Koreans donated gold during IMF crisis — but their love for "foreign" won't rescue the won this time SEOUL, November 26 (AJP) - Korean authorities are pleading for all-around help — from the "big-brother" National Pension Service (NPS) to brokerages and exporters — to mobilize every possible tool to defend the Korean won drifting toward the untouched 1,500-won ($1.02) watershed. But they cannot expect sympathy, much less sacrifice, from ordinary Koreans, whose enduring appetite for overseas spending — on goods, travel, and securities — remains undeterred even as the won weakens beyond levels seen during the 1998 IMF bailout. The weakness in the currency has done little to quell Korea's love for the foreign. According to Bank of Korea data released Tuesday, overseas credit-card spending by Korean residents reached a record $5.93 billion in the third quarter, up 3.9 percent from last year's previous high of $5.71 billion and 7.3 percent above the second quarter's $5.52 billion. Foreign visitors, by contrast, spent just $3.76 billion on cards in Korea — barely half the amount spent by Koreans abroad and unchanged from the previous quarter, despite a record surge in inbound arrivals. On a per-card basis, Koreans spent an average of $314 abroad in the third quarter, roughly 56 percent more than the $201 spent by foreigners inside Korea. Outbound travelers totaled 7.09 million, up 4.8 percent from the previous quarter, according to the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute. The travel balance remains deep in deficit. Korea spent $2.5158 billion abroad versus $1.8344 billion earned from inbound tourism, generating a $681.4 million shortfall — another sign that Koreans spend far more abroad than foreign travelers spend at home. "Prices in Korea are relatively high. While the official inflation rate hovers around 2 percent, the real figure exceeds 4 percent when housing costs are factored in," said Kim Sang-bong, economics professor at Hansung University. "For many Koreans, it's cheaper to travel overseas. A domestic trip costs 200,000 to 300,000 won per person, whereas around 2.3 million won can cover a five-day trip to Vietnam or Japan." The pattern echoes last year's travel boom to Japan, fueled by the yen's plunge into the 800-won range. Korea's Shopping Festa — the country's biggest shopping extravaganza and local alternative to Black Friday — has also struggled to gain traction amid high exchange rates. With the won nearing 1,500 per dollar, U.S. product prices are rising in real time, prompting a shift toward Chinese and Japanese retailers. Platforms such as 11st and Coupang still rolled out major cross-border deals, but industry officials say the dependence on North American brands that once powered sales is no longer sustainable. Even the strong dollar has not tempered Koreans' passion for U.S. stocks. Net overseas securities investment reached $99.8 billion between January and September, more than triple the $29.6 billion net inflow of foreign investment into Korean securities over the same period. Korea's net external financial assets — the value of foreign assets held by Koreans minus liabilities — surged from $12.7 billion in 2014 to $1.03 trillion in the second quarter, underscoring the nation's structural preference for dollar-based safe assets. The NPS alone now holds 580 trillion won in overseas assets. Retail "Seohak ant" day traders — Koreans investing in U.S. and global stocks — have increased eightfold in just four years. Corporate direct overseas investment, too, hit a record $81.7 billion. Experts warn that even though Korea's foreign-currency liquidity is solid in the short term, structural imbalances in dollar supply and demand continue to drive pressure on the won–dollar exchange rate. "The real challenge is that there is no clear solution to the structural imbalance," said Wi Jae-hyun, analyst at NH Futures Research Center. "Excessive concentration of overseas investment in equities and slow repatriation of export proceeds, especially after large-scale U.S. investment commitments, are amplifying upward pressure on the exchange rate. But exchange rates driven by supply-demand dynamics behave like a rubber band — the higher they go, the more forcefully they can snap back." In 1998, Koreans lined up to donate gold to rescue the nation. In 2025, their wallets are overseas — and no amount of nostalgia will change that. 2025-11-26 17:19:07

