Punjab chief minister courts S. Korean investors during Seoul visit SEOUL, December 11 (AJP) - Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann wrapped up a two-day visit to Seoul on December 9 with a series of meetings aimed at attracting South Korean investment across infrastructure, energy, food processing, and advanced manufacturing. The trip also included a large investment roadshow, where Mann promoted Punjab as a stable and future-ready business destination. During talks with Daewoo E&C Chairman Jung Won-joo, Mann pushed for cooperation on renewable energy projects, including offshore wind farms, solar plants, and hydrogen production, while also highlighting opportunities in LNG terminals, petrochemical complexes, fertilizer plants, smart-city development, and transport infrastructure. He also stressed the potential for modular and prefabricated construction technologies to support faster, more cost-efficient building in the state. At a separate meeting with GS Engineering & Construction Vice President Ryu Young-ha, the chief minister encouraged collaboration in solar, wind, and hydrogen energy, as well as large-scale civil works, industrial complexes, and EPC services. Mann said Punjab would provide full support for Korean participation in green hydrogen and clean-energy initiatives. Food and agribusiness were also on the agenda. In talks with Nongshim Holdings, Mann advocated joint development of new instant noodle products tailored to Indian consumers and urged greater expansion into Indian retail and e-commerce channels. He proposed cooperation on marketing aimed at health-conscious and youth demographics, along with partnerships on sustainable packaging and research into longevity foods and plant-based products. Industrial technology featured prominently in his meeting with Korea Display Industry Association Vice Chairman Lee Sung-kyu. Mann called for exploring investment in display manufacturing and technology transfer, as well as collaboration in cybersecurity, robotics, unmanned systems, and workforce training programs related to display engineering. The chief minister also met Seoul Business Agency Startup Division Director Kim Jong-woo, where discussions focused on startup incubation, acceleration programs, and SBA's export support initiatives. Mann stressed that strengthening knowledge exchange on innovation ecosystems could help Punjab-based startups expand globally. A roundtable on improving the business environment brought together major Korean legal firms, financial institutions, trade bodies, and think tanks. Mann presented recent regulatory reforms and invited feedback on streamlining procedures to support investment. He promoted Punjab as one of India's preferred destinations for global companies and pointed to developments underway ahead of the Progressive Punjab Investors' Summit 2026. Mann also visited Pangyo Techno Valley, often described as South Korea's Silicon Valley, to study its deep-tech startup ecosystem. Officials from the Gyeonggi Province Business & Science Accelerator briefed the delegation on Pangyo's accelerator programs, testing platforms, and performance-driven evaluation system. Mann said Punjab could adapt similar approaches in Mohali to strengthen research, innovation, and high-skilled employment. The visit culminated in the Punjab Investment Roadshow in Seoul, which drew participation from Korean corporations, financial institutions, R&D organizations, trade associations, legal advisors, and members of the Indian and Punjabi communities. Mann highlighted Punjab's industrial base, cost-competitive power supply, reliable labor relations, and connectivity to major markets, positioning the state as a predictable and supportive investment environment. Indian Ambassador to South Korea Gourangalal Das welcomed the delegation and said the Embassy would continue working to expand industrial ties between India and South Korea. Participants also heard a video message from the managing director of Sunjin, who praised the investment climate in Mohali and Chandigarh and spoke positively of Punjab's skilled workforce. 2025-12-11 16:13:12

Kookmin University highlights new ERC center on robotic functional skin and hypersensory perception SEOUL, December 11 (AJP) - Kookmin University hosted a K*-Colloquium on December 9 at its Industry-Academic Cooperation Building, where Professor Lim Si-hyung of the School of Mechanical Engineering presented the vision and roadmap of the newly selected Engineering Research Center (ERC) on Robotic Functional Skin and Enhanced Perception. The K*-Colloquium is a regular seminar series organized by the university's Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation. It serves as a forum for sharing research outcomes and future plans from new faculty members, as well as examining core technologies driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution, including AI, semiconductors and advanced convergence technologies. The "K*" mark reflects Kookmin University's identity and its focus on innovation-driven research. During the session, Lim introduced the center's strategy and research scope following its selection this year by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea. The center aims to overcome the limits of conventional vision-dependent robotic systems by integrating functional skin technologies with multisensory perception. The research program is structured around three pillars: a non-visual hypersensory cognition platform combining tactile, auditory and olfactory sensors; multifunctional skin capable of dustproofing, waterproofing, heat resistance and radiation protection; and high-precision nano- and micro-scale surface manufacturing technologies. The long-term goal is to enable robots to "sense, judge and respond" to their surroundings in a manner more similar to biological organisms. By embedding human-skin-like sensory functions into robotic surfaces, the center seeks to develop technologies that could be applied to disaster-response robots, nuclear and industrial plant inspection systems, space and deep-sea exploration platforms, and defense-related unmanned systems. The consortium includes Kookmin University as the lead institution, joined by Seoul National University, UNIST, Kumoh National Institute of Technology and Gachon University. Ten partner companies, including Hyundai Motor, are providing about 1.3 billion won in private-sector investment to support demonstration projects and commercialization pathways. The center aims to establish global research standards, expand technology transfer and promote deep-tech startup efforts as part of a broader strategy to reinforce South Korea's competitiveness in foundational robotics. "This project aims to elevate the most essential elements of robotics — skin and perception — to a world-class level," Lim said. "We hope to create a turning point for South Korea to become a global leader in foundational robotic technologies that function even in extreme environments." Lim received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Seoul National University and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. His research covers next-generation sensors and devices, functional robotic materials and high-reliability manufacturing processes. He currently serves as a professor in Kookmin University's School of Mechanical Engineering and has led multiple national research initiatives in related fields. 2025-12-11 14:27:56

