Family. Kim stepped down from Coupang's Korean board shortly after the Serious Accident Punishment Act took effect in 2021, removing himself from the scope of internal criminal liability. Coupang has repeatedly underscored that its "headquarters is in the U.S., and Kim is an American citizen." The company's dominance in online retail has shielded it from labor and regulatory controversies for years. J.P. Morgan projected minimal customer defection after the breach, citing limited competition and historically low public sensitivity to data privacy. Korean consumers accustomed to overnight delivery, the report noted, are unlikely to abandon the platform. Adding to public anger are signs of potential insider trading. Several U.S.-based executives sold substantial shareholdings in the weeks surrounding the breach. According to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday, CFO Gaurav Anand sold 75,350 shares for about $2.2 million on Nov. 10. Former Vice President Pranam Kolari, who oversaw search and recommendations, sold 27,388 shares for $772,000 on Nov. 17, just days after resigning. Given the sensitivity of the scandal, Bom Kim may eventually have to respond to public and political pressure. Korean law recognizes the concept of a "de facto" decision-maker—someone who exercises authority regardless of whether he holds a formal board seat. 2025-12-04 17:13:45

Korean authorities up penalties and tax probe to fight online scalpers SEOUL, December 03 (AJP) - Scalping of concert and sports tickets has exploded across Korea—surging 41-fold over the past five years—despite tougher penalties and enforcement, prompting regulators and tax authorities to intensify punitive measures. Ticketbay, the country's largest resale platform, is now capping all resale prices at 1 million won ($681) in an attempt to rein in runaway premiums and speculative behavior. The platform said Monday that listings with "abnormally high prices" had surged, fueling user complaints and public anger. Starting Jan. 1, "any amount exceeding the 1 million won ceiling will be automatically blocked, regardless of seat section or grade," the company said, adding that the new limit was necessary to curb distorted pricing. The rise in scalping has been especially pronounced in professional baseball, which drew a record 12 million spectators this year—its largest audience since the league launched in 1982. A wave of younger and female fans, combined with upgraded stadium experience, has pushed demand to historic highs and emboldened scalpers. Data from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism shows suspected scalping cases in professional sports jumped from 6,237 in 2020 to 259,334 in 2025, based on figures recorded through August and expected to rise further by year-end. On Ticketbay alone, scalping cases reached 25,188 by August—nearly eight times last year's 3,613. The concert industry has been hit just as hard, driven by the global frenzy for K-pop events. At G-Dragon's two-day solo concert in March at Goyang Stadium in Gyeonggi Province, VIP seats priced at 220,000 won were resold for as much as 6.8 million won. Hoang Phuong Ly, a 32-year-old Vietnamese fan who paid 1 million won to attend, said, "Buying at the original price through official channels isn't impossible, but after trying multiple times and failing, I can understand why some fans feel pushed toward resale tickets." For G-Dragon's upcoming encore concert on Dec. 12–14 at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, VIP seats priced at 230,000 won are now listed for up to 9.8 million won on Ticketbay. Despite the scale of the problem, Korea's regulations have stayed lax. Under current law, scalping is punishable only when macro ticketing software—programs that snap up large volumes of tickets faster than ordinary users—is used. Most individual transactions conducted through platforms such as X, community forums, or private marketplaces remain effectively outside regulatory reach. The government has moved to change that. "A proposed amendment to the National Sports Promotion Act includes imposing fines of up to 50 times the profit gained from illegal resale. It could significantly reduce the financial motivation for scalping," said Um Kyong-chon, lawyer at Lawfirm Family. The National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee recently approved the amendment, which would outlaw scalping regardless of macro use, enable the government to confiscate resale profits, and impose fines of up to 50 times the unauthorized amount. At the same time, the National Tax Service has launched its first large-scale tax investigation into high-volume scalpers who profited from reselling tickets to K-pop concerts and sports events late last month. Authorities identified 17 individuals—ranging from schoolteachers and public-sector workers to entrepreneurs—who allegedly distributed more than 20 billion won worth of scalped tickets. Some macro brokers were found driving high-end imported cars while receiving tax benefits, while others sold macro software or direct queue-bypass links for cash without reporting income. 2025-12-03 16:44:22