Korean marriage cases spike in Sept in upside for birth growth streak SEOUL, November 26 (AJP) - The number of marriages in Korea reached the largest tally in a decade in September. The sharp rise in marriages — widely considered a leading indicator of births — has raised expectations that the recent rebound in childbirth numbers could continue in the coming months. According to Statistics Korea's population trends for September released on Wednesday, 18,462 couples married last month, an increase of 3,005 cases from a year earlier. Marriage numbers have now grown for 18 consecutive months, reaching the highest level for September since 2015. For the first three quarters of the year, cumulative marriages totaled 58,305, which represents an increase of 6,600 cases, or 12.8 percent, compared with the same period last year. Marriage counts rose across all regions, supported by a combination of factors, including an increase in the population at the typical marriage age, generally those in their 30s, and shifting social perceptions toward marriage. The rebound in marriages, combined with ongoing growth in births since late last year, suggests that the annual number of newborns in 2025 could surpass last year's total of 238,317. Korea recorded 22,369 births in September, which is 1,780 more births, or an 8.6 percent increase, compared with a year earlier, marking the highest September figure since 2020. Cumulative births for the year reached 191,040, reflecting a 7 percent increase year-on-year. The total fertility rate — the expected number of children a woman will have over her lifetime — rose to 0.85 in September, an increase of 0.06 from a year earlier. The rate for the third quarter stood at 0.81, up 0.04. The rise in births was driven largely by women in their 30s. Birth rates among mothers aged 30 to 34 increased by 2.4 percent, and those 35 to 39 increased by 5.3 percent, while births among women aged 25 to 29 declined slightly by 0.1 percent. Meanwhile, 28,101 deaths were recorded in September, a 3.9 percent decrease compared with the same month last year. With deaths outnumbering births, the country's population still saw a natural decline of 5,732 people for the month. 2025-11-26 17:18:49

Kangaroo tribes thrive as Seoul's 30s hit record-low homeownership SEOUL, November 25 (AJP) - Only one in four Seoul residents in their 30s owns a home — the lowest rate on record — fueling the rise of "kangaroo tribes" who cannot afford to move out of their parents' home, let alone imagine starting their own family in a city where apartment prices are nearly three times higher than in other regions. New data released Tuesday by the National Data Portal shows 527,729 households in their 30s in Seoul lived in rental housing last year, an increase of 17,215 from a year earlier and the largest jump since records began in 2015. The number of homeowners in the same age group fell to 183,456, pushing the ratio of renters to owners to nearly three to one. The trend overlaps directly with marriage patterns. Seoul now reports the highest share of unmarried people in their 30s at 37.1 percent, a rate that has risen, along with the jobless rate. Lee Hong-ki, a 34-year-old, lives in a rented space paid for by his father, unable to secure a public-sector job despite four attempts. "I feel indebted and guilty, but I have no choice. It's not that I'm not trying," he said. Demographers note that household formation — not financial handouts — is the most decisive factor in whether young adults marry or have children, and that housing sits at the center of Korea's fertility crisis. "Marriage hasn't even crossed my mind, let alone dreaming of owning a home in Seoul," said 31-year-old Lee Ji-won, who commutes to work from Gyeonggi Province. Homeownership data also reveals widening structural divides. Of Korea's 16 million homeowners, 85.1 percent own a single property, while 14.9 percent — or 2.4 million people — are multi-homeowners. The share of multi-homeowners is highest far from Seoul, reaching 20 percent in Jeju, 17.4 percent in South Chungcheong Province, and 17 percent in Gangwon Province, compared with lower shares of around 13 percent in Gwangju, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province. The pattern underscores a contradiction in Korea's real-estate landscape: Seoul residents struggle to buy even one home, while falling prices in regional markets allow property owners there to accumulate multiple homes. The affordability gap has widened most dramatically in the past decade. According to Real Estate R114, the average Seoul apartment price reached 1.3 billion won ($881,595), versus 354.6 million won in non-capital regions, leaving a 945.1 million won gap that has remained in record territory for four straight years. A decade ago, the gap was just 311 million won — meaning the disparity has nearly tripled in ten years — driven by steady price increases in Seoul and broad