President Lee receives credentials from India's new ambassador in Seoul SEOUL, December 11 (AJP) - South Korea's President Lee Jae-myung received the credentials of India's new ambassador, Gourangalal Das, during a ceremony at the presidential office in Yongsan on Thursday. Das presented his letter of credence to President Lee, who welcomed him, posed for a photo, and exchanged brief remarks before continuing with the session. The event brought together eight newly appointed ambassadors to South Korea. Among them were Eva Marie Lussek of Austria and Khuon Phonrattanak of Cambodia, each presenting their credentials alongside Ambassador Das. The credential ceremony is the step in which a new ambassador officially delivers the document issued by their head of state to the host nation’s president, allowing the envoy to begin carrying out diplomatic duties. 2025-12-11 14:03:51

South Korean robotics leaders highlight rise of 'Physical AI' at COMEUP 2025 SEOUL, December 10 (AJP) - A discussion on the growing convergence of robotics and artificial intelligence drew a full audience at COMEUP 2025, South Korea's largest annual startup festival, on Wednesday, as two South Korean robotics entrepreneurs described how so-called "physical AI" is reshaping the sector and opening new markets for humanoid machines. The session, titled "Physical AI: Where Robotics Meets Intelligence," brought together ROBOTIS CEO Kim Byoung-soo and RLWRLD CEO Ryu Jung-hee. The two spoke candidly about the rapid shift taking place as robots move from rule-based industrial systems to AI-driven platforms capable of learning, perception, and autonomous action. Kim, who operates ROBOTIS, well-known for developing actuators widely used by robotics researchers, said the past year marked a major turning point. "Robots used to operate only on rule-based models inside factories," he said. "With AI attached, people now expect robots to move with real intelligence." He noted that demand for actuators is expanding beyond universities to AI labs and large companies investing in next-generation robotics. Ryu, formerly a venture investor, said he launched RLWRLD after realizing South Korea lacked a company building a foundation model for robotics. He described his team’s work on a "large vision-language-action model" that must interpret images, understand speech, and output robotic movements rather than text. "Human-level datasets for robots do not exist on the web," he said. "We have to create large amounts of data ourselves, and nobody yet knows the perfect model structure." The two speakers invited the audience to participate in real-time polls using colored lights attached to their seats. Most attendees said they expect humanoid robots to be working in homes within ten years, and an overwhelming majority predicted that South Korean companies will play an important role in the humanoid market alongside the United States and China. Kim said the industrial robot market, despite its long history, has a large room to grow once robots move out of factory lines. He pointed to global manufacturers already requesting robots that can be trained with long hours of data, adding that securing data and infrastructure has become a critical part of competition. Ryu said early demand for humanoids is strongest not in manufacturing but in service sectors such as convenience stores, hotels and logistics. "These are places that cannot relocate their operations abroad," he said. "Many of them told us they were waiting for humanoids with real AI." The speakers also discussed the challenges facing Korean robotics startups, including capital gaps with U.S. competitors and the difficulty of scaling data collection. Ryu noted that his one-year-old company is raising funds at a relatively high valuation by Korean standards, while comparable U.S. robotics-AI firms have reached multibillion-dollar levels. Both agreed that South Korea’s manufacturing expertise and its growing mix of hardware and AI companies allow it to compete in the emerging physical-AI field. Kim closed with a message to younger founders, warning against losing focus when investment becomes easier. "Stay with your original mission," he said. "Robotics and AI require discipline, not distractions." 2025-12-10 17:01:11

