[[CES 2026]] South Korea fields 853 companies, 3rd largest presence LAS VEGAS, January 05 (AJP) - South Korea is fielding 853 companies to the world’s largest technology showcase, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2026, cementing its position as the third-largest national contingent despite a sharp decline from last year. The Korea Information & Communication Technology Industry Association (KICTA) said the figure marks a 17.2 percent drop from 1,031 Korean participants at CES 2025. The pullback was driven primarily by startups, which fell to 458 from 641 a year earlier, while general corporate exhibitors edged up to 395. "A single booth can cost at least 100 million won once accommodation, logistics, patent filings and rental fees are included. The amount can be quite burdening for startups," said Lee Han-bum, president of the KICTA. Major conglomerates are also scaling back their presence along CES’s main exhibition avenues. SK Group — which staged large, multi-affiliate pavilions from 2019 to 2025 — will send only SK hynix this year. HD Hyundai, a regular CES participant known for showcasing next-generation autonomous vessel technologies, will skip the show entirely. Hyundai Motor Group is also scaling down its exhibition footprint, pulling back software and autonomous-driving displays in areas where U.S. rivals currently dominate. Samsung Electronics, meanwhile, plans to host its showcase at a private hotel rather than its usual anchor space at the Las Vegas Convention Center’s Central Hall, which has increasingly been occupied by Chinese electronics giants such as TCL and Hisense. CES 2026, which opens Monday in Las Vegas, has drawn about 4,300 companies from roughly 160 countries, down from around 4,800 exhibitors in 2025. The decline reflects reduced participation from South Korea and China, which together accounted for much of the overall drop. The United States leads this year with 1,476 registered companies, followed by China with 942 and South Korea in third place. France and Taiwan round out the top five with 160 and 132 firms, respectively. Asian companies from South Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong comprise about 2,200 exhibitors, or 51 percent of the total, down from roughly 60 percent last year. China's participation tumbled 29.7 percent to 942 firms from 1,339, partly due to what industry experts say visa delays and reduced advance booth purchases by local agents. Still, Korean firms will dominate the startup-strong Eureka Park pavilion, with 411 companies accounting for the largest national presence among 1,100 global entrants. The United States trails with 195, followed by France at 145. About 80 percent of Korean participants, or 689 companies, will exhibit in group pavilions backed by government agencies, local authorities, universities and conglomerates. Some 164 firms secured independent booths at their own expense. This year's CES carries the theme "Innovators Show Up," with artificial intelligence, robotics, digital health, mobility and smart home technologies highlighted as key exhibition categories. 2026-01-05 12:58:22

Türkiye's Foreign Policy Vision and Türkiye–Korea Relations in 2026 2026-01-05 12:51:46

Korean and Japanese shares roar ahead into 2026's first full week SEOUL, January 05 (AJP) -South Korean and Japanese equities surged into the first full trading week of 2026, outpacing most Asian peers as investors rotated into large-cap exporters and technology stocks, while regional markets elsewhere remained cautious amid uncertainty stemming from recent upheaval in Venezuela. In Seoul, the benchmark KOSPI climbed 1.9 percent to 4,393.5 points as of 10:20 a.m. Monday. The tech-heavy KOSDAQ added 0.6 percent to 950.98. Overall market gains were measured rather than euphoric, but buying interest remained firm in heavyweight exporters and chipmakers. Samsung Electronics jumped 5.1 percent to 134,950 won ($93.3), while SK hynix rose 1.7 percent to 690,000 won, as expectations built ahead of Samsung’s fourth-quarter earnings guidance due later this week. Battery and industrial names also advanced. LG Energy Solution, the country’s third-largest company by market value, gained 1.8 percent to 367,500 won. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries edged up 0.79 percent to 508,000 won, while Hanwha Aerospace surged 4.1 percent to 985,000 won. Korea Zinc also added 0.7 percent to 1,295,000 won. By contrast, entertainment stocks slid amid speculation that Beijing’s de facto restrictions on Korean cultural content were unlikely to ease following the Korea–China summit. HYBE fell 2.6 percent to 336,000 won, JYP Entertainment dropped 5.7 percent to 73,200 won, SM Entertainment slid 9.2 percent to 120,200 won, and YG Entertainment lost 6.7 percent to 65,700 won. In Tokyo, Japanese stocks also opened the year strongly. The Nikkei 225 jumped 2.6 percent to 51,670, supported by gains in autos, financials and technology-linked shares. Among major heavyweights, Toyota Motor rose 1.9 percent to 3,420 yen ($21.8), Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group gained 2.1 percent to 2,544 yen, and SoftBank Group advanced 4.4 percent to 4,597 yen. Elsewhere in Asia, gains were more restrained as investors assessed broader geopolitical risks. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite edged up 0.7 percent to 3,997.5, while Hang Seng Index added 0.2 percent to 26,381. 2026-01-05 11:41:49