declines outside the capital. Analysts expect the gulf to widen further. Government measures rolled out this year have also raised entry barriers for first-time buyers. Tighter loan-to-value and debt-service ratio rules now require more cash upfront to qualify for mortgages, effectively shutting out younger buyers who rely on borrowing to enter the market. The frustration is particularly acute for Seoul residents in their 20s and 30s, who face stagnant wages, rising rents, and shrinking prospects of catching up with housing inflation. Young Koreans, however, cannot let go of the homeownership dream. A Korea Land & Housing Institute survey of 700 single-person renters aged 19 to 39 found that 83.2 percent believe homeownership is essential for financial security and stable living. When asked which policies would help most, respondents cited home-purchase financing support (24.3 percent), long-term jeonse deposit assistance (22.3 percent), expanded public rental housing (18.6 percent), and publicly subsidized apartment sales (14.4 percent). The findings point to a consistent reality: Korea's demographic future will depend on whether young adults can afford to leave their parents' homes and form households — something increasingly out of reach in Seoul without a structural shift in housing affordability. 2025-11-25 14:31:18

Foreign students spike in Korea, but not helping rural and high-skilled talent shortage SEOUL, November 24 (AJP) - Non-Chinese students now make up the majority of foreign enrollment at Korean universities, as the number of international degree-seekers has tripled over the past decade. Foreign students also fill one in every six postgraduate seats — a striking figure for a country facing a shrinking workforce and rising demand for highly skilled talent. According to the Korea Educational Development Institute (KEDI), 179,190 international students were enrolled in degree programs at Korean universities and two-year colleges as of April, a 3.2-fold jump from 55,739 in 2015. A decade ago, Chinese students accounted for more than 60 percent of all foreign degree-seekers. This year, their share has fallen to 38 percent (68,045 students), even though their absolute numbers nearly doubled over ten years. The shift reflects an explosive rise in students from elsewhere: Vietnam ranked second with 40,865 students, followed by Uzbekistan (14,318), Nepal (12,626) and Mongolia (10,570). Vietnam alone added nearly 10,000 new students in a single year. One notable trend is the growing number of foreign students majoring in humanities, social sciences, and the arts, particularly at the doctoral level — a phenomenon widely linked to the global popularity of K-pop, K-dramas, and Korean film. But this diversification masks a critical gap: Korea still struggles to attract students in natural sciences, engineering, high-tech fields and regional manufacturing. Enrollment in these areas has grown only marginally, and the overall share has fallen over the past decade. The number of engineering students at the master's and doctoral levels increased by only around 1,000 during the same period — far too small to ease shortages in semiconductors, batteries, mobility, and industrial R&D. Vu Giang Thanh, a 26-year-old Vietnamese graduate of Seoul National University of Science and Technology, told AJP that most international students come to Korea with two main goals: experiencing a global learning environment and earning more than they could at home while studying. "Korea's cultural familiarity and relatively accessible admission policies are appealing," she said. "But most students I know aren't here to build long-term careers. They come for the experience and financial benefits — and leave after five to seven years." Regional universities face an additional challenge. They continue to receive a high proportion of non-degree students on short-term programs, limiting both local retention and the creation of a stable talent pool for regional industries. "As competition intensifies globally for skilled workers, Korea needs policies that support foreign graduate-level students at every stage — recruitment, study, employment, and settlement," said Choi Jung-yoon, senior researcher at KEDI. "Simply expanding headcounts won’t solve regional workforce shortages." She emphasized the need for a data-based policy evaluation system, with periodic goal-setting and analysis of foreign students’ characteristics and needs at each stage. Japan is a key reference point. After launching a "100,000-student plan" in the 1980s and a "300,000-student plan" in 2008, the country hit its 300,000 target early in 2019. It is now pursuing a 400,000-student