AI entrepreneur draws S. Korean startups to Saudi Arabia with promise of scale and cheaper AI infrastructure SEOUL, December 10 (AJP) - Tareq Amin, the CEO of Saudi Arabia's state-backed AI company HUMAIN, used his keynote at COMEUP 2025, South Korea's largest annual festival held at COEX in southern Seoul, on Wednesday to make a direct pitch to South Korean startups: consider Saudi Arabia as a place to build, scale and cut costs. Amin described a country in the middle of an economic overhaul under its Vision 2030 initiative, which aims to move Saudi Arabia beyond its traditional dependence on oil and gas. He said the shift is opening space for new industries built around digital services, artificial intelligence, and large-scale data infrastructure. "It is the fastest, digitally growing economy today in the G20," he said, calling the current moment a rare opening for founders looking outside their home markets. HUMAIN itself was formed earlier this year through a consolidation of entities backed by Saudi Aramco and the Public Investment Fund. Amin characterized the company as a full-stack AI player responsible for building out national data centers, developing foundation models, creating an AI-native enterprise operating system and launching a venture arm for joint investments. The name "HUMAIN," he noted, reflects the company's intention to keep people at the center of its technology. Amin highlighted three factors he believes set Saudi Arabia apart for South Korean startups: energy, cost, and scale. He said the kingdom has enough available power to support multi-gigawatt AI data centers and is targeting as much as 6 gigawatts of AI computing capacity by 2034. According to Amin, Saudi Arabia aims to handle about 20 percent of the world's AI inferencing traffic by 2030. He also claimed that HUMAIN's cloud hosting costs are significantly lower than major markets, citing internal estimates showing roughly 47 percent lower inferencing costs. He argued that Saudi Arabia's geographic position offers another advantage. With fiber links connecting the kingdom to multiple continents, he said the country can provide service reach to up to 4.4 billion people. "Power, land, connectivity — that is what gives us the chance to build something on a global scale," he said. Amin repeatedly pointed to South Korea's strengths in hardware, memory, and engineering, saying the two countries complement each other. HUMAIN plans to open a Korean office in February to deepen its ties with South Korean AI startups and chip designers. "Korea builds amazing products, and in Saudi Arabia, we know how to build at scale," he said. He also urged founders to think beyond South Korea's domestic market. "AI is a global race," he said. "Creating an amazing technology without finding a market for it does not mean a whole lot," Amin said Saudi Arabia's young population — the average age is about twenty-nine — and the country's willingness to adopt new technologies create a space where foreign startups can test and refine their products. 2025-12-10 16:20:50

S. Korea's top startup festival COMEUP 2025 opens in Seoul attracting global startups and investors SEOUL, December 10 (AJP) - COMEUP 2025, South Korea's largest annual startup festival, opened Wednesday at COEX in Seoul, drawing hundreds of founders, investors, and corporate leaders from around the world for three days of conferences, exhibitions, and business matching sessions. The event, held from December 10 to December 12, features startups from 46 countries and more than 270 companies presenting products and technologies across deep tech, AI, climate technology, gaming, mobile services and other sectors. Seven countries, including Saudi Arabia and India, have set up national pavilions to highlight their startup ecosystems. Scores of attendees gathered in the hall for the opening ceremony, which marked the beginning of this year’s program under the slogan "Recode the Future." Minister of SMEs and Startups Han Seong-sook welcomed participants and emphasized the importance of collaboration across the ecosystem. She noted that 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of Korea’s Venture Business Association and the twentieth year of the government’s "growth ladder" fund. "Innovation cannot be completed alone," Han said, stressing that "startups, investors, global firms, and Korea’s major companies must work together for our startup ecosystem to grow and create new opportunities." Before the ceremony, Han met with Tareq Amin, CEO of HUMAIN, Saudi Arabia’s state-backed AI company established this year by the Public Investment Fund. The two discussed cooperation opportunities in AI and deep tech, as HUMAIN considers setting up a Korean branch and expands its engagement with Korean startups. Amin delivered a keynote speech outlining the rising importance of AI and digital infrastructure in shaping global industries. Rebellions CEO Park Sung-hyun, returning as a keynote speaker for the second year, shared insights from Korea’s semiconductor and deep-tech sectors and reflected on the evolving nature of entrepreneurial innovation. Over the next three days, COMEUP 2025 will host sessions on AI, climate solutions, mobile ecosystems, youth entrepreneurship, and founder culture. According to the Korea Startup Forum, the event organizer, more than 2,000 business meetings are expected, with venture capital firms, corporate venture capital teams, and accelerators participating. 35 global, large, and mid-sized companies are also taking part through booths and special programs designed to facilitate open innovation. 2025-12-10 15:00:41