Waning West-centric voice in media means opportunities for Asian narratives SEOUL, December 02 (AJP) - The waning influence of Western-centric narratives in global media presents a critical opening for Asian news platforms to assert their own voice, said Sohn Jie-ae, visiting professor at Ewha Womans University and former CNN Seoul bureau chief, at a forum in Seoul on Tuesday. Citing a recent New York Times column, Sohn said the United States' global narrative has grown "incoherent" and its brand "toxic," arguing that the shift marks a historic moment for Asian journalism. "This is not a vacuum, but an opportunity — a moment when alternative voices must be heard. And opportunity comes to those who are prepared," she said in her keynote address at AJP's forum, "The Era of Extremes and Polarization in Digital Transition and the Role of Media." While Asian media institutions have matured, Sohn said global news flows still overwhelmingly reflect Western framing. "As many countries withdraw correspondents, we depend on Reuters, AP and CNN. We learn about our neighbors not through their media, but through Western reporting," she said, contrasting the region's lived realities — from Hong Kong fires to Southeast Asian flooding — with the U.S.-centric top pages of leading Western outlets like The Washington Post. Sohn recalled watching Korea's democratic transformation unfold — from pro-democracy protests to the trials of former presidents and the elections of former dissidents Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung. "In 1985, we marched without fully knowing what we wanted, except a country where we could shout and protest freely. CNN broadcast that process to the world, and through those events the world saw Korean democracy at work," she said. After leaving CNN, Sohn served as government spokesperson and later led Arirang TV, navigating tensions between journalistic independence and representing a national perspective. "There were fierce debates between those who insisted we could never air negative news about Korea and those who said credibility requires standards," she said, noting that the newsroom eventually found a realistic middle ground. Similar dilemmas, she added, face Asian platforms including Singapore's Channel News Asia, China's CGTN, the Philippines' Rappler and Hong Kong's South China Morning Post. Sohn outlined three strategies for AJP and emerging Asian newsrooms: Be Smart, Be Bold and Know Your Region. Journalists must be anchored in ethics yet willing to innovate, she said, pointing to Korean eyewear brand Gentle Monster's collaborations with Google and Samsung as an example of bold thinking in the generative AI era. She also underscored the importance of regional fluency. "AJP is only one year old, but Asia is a young region. China, Japan and Southeast Asia remain key markets. Young Koreans and young Asians must know their region — and show they are part of it." 2025-12-02 16:53:23

K-pop may have to lose the "K" as it sits as a genre, not a category SEOUL, December 02 (AJP) - K-pop has broken a historic barrier at the Grammy Awards — one of the highest measures of global music recognition — entering a "Big Four" category for the first time. Since the Grammys began in 1959, no Korean artist had ever been nominated in any of the major categories. That changed when the Recording Academy announced its 68th Grammy nominees in early November, naming BLACKPINK's Rosé, the OST "Golden" from Netflix's animated film "KPop Demon Hunters," and global girl group KATSEYE — jointly launched by HYBE and Geffen Records — in major categories, which are Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Best New Artist. For years, the Grammys have been seen as conservative, prioritizing musical craftsmanship over commercial popularity. BTS attended as presenters in 2019 and earned multiple nominations over three consecutive years, but never broke into the Big Four. Now, attention turns to next February's awards, where the industry is watching to see whether K-pop converts nominations into its first major-category win. K-wave thrives in the social media age According to the 2024 National Image Survey by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Korea's global favorability has risen steadily for six years — from 71.1 percent in 2018 to 79 percent in 2024. Among sectors such as sports, education, human rights, healthcare, and science, culture and entertainment emerged as the most influential contributor, rising from 35.3 percent in 2018 to 43.9 percent in 2024. The pandemic further accelerated the trend. With digital media consumption soaring, 89.3 percent of respondents said they first encountered Korea through YouTube, and 60.8 percent through Netflix — confirming streaming as the primary gateway to Korean pop culture. K-idol training sets a global standard for star-making KATSEYE was formed through the global audition program "The Debut: Dream Academy," which selected six multinational members from more than 120,000 applicants via evaluations and fan voting. The group trained under what is now widely recognized as the K-pop system — a long-term, intensive regimen that includes daily vocal and dance training, performance rehearsals, and moral education. "We have long wanted to develop diverse global talent based on the methodology of K-pop and build global groups in the K-pop style," HYBE Chairman Bang Si-hyuk said. The audition program was not only a debut project; it was a test of whether Korea’s star-making system could be exported intact. In the United States, talent is discovered, not groomed. The idea of multi-year training and development (T&D) — shaping multidimensional artists before debut — is still unfamiliar. Korean agencies build performers step by step — crafting group concepts, curating artistic direction, and supporting long-term branding. A crucial part of the system is extensive vocal coaching across multiple genres, equipping trainees to deliver synchronized choreography. The trainee system, which can last from six months to ten years, is built to cultivate potential rather than select only fully formed performers. To