Hyundai Motor chairman puts AI, software, robotics at core of future strategy SEOUL, January 05 (AJP) - Hyundai Motor Group will place artificial intelligence, software-defined vehicles and robotics at the core of its future mobility strategy this year, Chairman Chung Eui-sun said in a New Year's message on Monday. Cautioning that rapid advances in AI are reshaping competition and driving a major transition in global manufacturing, Chung called for bold cooperation with a wide range of partners to respond to the AI-driven shift. “Even in the automotive market, we have entered an era in which a product’s core competitiveness is determined by AI capability,” Chung said. He added that global industry leaders have already secured an advantage through massive investments, while Hyundai Motor Group’s capabilities “are not yet sufficient.” Citing increasingly complex global trade conflicts that could weigh on business conditions and profitability, Chung warned that geopolitical disputes could disrupt operations or harm business in certain regions. To address these challenges, Chung outlined key priorities including customer-focused restructuring, clearer assessment of realities and faster decision-making, expanded support for supply-chain partners, broader ecosystems through cooperation with diverse partners, and leadership in setting new industry and product standards. “As competition intensifies, the strongest pillar that will protect us is restructuring born from deep reflection,” Chung said. He urged employees to question whether customer perspectives are fully reflected in planning and development and whether they can stand behind the quality of products. Hyundai Motor Group plans to invest 125.2 trillion won in South Korea from this year through 2030 to help foster the domestic and global automotive industry ecosystem. 2026-01-05 11:06:40

OPINION: The language power and the need to rebuild standards Reports describing a U.S. military operation in Venezuela, including the detention of President Nicolás Maduro, have sent shockwaves far beyond Latin America. Regardless of how final details are verified, the global response itself is revealing. Questions that once dominated international debate — legality, due process, sovereignty — have quickly given way to a more unsettling assumption: that such actions are now plausible. This shift marks a deeper transformation in the international system, from a rules-based vocabulary toward a language shaped increasingly by power. At the core of the controversy lies a familiar but dangerous logic. By denying the legitimacy of a government and reframing a political confrontation as a matter of crime, counterterrorism, or narcotics enforcement, military intervention can be recast as a form of law enforcement. Recognition is withdrawn, immunity is questioned, and coercion is presented as necessity. When this reasoning gains acceptance, international law risks losing its function as a universal constraint and becoming instead a discretionary instrument. This pattern is not confined to Venezuela. In Gaza, international courts and humanitarian institutions have repeatedly warned of civilian suffering and legal obligations under international humanitarian law. Yet enforcement remains uneven, filtered through alliance politics and strategic calculations. The result is an international order that appears strict toward some actors and flexible toward others. Such asymmetry erodes credibility and invites cynicism. Rules that apply selectively cease to function as rules at all. For Western democracies, this moment presents a particular challenge. The legitimacy of the postwar international order has rested not only on power, but on the claim that power is restrained by law. When legal norms are seen as contingent on alignment, the moral authority of that order weakens. This does not merely damage global trust; it undermines the very framework that smaller and middle powers rely upon for stability. The consequences extend directly to East Asia. In the Taiwan Strait and on the Korean Peninsula, the perception that the threshold for the use of force has lowered — even if no actor explicitly seeks conflict — accelerates military buildups and narrows diplomatic space. In such environments, miscalculation becomes more likely, and crisis management replaces long-term cooperation as the central task of diplomacy For countries without overwhelming power, survival depends neither on moral absolutism nor on unprincipled opportunism. It depends on principled pragmatism. Respect for international law, due process, and civilian protection is not rhetorical idealism; it is a strategic necessity. Norms provide predictability in a system otherwise governed by asymmetry. At the same time, realism cannot be ignored. Alliances matter, deterrence matters, and dialogue must be preserved even when values diverge. But realism that abandons standards altogether quickly turns into dependency. The challenge for responsible states is not to choose between principle and strategy, but to bind them together — using norms to anchor policy while diplomacy manages risk. There is also a responsibility beyond governments. In moments when legal language is used to justify force, journalists, scholars, and public intellectuals carry a heightened duty. Verification must precede amplification. Human consequences must not be reduced to abstractions. Silence, in such moments, can function less as neutrality than as quiet consent. As the international system drifts back toward the language of power, standards become more costly — and more valuable. Abandoning them may appear expedient. But history suggests the price of erosion is always paid later, and often by those least able to afford it. *The author is the President of Global Economic and Financial Research Institute (GEFRI) 2026-01-05 10:57:36