Kookmin University wins national program to train next-generation eco-biological materials specialists SEOUL, December 09 (AJP) - Kookmin University said Tuesday it has been selected for the government's "Specialized Graduate School in Environmental Fields" initiative in the area of biological materials, a program overseen by the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment and supported by the Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute. The project will run for five years from 2025 to 2030 with a total budget of 6.2 billion won. Professor Park Yong-cheol of the Department of Bio-Fermentation and Convergence is leading the program. The ministry designed the initiative to advance sustainable green technologies based on bio-derived materials and to strengthen South Korea's competitiveness in securing biological resources amid intensifying global competition following the Paris Agreement and the Nagoya Protocol. It also aims to cultivate a new talent pool and build an industrial ecosystem in the eco-friendly biological materials sector. With the new designation, Kookmin University will launch and operate the "Eco-Biomaterials Convergence Graduate Program," which will train students in both development and production technologies. The school plans to open 114 courses, including new modules dedicated to biomaterials development and manufacturing, and offer industry-linked programs such as the PBR-MAX track, on-site internships and global seminars to strengthen practical competencies. Kookmin University will also build a research platform that integrates AI, data science and synthetic biology for eco-biomaterials, while expanding its global collaboration network in the sector. The university said the initiative is expected to enhance connectivity between education, research and industry while contributing to new green-technology industries and broader industrial competitiveness. Kookmin University previously operated a specialized graduate program in green convergence technologies after being selected for an earlier round of the initiative in 2020. Its Department of Bio-Fermentation and Convergence — the only one of its kind in South Korea — has partnered with 19 companies in food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and environmental materials to offer joint projects, internships and on-site training. The university said this track record helped secure the latest selection. The department will be renamed the Department of Convergence Bioengineering beginning in the 2026 academic year to reflect its integration of biotechnology and AI. "This selection is an important milestone that demonstrates Kookmin University's strength in ESG fields, a key pillar of the KMU Vision 2035: EDGE agenda," Kookmin University President Chung Seung-ryeol said in a statement. "We will continue working to become a hub for interdisciplinary and industry-ready talent in green technology." Professor Park said the university will "further expand the environmental and industrial value of biological materials" and strengthen its ability to train globally competitive talent, calling the new program a significant step in advancing Kookmin University's practical education model. 2025-12-09 17:52:20

KAIST AI team wins top global paper award for group behavior prediction SEOUL, December 09 (AJP) - A research team from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has achieved a historic first for South Korean universities by winning the prestigious Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Data Mining (IEEE ICDM). This top honor, awarded to just one paper out of 785 global submissions, marks the first time a South Korean university research team has claimed the award in 23 years, underscoring KAIST's technology leadership on the world research stage. The award recognizes the team's development of a breakthrough AI technology capable of predicting complex social group behavior. The team is led by KAIST Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI Professor Shin Ki-jeong. On December 9, KAIST announced the development of the groundbreaking AI model, which predicts complex social group behavior by analyzing how individual characteristics, such as age and role, influence group relationships. Group interactions, spanning online communities, research collaborations, and large chat groups, are exploding in modern society. However, existing technology struggles to precisely explain the underlying structure of these group behaviors and how individual characteristics simultaneously influence them. To overcome this limitation, Professor Shin Ki-jeong's research team developed an AI model named "NoAH (Node Attribute-based Hypergraph Generator)." NoAH is a sophisticated artificial intelligence designed to accurately reproduce the dynamic interplay between individual characteristics and group structure. For example, it analyzes how people's specific attributes, like their interests or professional roles, combine to create collective group action, and then reproduces that behavior. By simultaneously reflecting human tendencies and relationships, NoAH creates remarkably "realistic group behavior." It was demonstrated to reproduce diverse real-world group behaviors, including purchase combinations in e-commerce, the spread of online discussions, and co-authorship networks among researchers, far more accurately than previous models. Professor Shin Ki-jeong said, "This research opens a new AI paradigm that allows for a three-dimensional understanding of complex interactions by considering not only the group's structure but also the characteristics of the individuals. This means the analysis of online communities, messengers, and social networks will become significantly more precise." The study was conducted by Professor Shin Ki-jeong and the research team from KAIST Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI, including Master's students Jeon Jae-wan and Yun Seok-beom, and Ph.D. students Choi Min-young and Lee Geon. The findings were presented at IEEE ICDM on November 18. The research received support from the AI Research Hub project, AI Graduate School Support (KAIST), and the Technology Development for Neural Network Variation and Intelligence Enhancement Based on AI Agent Collaboration. 2025-12-09 14:18:06