plan for 2023 to 2033, shifting focus from quantity to high-quality talent positioned to contribute to economic development. A notable feature of Japan's approach is multi-ministry coordination — with education, justice, foreign affairs, labor and others jointly managing admissions, immigration, campus support, employment pathways, and long-term settlement. Regional universities, particularly in Osaka and the northeast, are also building program strengths aligned with local industries. Gunma University, for example, promotes local settlement through internships tied directly to regional economic needs. The contrast with Korea is clear: more than 60 percent of foreign students in Korea want to work in Seoul regardless of where they studied. Meanwhile, 89 of Korea's 226 municipalities — nearly 40 percent — are officially designated as depopulating regions. Korea introduced the F-2-R visa last year, allowing foreign graduates to gain residency if they work in depopulating regions. The visa offers long-term stay, family accompaniment, and fewer job restrictions. "Local governments' economic plans and industry demand must be directly tied to foreign student recruitment," said a researcher at the Korea Migration Research and Training Center. "Key industries should be matched with relevant academic departments at nearby universities. Otherwise, neither local industries nor universities can gain real momentum." 2025-11-24 17:50:32

Fried chicken beats kimchi as Korea's global signature dish SEOUL, November 24 (AJP) - Fried chicken – not kimchi – is the foreign favorite Korean food, which explains Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s choice of dining out with his Korean tycoon friends – Lee Jae-yong of Samsung Electronics and Chung Euisun of Hyundai Motor – last month. Nearly three out of 10 foreigners, or 28.3 percent, named Korean fried chicken as the most Korean menu they had eaten over the past year, according to a poll of 11,000 respondents across 22 cities worldwide conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Korean Food Promotion Institute and released on Monday. Staple cabbage dish kimchi closely trailed at 28 percent, followed by bibimbap at 19.9 percent, ramyeon at 16.6 percent, and bulgogi at 14 percent. The same menu topped first-choice preferences for Korean dishes at 14 percent — well ahead of kimchi (9.5 percent), bibimbap (8.2 percent), and bulgogi (5.8 percent). Korean fried chicken has recently drawn global attention after Huang’s chimaek (a Korean combination of fried chicken and beer) night-out at a branch of “Kkanbu Chicken” in Seoul during his trip last month for APEC week. Shares of Kyochon F&B — Korea’s only listed fried chicken franchise — jumped as much as 23.31 percent in early trading to 4,900 won ($3.32) following the news. The company posted a third-quarter operating profit of 11.3 billion won, up 47.2 percent from a year earlier, with revenue rising 6 percent to 135.2 billion won. Net profit surged 68.9 percent to 7.6 billion won. Overall satisfaction with Korean cuisine remained high, with 94.2 percent of respondents who had tried Korean food saying they were satisfied. The share of consumers willing to try Korean food again surpassed 80 percent for the first time, rising 4.5 percentage points from last year to 80.6 percent. The survey also found that Korean cultural content continues to play a major role in boosting interest in Korean cuisine. With the global success of Netflix's animated film “KPop Demon Hunters” this year, 65.1 percent of respondents said Hallyu content initially drew them to Korean food. Based on the findings, the ministry plans to strengthen regional marketing, support overseas Korean restaurants, and expand collaborations linking Korean food with cultural content and ready-to-eat products. “We will expand the designation of outstanding overseas Korean restaurants and tailor promotion strategies to local consumer trends to elevate the global standing of Korean cuisine,” said Jeong Kyung-seok, director-general for food industry policy at the ministry. 2025-11-24 17:39:58