[[CES 2026]] Nvidia's Jensen Huang, AMD's Lisa Su to outline AI strategies LAS VEGAS, January 05 (AJP) - Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, AMD CEO Lisa Su and Lenovo Chairman Yang Yuanqing are set to take the stage at this year's CES, the world’s largest technology trade show, as artificial intelligence remains the event’s central theme. The three executives are expected to outline industry trends and showcase their companies’ strengths across AI infrastructure, physical AI and AI inference during keynote appearances at the show in Las Vegas. After last year’s heavy focus on AI agents and infrastructure, attention at CES 2026 is expected to shift toward inference, physical AI and industrial applications, industry officials said. Nvidia said on Monday that Huang will deliver a special address on Jan. 5 local time, a day before the official opening of CES, at the Fontainebleau hotel in Las Vegas. Huang is expected to present his outlook on the AI industry and Nvidia’s strategy, with market attention focused on the performance and competitiveness of the company’s next-generation graphics processing unit, known as Rubin. He is also scheduled to meet major global media outlets on Jan. 6, where he may discuss plans related to high-bandwidth memory supplies with South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. Nvidia has been expanding its supply chain amid surging demand for AI chips used in data centres, and details of potential partnerships could be disclosed. AMD said Su will deliver a CEO keynote on Jan. 5 local time, where she is expected to outline future AI solutions and the company’s strategy to compete with Nvidia. With AMD emerging as a leading challenger in the AI GPU market, attention is focused on whether it will unveil next-generation AI chips. AMD has also been targeting the AI personal computer market through updates to its Ryzen processor lineup, and new Ryzen products are expected to be announced at CES. Lenovo’s Yang is expected to focus on integrating AI features into IT devices such as personal computers and mobile products. The company plans to introduce new AI-enabled laptops and tablets aimed at improving productivity and user experience. Siemens Chairman Roland Busch is also scheduled to speak at the show. Busch will deliver a keynote on Jan. 6, highlighting industrial AI and automation solutions and how AI can drive innovation across manufacturing, energy and transportation. 2026-01-05 09:57:51

North Korea 'conducts drill involving hypersonic missiles' SEOUL, January 5 (AJP) - North Korea has tested "hypersonic missiles" with its leader Kim Jong-un in attendance, state media reported on Monday. According to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the hypersonic missiles were fired the previous day from a site near Pyongyang as part of a missile-launching drill and "hit targets" in the East Sea as Kim "oversaw" the drill along with senior military officials. The KCNA said, "Important achievements have been recently made in putting our nuclear forces on a practical basis and preparing them for an actual war." "It is a very important strategic task to maintain and expand a powerful and reliable nuclear deterrent through the sustained verification of key components of war deterrence and the improvement of its performance and the mastering of operational capabilities," it quoted Kim as saying. "To be honest, our such activity is clearly aimed at gradually putting the nuclear war deterrent on a high-developed basis. Why it is necessary is exemplified by the recent geopolitical crisis and complicated international events," it added, apparently referring to the capture of Venezuela's authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro in a lightning military operation by U.S. forces. Specific details of the missiles were not disclosed, but based on their range and trajectories, they are believed to be from the country's Hwasong series of ballistic missiles. 2026-01-05 09:55:11