Police raid e-commerce giant Coupang's Seoul offices in data breach probe SEOUL, December 09 (AJP) - Implying full-scale government scrutiny, South Korean police on Tuesday raided Coupang’s Seoul offices over the massive data breach that exposed the personal information of an estimated 33.7 million accounts. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Cyber Investigation Division began the search-and-seizure at around 11 a.m. at Coupang’s offices in Songpa-gu. A 17-member investigative team, led by a superintendent-level chief, was deployed to confiscate internal documents and server logs believed to be linked to the breach. The move suggests authorities are examining potential security negligence by the e-commerce giant. Police officials said the seizure was necessary to determine the full scope of the incident and track how the breach unfolded. Legal and public pressure on Coupang has mounted as consumer confidence deteriorates rapidly. Data from IGAWorks MobileIndex shows that Coupang’s daily active user count has dropped by more than 2.04 million since the company disclosed the breach, sliding into the mid-15-million range as of December 6. Analysts note that many users appear to have left the platform after checking whether their accounts were affected. The investigation, which began after Coupang filed an initial report on November 18, is increasingly centered on a former Chinese employee identified by the company as the primary suspect. Police, however, emphasize that the inquiry remains wide-ranging and that conclusions will depend on digital forensics and internal record analysis. Given the scale of Coupang’s systems, the raid is expected to continue beyond a single day to process the extensive volume of data. Authorities said no secondary crimes, such as phishing attempts or home break-ins, have been confirmed so far using the exposed information. The forced judicial intervention underscores the severity of the governance lapses facing South Korea’s dominant online retailer, as investigators probe not only the breach itself but the safeguards that failed to prevent it. 2025-12-09 14:11:52

KAIST researchers develop water spray purifier capable of removing dust without filters SEOUL, December 08 (AJP) - A research team at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced on December 8 that developers had created a novel air purification technology capable of removing 99.9% of fine dust without the use of filters, mechanical pumps, or noise, while emitting zero ozone. The research team, led by Department of Materials Science and Engineering Professor Kim Il-Doo and Department of Mechanical Engineering Professor Lee Seung-Seop, successfully created a "self-pumping water electrospray" device. The system combines ultra-low power consumption with high-efficiency particulate removal, addressing the limitations of traditional HEPA filters and electrostatic precipitators. Conventional air purifiers rely heavily on High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters, which require regular replacement and significant energy to force air through dense material. Alternatively, existing electrostatic purifiers often generate ozone—a harmful respiratory irritant—as a byproduct of corona discharge. The KAIST team’s innovation circumvents these issues by utilizing "water electrospray" technology, which generates microscopic, electrically charged water droplets to trap dust particles in the air. According to the researchers, the core of the innovation lies in the integration of Professor Lee’s "ozone-free water electrospray" and Professor Kim’s "hygroscopic nanofiber" technology. The system features a unique "self-pumping" mechanism where water is drawn up through a nanofiber wick and polymer microchannels via capillary action, eliminating the need for a mechanical pump. In laboratory tests conducted in a 0.1 m³ chamber, the device successfully removed 99.9% of particulate matter ranging from PM0.3 to PM10 within 20 minutes. Notably, it eliminated 97% of PM0.3—particles less than 0.3 micrometers in diameter, which are notoriously difficult for standard filters to capture—in just five minutes. The system demonstrated high stability, operating continuously for 50 hours without performance degradation. It is also exceptionally energy-efficient, consuming only 1.3 Watts of power—roughly half the energy required by a standard HEPA purifier and less than a smartphone charger. Water consumption was recorded at less than 0.4 milliliters per hour. Crucially, the team confirmed the device produces no detectable ozone, maintaining a safe indoor environment while filtering pollutants. The technology is currently being commercialized through A2US Co., Ltd., a faculty startup founded by Professor Lee Seung-Seop. The company has already been recognized with an Innovation Award ahead of CES 2025. A2US plans to release a portable air purifier based on this technology in 2026. The commercial unit is expected to handle not only fine dust but also odors and airborne pathogens. Research findings were published on November 14 in Advanced Functional Materials, a leading international journal in the field of materials science, under the title "Self-pumped Hygroscopic Nanofiber Emitter for Ozone-free Water Electrospray-based Air Purification." The study was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea, the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the KAIST-MIT Future Energy Research Center. 2025-12-08 17:57:21