Coupang, latest breach in Korea, with no effective guardrail in sight SEOUL, November 21 (AJP) - Coupang has emerged as the latest flashpoint in Korea's widening cybersecurity crisis, with customer data leaking yet again as major companies — from telecom operators to card issuers — continue to fall victim to preventable attacks under a regulatory system that seldom imposes meaningful penalties. Coupang said late Thursday that an "unauthorized third party" accessed the personal information of more than 4,500 customers. According to the company's emergency notice, the exposed data included names, email addresses, phone numbers, delivery addresses, and each user's five most recent order records. The company said it immediately blocked the intrusion route and has so far found no evidence of misuse. It apologized to affected customers and advised them to contact its service center for assistance. The breach comes amid a series of major security incidents across Korea's telecommunications and financial sectors this year, intensifying concerns over the country's ability to safeguard personal information despite its reputation as one of the world's most digitalized societies. SK Telecom is preparing for legal disputes over a large-scale USIM-related leak disclosed in April. The company has rejected a state mediation panel's recommendation to compensate the 23 million individuals affected at 300,000 won ($203.28) per person. It has already incurred more than 1 trillion won in costs related to the incident. KT customers experienced more direct financial losses after illegally smuggled femtocell devices were used to impersonate cell towers, intercept authentication codes, and trigger unauthorized small-sum mobile payments. Hundreds of victims have filed official complaints, and both police and the Korea Communications Commission are investigating the case. LG Uplus reported suspicious access attempts to its internal network around the same period, resulting in the confirmed leak of 300,000 customer records and fines exceeding 6 billion won. In the financial sector, Lotte Card suffered a major cyberattack that compromised nearly 300 million customer data files, amounting to about 200 gigabytes of internal records. Government data points to the scale of the problem. According to the Personal Information Protection Commission, 88.54 million pieces of personal information have been leaked across public and private institutions over the past five years. Public-sector breaches alone rose from 650,000 cases in 2022 to 3.52 million in 2023 and 3.91 million in 2024. Penalties, however, remain limited. Between 2021 and July 2025, Korea recorded 451 data-security incidents but issued only 87.7 billion won in fines and 2.49 billion won in administrative penalties, averaging just 1,019 won per leaked data entry. Korean law allows fines of up to 3 percent of company revenue, but firms may exclude revenue deemed unrelated to the violation when calculating penalties. This contrasts sharply with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation, which permits fines of up to 20 million euros ($23.2 million) or 4 percent of annual global turnover. In 2021, Luxembourg imposed a 746 million-euro fine on Amazon for GDPR violations. A recent KAIST study found that widely used security plug-ins required by Korean financial and public institutions can themselves become attack pathways. These non-standard programs often conflict with the built-in security architecture of global web browsers such as Chrome, Safari, Edge and Firefox, which follow unified W3C and WHATWG standards designed to maintain consistent security protocols. The study concluded that the vulnerabilities stem from Korea's continued reliance on proprietary, mandatory security software that can undermine rather than strengthen consumer protection, even as companies claim compliance with existing regulations. 2025-11-21 17:31:59

Korea braces up for travel boon during winter holiday season from China–Japan fallout SEOUL, November 20 (AJP) - Korean travel agencies and the industry are bracing up to seize a potential boon from the fallout and escalating hostility between China and Japan over remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in early November on a potential Taiwan contingency that have led to a series of boycott-driven cancellations. Nearly 500,000 Chinese travelers have reportedly canceled Japan-related bookings — 32 percent of all Japan-bound reservations — after Beijing issued a warning against travel to Japan. Independent aviation analyst Li Hanming said cancellation rates surged to 82.1 percent on Sunday and 75.6 percent on Monday, noting that "the number of cancellations was 27 times higher than new bookings — a flurry of withdrawals unseen since the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic." Chinese travel agencies, in compliance with the state advisory, are offering full refunds for canceled Japan tour packages. Korea has quickly emerged as the top alternative destination in the region. Data released Sunday by Chinese travel platform Qunar showed Korea ranking first among overseas destinations for Chinese travelers over the weekend of November 15 to 16, overtaking long-time No. 1 Japan. Korea also led in flight payments and travel-related search volume, with Seoul recording the highest number of queries. Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia followed. The travel disruption stems from remarks Prime Minister Takaichi made during a parliamentary budget committee session on November 7, in which she suggested that a Chinese blockade of Taiwan — and subsequent U.S. military intervention — could constitute an "existential crisis" for Japan and potentially invoke Japan's right to collective self-defense. Beijing demanded an immediate retraction and issued a de facto travel ban urging citizens to avoid Japan from November 14 after Tokyo refused. Korea stands to benefit most on the tourism front, as Chinese and Japanese travelers together make up nearly half of foreign arrivals. According to the Korea Tourism Organization's Data Lab, of 18,316,412 foreign visitors to Korea between October 2024 and September 2025, 5,233,649 were from China and 3,583,533 from Japan — a combined 48.1 percent of all inbound travelers. "We are carrying out our annual plans as scheduled. For the Chinese market, we are continuing pre-planned promotions targeting the winter vacation period and long holidays, particularly through online campaigns," said a spokesperson for the Korea Tourism Organization, adding that it was too early to assess the direct impact of China's travel advisory. Still, the travel industry is bracing up for a potential surge in traffic during the year-end holiday season and leading up to the Lunar New Year. Korean Air recently formed a strategic partnership with Chinese online travel giant Ctrip, part of the Trip.com Group, which has more than 300 million registered users. Korean Air already operates the largest number of Korea–China routes among carriers from both countries. As of August this year, the airline operates over 200 weekly flights between the two nations. 2025-11-20 17:29:46

K-pop groups once again caught in diplomatic crossfire amid China–Japan fallout SEOUL, November 20 (AJP) - K-pop groups that have recently become regulars on Japanese television are once again caught in the crossfire between China and Japan, as renewed tensions under Tokyo's new hawkish leadership spill over into pop culture. The diplomatic standoff has revived decades-old antipathy between the two countries and is sending ripple effects across multiple fronts — from tourism to entertainment. Chinese music platform QQ Music announced Monday via social media that a fan event for Japanese boy band JO1 scheduled for later this month in Guangzhou was canceled due to "force majeure." The 11-member group, formed through Produce 101 Japan in 2020 — the Japanese adaptation of the Korean idol audition franchise — is managed by Lapone Entertainment, a joint venture between CJ ENM and Yoshimoto Kogyo. K-pop girl group aespa, which includes Chinese member Ningning, also received a direct hit. After news broke that the group would appear on NHK's year-end "Kōhaku" music program, a petition demanding their removal surfaced on change.org on Monday. Ningning had previously drawn ire in Japan after posting mushroom-shaped lighting in 2022 that some interpreted as resembling an "atomic bomb." Petitioners argue her appearance would "damage Japan's international image" and "hurt victims of the Hiroshima bombing." The petition gathered more than 50,000 signatures within 24 hours, rising to 70,000 as of Thursday. The four-member group has become "one of the biggest cultural casualties of the current diplomatic rift," Hong Kong–based Sing Tao Daily wrote, adding that whether aespa ultimately performs on "Kōhaku" could serve as a barometer of the depth of the China–Japan conflict. Beijing's reaction is rooted in its strict adherence to the "One China" policy, under which Taiwan is considered part of greater China. Ahead of his third term, President Xi Jinping emphasized ideological discipline and cultural purification, leading to heightened censorship since 2021 under the stated goals of protecting youth from "harmful cultural consumption" and restoring "proper values." Korean pop culture has faced de facto sanctions under this framework. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's recent comments align with long-standing defense views — that Japan may need to adopt a self-defense posture should Chinese actions toward Taiwan create a "survival-threatening situation." Beijing denounced the remarks as provocative and insulting. This is far from the first time Korean entertainers have been drawn into political tensions. Tzuyu of TWICE was forced to issue a public apology in 2016 after holding a Taiwanese flag on Korean television, triggering intense backlash from Chinese netizens. EXO's Lay terminated an endorsement deal with Samsung after the company listed Taiwan and Hong Kong as separate entities on its website. In 2019, during a Korean boycott of Japanese goods following Japan's export restrictions on semiconductor materials, some online communities demanded the removal of TWICE's Japanese members — Sana, Momo, and Mina — from Korean broadcasts. "Asia is fundamentally collectivist. They cannot separate individuals from the actions of their group or nationality," said Yu Hyun-jae, professor at Sogang University's College of Communication, explaining that such reactions reflect deeper cultural patterns in East Asia. "Social media is extremely powerful. Information spreads fast regardless of facts or nuance, making it an ideal environment for agitation. Fan communities that grow under these conditions can easily become distorted or extreme," he added. 2025-11-20 17:29:21

AI cover controversy in New Zealand poses wake-up call for Korean publishers SEOUL, November 19 (AJP) - It took less than a minute for ChatGPT to deliver a fully rendered image of Seoul's landmark Gwanghwamun draped in autumn leaves in the warm, painterly style of Studio Ghibli, the iconic Japanese animation studio. Image-making has become easy and ubiquitous ever since OpenAI added its image-generation feature, allowing users to transform their portraits into Ghibli-style illustrations within seconds. The feature quickly went viral across social media, sharply boosting ChatGPT's global usage: weekly active users jumped 30 percent in the first quarter, and as of last month, the platform counts more than 800 million users worldwide. But the spread of everyday AI assistance in visual and creative work is also complicating life for creators — a reality underscored by a recent case in New Zealand. Two New Zealand writers, Stephanie Johnson and Elizabeth Smither, were disqualified from the country's most prestigious literary prize, the Ockham Book Awards, making them ineligible for next year's NZ$65,000 fiction award. The decision came after the awards committee discovered that the publishers' design team had used artificial intelligence (AI) to create the book covers without informing the authors beforehand. The affected books, Johnson's short-story collection "Obligate Carnivore" (2025) and Smither's novella collection "Angel Train" (2025), shocked the literary world due to the absence of clear regulatory guidelines. A less dramatic but similar case occurred in Korea when it was revealed that the 2023 youth edition of "Almond" — the million-selling bildungsroman by Sohn Won-pyung about a boy who struggles to feel emotions — used AI in its redesigned cover. Before this incident, AI usage had largely been limited to publish-on-demand (POD) or self-published works. This was the first time AI had been used for the re-covering of a major bestseller. The core of the controversy centered on copyright: under current Korean law, AI cannot be recognized as a copyright holder. Korea will put its AI Basic Act into effect in January next year, but it barely touches the broad, day-to-day issues emerging across the many sectors AI has already penetrated. "Without clear rules, everything is judged on a case-by-case basis. But the trend is moving toward acknowledging rights for AI-assisted creations. Even if the themes are similar, different texts receive separate copyright protection," said Kim Hyung-geun, CEO of publishing house Seoul Selection, who added that the lack of regulations places publishers in limbo. AI-generated works differ fundamentally from traditional publishing, with the most notable changes appearing in the dramatic reduction of time and cost. Yet the law does not specify how disclosure requirements should apply to AI-produced covers, illustrations, or text. "Hiring designers for covers is expensive, and works created with ChatGPT are clearly copyright-free, so I don't see a legal issue there," observed Park Han-woo, media and communication professor at Yeungnam University. He suggested that Korea incorporate NFT-style systems to track the provenance of AI-generated content. NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are digital certificates recorded on a blockchain that verify ownership and trace the history of a digital asset. Even if identical copies of an artwork circulate online, only the NFT-registered version carries true ownership rights — which could help ease confusion while authorities catch up with appropriate regulations, he said. 2025-11-19 17:19:07