[[CES 2026]] Hyundai Motor wins Best of Innovation Award for autonomous mobility robotics LAS VEGAS, January 05 (AJP) - Hyundai Motor said Monday it won a top honor at CES 2026 for its next-generation autonomous mobility robot platform, MobED, and plans to begin mass production in the first quarter as it targets the future mobility market. The automaker said MobED received the Best of Innovation award in the robotics category. The Consumer Technology Association, which organizes CES, awards Innovation Awards annually after evaluating entries for innovation, design and technology, with Best of Innovation granted to the highest-scoring honorees in each category. Hyundai said it was the first time the company had received a CES Innovation Award since it began participating in the event, adding that the recognition underscored the competitiveness of its robotics technology and products. The company first unveiled a concept version of MobED at CES 2022 and introduced the production model in December at Japan’s International Robot Exhibition (iREX). After about three years of development, Hyundai said the platform was designed for practical use in both business environments and daily life. MobED’s core feature is its ability to maintain stable movement across challenging terrain, Hyundai said. Using an eccentric-wheel-based Drive-and-Lift module, the robot can adjust its body tilt on uneven surfaces or slopes to improve stability. The platform features a simplified design focused on core functions and can be equipped with interchangeable top modules for applications such as delivery, logistics and filming. It also includes a user-friendly interface, including a separate controller with a 3D-graphics touchscreen. MobED measures 74 centimeters in width and 115 centimeters in length, with a top speed of 10 kilometers per hour. Hyundai said it can operate for more than four hours on a single charge and carry a payload of about 47 to 57 kilograms, depending on the model. The platform comes in two versions: a Basic model for research and development in autonomous robotics, and a Pro version that incorporates autonomous-driving technology. Hyundai said the MobED Pro uses AI-based algorithms combined with lidar and camera sensors to enable safe and efficient operation in complex indoor and outdoor environments. Hyundai said it plans to begin mass production of MobED in the first quarter and sell the platform to customers. “The award shows that Hyundai Motor Group’s robotics technology is evolving in ways that enhance everyday life,” Hyun Dong-jin, executive director and head of Hyundai’s Robotics Lab, said in a statement. “We will continue to advance AI-based autonomous robot-driving technology so it can become an innovative solution that brings us closer to customers.” 2026-01-05 09:49:58

Veteran actor Ahn Sung-ki loses battle with cancer SEOUL, January 5 (AJP) - Veteran actor Ahn Sung-ki died at a hospital in Seoul on Monday with his family by his side. He was 74. Ahn had been unconscious in the intensive care unit at Soonchunhyang University Hospital for about a week after collapsing at home last Wednesday due to choking on food and being taken to the hospital in cardiac arrest. He had been receiving treatment for blood cancer since 2019. Ahn made his debut in 1957 with director Kim Ki-young's "Twilight Train" when he was just a five-year-old boy and went on to appear in more than 150 films over a career spanning roughly 60 years, becoming one of the country's most beloved stars. The actor won numerous film awards for his work, with many of his hits including road film "Whale Hunting" (1984), buddy action comedy "Two Cops" (1993), historical epic "The Taebaek Mountains" (1994), action thriller "Nowhere to Hide" (1999), "Silmido" (2003), the country's first film to draw over 10 million moviegoers and drama "Radio Star" (2006). The diligent actor earned widespread admiration for his dedication and versatility across various genres, achieving both critical acclaim and commercial success throughout his career. Despite his battle with the illness, the seasoned star never abandoned his passion for acting, vowing on several occasions to return to the screen. His magement agency Artist Company said in a statement later in the day, "Ahn, who had a deep sense of sincerity and dedication, had been part of the history of South Korean cinema and popular culture," adding that he gave comfort and resonated with audiences across generations. His memorial altar was set up at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital in southern Seoul with a funeral service scheduled for Friday, before he will be laid to rest at a cemetery in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province. He is survived by his wife and two sons. 2026-01-05 09:42:23

South Korea says financial markets stable despite Venezuela risks SEOUL, January 05 (AJP) - South Korea said on Monday that spillover effects on its financial markets and broader economy from recent U.S. airstrikes on Venezuela and North Korea’s ballistic missile launch have so far been limited. The assessment came after an emergency joint economic meeting convened to evaluate the potential impact of heightened geopolitical risks. The meeting was chaired by Kang Gi-ryong, assistant vice minister at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and included officials from the foreign, trade and finance ministries, as well as the Financial Services Commission, the Bank of Korea, the Financial Supervisory Service and the Korea Center for International Finance. Officials said volatility in global markets, as well as in South Korea’s financial and foreign-exchange markets, remained manageable despite the recent developments. They added that any fallout for the real economy and overall trade conditions was unlikely to be significant in the near term. "Still, the government would maintain heightened vigilance," an official said, warning that geopolitical uncertainty could escalate. Authorities plan to step up monitoring of global oil prices, exchange rates, movements in international financial markets and shifts in export and import conditions. 2026-01-05 09:34:26