ensure a stable debut, agencies provide mental and emotional support programs, including language education for foreign trainees, life coaching, and professional counseling. Even in global audition formats, companies maintain private trainee pools that undergo monthly evaluations — a high-pressure system that explains the scale of the recent fallout between NewJeans and HYBE. At the end of the day, music drives the momentum The breakout success of Netflix's animated film "KPop Demon Hunters" encapsulates how K-pop expands globally. The film follows fictional girl group Huntrix, who use their songs to protect their fans from supernatural threats. Its OST tracks — including "Your Idol" by the group's rival Saja Boys and "Golden" by Huntrix — climbed Billboard's global charts soon after the film's June release. Cover videos and challenge trends spread rapidly across social platforms, creating a loop in which music fuels content, and content boosts music streams. A recent study by Korea University's College of Media and Communication — based on keyword analytics from the Korea Broadcast Advertising Corporation — found that the two most frequently mentioned terms in online discussions were "song" and "Korea." Many viewers described replaying scenes while looping the soundtrack, responding strongly to the film's musical peaks. The inclusion of Korean lyrics in the OST was particularly striking, with global listeners singing along phonetically. Professor Baek Hyun-mi, the author of the study, noted that the recent wave of success brings not only pride but also unresolved questions. "This success leaves us with more than just a sense of pride," Baek said. "Within global platforms, the question of who truly owns this culture remains unanswered. The creative origins lie in Korea, but it is still unclear who ultimately controls the outcomes and reaps the benefits." Industry power shift: Toward a new 'Big 4' "K-pop is entering the early stage of mainstream globalization," said pop culture critic Ha Jae-keun. K-pop's industrial scale is now reshaping the global music hierarchy. HYBE's market value has climbed to fourth worldwide, edging closer to Warner Music Group and challenging the decades-old dominance of the "Big Three" — Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and Warner Music Group. Music Business Worldwide founder Tim Ingham recently predicted that Warner's revenue may gradually converge with HYBE's, signaling a structural shift in global music capitalism. Between 2020 and 2024, HYBE recorded a 29 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) — far outpacing Sony (18.3 percent), Universal (12.5 percent), and Warner (9.5 percent). "Along with BTS's full-group comeback next year, we see this moment as pivotal for strengthening both our market reach and long-term growth potential," a senior HYBE official said. Critic Kim Hern-sik notes that K-pop must now secure its position as a genre, not just a cultural category. "It should establish itself the way Britpop once did. Today, young people around the world see K-pop as a space where they can feel agency, dream, and achieve something. For many, it is the only arena where that possibility feels real — and that is why its power is so strong." 2025-12-01 20:15:32

Coupang theft set to become Korea's worst data crisis raises sober reckoning on cybersecurity SEOUL, December 01 (AJP) - Korea — a society whose everyday routines run almost entirely online — is grappling with its biggest data crisis to date after e-commerce giant Coupang confirmed that information linked to nearly all of its customers — 33.7 million people, or three out of four Korean adults — had been stolen. More worrisome is that while previous high-profile breaches this year involved external hacking attacks on wireless carriers and credit-card issuers, the Coupang case points to potential criminal liability if an internal leak by a former employee is confirmed. The incident is expected to hasten sweeping reforms that force digital platforms to prioritize data security over commercial expansion. Coupang said Sunday that the breach was carried out by a former employee of Chinese nationality who allegedly accessed the company’s systems through overseas servers, noting that "unauthorized access appears to have begun in mid-June." The stolen information includes names, email addresses, mobile numbers, and home addresses. It marks the biggest data breach in Korea in more than a decade, since the 2011 Cyworld–Nate incident that affected about 35 million users. With Coupang's monthly active users (MAU) estimated at 34 million and the domestic e-commerce population at roughly 39 million, experts warn the breach may affect "virtually everyone." The company initially reported only 4,500 compromised accounts on Nov. 18, but revised the number upward 7,500-fold within nine days — prompting warnings that further undisclosed cases may still emerge. The breach also contrasts sharply with recent attacks on telecom operators such as SK Telecom and KT, which involved sophisticated external intrusion rather than insiders. SK Telecom suffered a large-scale breach involving USIM authentication data in April, affecting more than 23 million subscribers. The company rejected a state proposal to compensate victims 300,000 won ($204) each and has already spent more than 1 trillion won addressing the fallout. At KT, hackers installed illegal femtocell devices — small radio units that act as fake cell towers — to intercept verification text messages and trigger unauthorized micro-payments. Hundreds of victims have filed criminal complaints. Police and the Korea Communications