K-beauty set to be next collateral damage from localization fever in China SEOUL, November 18 (AJP) - Korean beauty brands were virtually absent from this year's Singles' Day shopping festival — often dubbed China's version of Black Friday — marking a stark retreat from a market they once dominated and positioning K-beauty as the next collateral damage of China’s localization drive after smartphones and cars. The simultaneous withdrawal of Korean players underscores both the sophistication and rising confidence of Chinese manufacturing — from AI phones to skincare — under Beijing's state-steered industrial system. It also highlights the failure of Korean brands to either localize deeply or assert a distinctive identity compelling enough to withstand China’s fast-advancing competitors. China's largest e-commerce platform, Tmall, reported that Proya, a Chinese skincare giant, was the top-selling beauty brand this Singles' Day. Proya surpassed 100 million yuan ($14 million) in sales within the first minute of pre-sales and ranked No.1 throughout the Oct. 15 to Nov. 11 promotion period. Chinese beauty labels consolidated their dominance across platforms. Five domestic brands — Proya, Winona, Kefumei, Herborist, and Mao Geping — made the Tmall top-20 ranking, reaffirming the sector’s shift to high-performing local names. With the exception of Mao Geping, a color-cosmetics specialist, most are skincare labels built around plant-based ingredients, hydration, and sensitive-skin solutions. No Korean brands made Tmall's top-20 list. LG Household & Health Care's luxury label, The History of Whoo, managed only ninth place on Douyin's beauty sales chart. Demand for dermacosmetics — functional skincare that blends dermatology with cosmetics — is also surging in China, particularly for sensitive-skin consumers. According to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency's Hangzhou office, 36.1 percent of Chinese women today have sensitive skin, a figure projected to reach 48 percent by 2030 due to pollution, stress, UV exposure, and changing lifestyles. This shift has rapidly fueled demand for irritation-free, dermatology-backed products — a category where Chinese brands have strengthened capabilities far faster than their Korean rivals. Kim Hee-jong, CEO of the China-based Sangsangrak Creative Center and a researcher with the China Specialist Forum (CSF) under the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, noted that "Guochao" — China's homegrown consumer-product wave — is reshaping sectors from cosmetics and food to home appliances and apparel. "Guochao products may look trendy, but their core appeal is high quality at practical prices," he said. "People used to distrust domestic brands, but once they try them, they find the quality surprisingly strong. With social-media-savvy Gen Z embracing Guochao as cultural identity, the trend is here to stay." Lee Wook-yon, a professor of Chinese Culture at Sogang University, said in a CSF column that Guochao first gained momentum in 2018, the year U.S. sanctions on Huawei escalated the U.S.–China tech rivalry. "What began as niche consumer behavior under external pressure has now become a mass phenomenon," he said. A similar story has played out in China's smartphone market. Xiaomi, Samsung, Huawei, and Apple once competed fiercely. But when U.S. sanctions throttled Huawei's access to advanced 5G chips in 2019, citing security risks, its market share collapsed. Apple captured the premium segment as Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo strengthened their grip on mid-range categories. Defying restrictions, Huawei partnered with China's SMIC to develop its own 7-nanometer chips. Its 2023 launch of the Mate 60 Pro, powered by the Kirin chipset, marked a symbolic return to 5G prowess. While Huawei still faces hurdles abroad, its domestic brand power has sharply rebounded. Korean firms lost ground. Samsung, which held nearly 20 percent of China's smartphone market a decade ago, now has less than a 3 percent share. Chinese EVs and SUVs account for more than half of the automotive market, pushing Hyundai Motor to shut down its Beijing sales unit in September as demand in major cities wanes. Business prospects in the world's second-largest consumer market have grown dimmer as Beijing intensifies its push for self-sufficiency and domestic consumption. China's research and development spending surpassed 700 trillion won ($477 billion) last year — more than Korea's entire fiscal budget. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China's R&D expenditure reached 3.63 trillion yuan in 2023, up 8.9 percent from a year earlier. From 2021 to 2024, R&D spending grew at an average annual rate of 10.5 percent, underscoring its accelerated drive for technological competitiveness. 2025-11-18 17:01:09