Commission are investigating. Game developer Netmarble also confirmed last month that the personal information of about 6.11 million users was compromised in a cyberattack targeting its PC-based game portal. Leaked information included names, birth dates, and encrypted passwords. Taking together Coupang's 33.7 million victims, SK Telecom's 23.24 million, and Netmarble's 6.11 million, analysts estimate that more than 80 million data records have already leaked in 2025 alone across platforms, telecoms, gaming services and card-payment networks — underscoring pervasive vulnerabilities across nearly all digital industries. Experts point to chronic underinvestment in cybersecurity as the root cause of repeated failures. According to data from the Korea Internet and Security Agency, based on disclosures by 773 listed companies with annual revenue above 300 billion won, the average share of IT budgets devoted to security was only 6.29 percent last year, remaining below six percent for four straight years. U.S. companies, however, allocate 13.2 percent on average — more than twice the Korean level. Among major domestic players, SK Telecom invested 4.6 percent of its IT budget into security, lower than KT (6.3 percent) and LG Uplus (7.4 percent). Samsung Electronics spent the most in absolute terms at 356.2 billion won, but security accounted for only 0.12 percent of revenue. LG Electronics was at 0.03 percent, while major banks KB Kookmin and Shinhan were at 0.08 percent. Platform operators also posted low ratios: Coupang (4.6 percent), Naver (4.5 percent), Kakao (4.3 percent), and Woowa Brothers (4.1 percent). "The current level of security spending — around six percent — is clearly insufficient; experts recommend closer to nine percent," said Kwon Hun-yeong, professor at Korea University's School of Cybersecurity. "These incidents reveal systemic vulnerabilities across multiple layers of national digital infrastructure. Authorities fail to fully trace origins." Kwon added that Korea needs a national manual to identify and prioritize the systems most critical to safeguarding against attacks. According to the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), 451 breaches between 2021 and July 2025 exposed 88.543 million personal records, with average penalties of 700 million won, and administrative fines of just 6.17 million won per incident, a level critics say is too low to deter negligence. The commission plans to require businesses to allocate at least 10 percent of their total IT budgets to data protection by 2027, and 15 percent by 2030. "We are considering incentives for companies that meet the minimum cybersecurity investment threshold," a PIPC official said. In the U.S., governments support cybersecurity spending with tax deductions of up to 15.8 percent for technologies such as AI-based threat detection and encryption, and provide payroll-tax relief of up to $500,000 for small businesses. Coupang shares fell as much as 7.5 percent in after-hours trading, sliding from $28.16 to about $26.06 following the disclosure. 2025-12-01 16:04:13

Sticky prices and weak won to stretch Korea's belt-tightening to next year SEOUL, November 27 (AJP) - Koreans tightened their belts through most of the year as stubborn inflation and the steepest depreciation of the won eroded purchasing power, government data showed Thursday. Nominal household income rose 3.5 percent on year in the July–September period to 5,439,000 won ($3,713), while real income—adjusted for inflation—grew 1.5 percent, supported largely by government stimulus handouts, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics. But the aid program did little to lift actual spending. Real household consumption fell for a third straight quarter, the longest downturn since the pandemic-hit year of 2020, underscoring the gap between chilled domestic demand and the hot stock, housing, and chip-export markets powering broader economic data. The income boost was driven mainly by government-issued consumption coupons distributed between July and November. Earned income inched up 1.1 percent, and business income rose just 0.2 percent, while public transfer income — government benefits and subsidies — surged 40 percent to 744,000 won, the highest since records began in 2020. With income growth stagnating and inflation proving sticky, families cut back on their biggest discretionary burden — private education — and scaled down recreational spending. Household expenditures centered on essentials and summer vacations. Consumer sentiment improved sharply in November, reaching its highest level in eight years, but the optimism has yet to translate into stronger consumption. Debt remains a heavy drag. Households are unlikely to see further relief after Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang-yong signaled an end to the easing cycle to curb leveraged asset investment and defend the sinking won. As of Nov. 20, outstanding household loans at the five major commercial banks stood at 769.27 trillion won, up 2.65 trillion won in November alone — already exceeding October's full-month increase. Daily loan growth has climbed to its fastest pace since July. "Given the three- to six-month lag in the pass-through from a weak won to import prices and then consumer prices, inflation pressure is likely to build during the first half of next year," said Kim Myung-sil, analyst at iM Securities. "The rise in market rates and diminished expectations for a rate cut will weigh on business investment — particularly in construction — and hurt household consumption," added Park Ju-noo, analyst at Hana Securities. 2025-11-27 16:31:27