Police raid Unification Church over bribery allegations SEOUL, December 15 (AJP) - Police on Monday raided about a dozen locations of the powerful Unification Church, also known as the Moonies over allegations of bribing political figures. The raid began at around 8:50 a.m., when a special investigation team from the National Police Agency carried out a search and seizure at the sprawling residence of the church's leader Han Hak-ja in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province and 10 other facilities in Seoul. The raid came after Minister of Oceans and Fisheries Chun Jae-soo resigned last week amid allegations that he accepted bribes from the church. The church is suspected of bribing a slew of lawmakers from both the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) to allegedly secure various favors including its long-pursued dream of constructing an underwater tunnel between South Korea and Japan. 2025-12-15 09:50:48

OPINION: How to harness AI in education Consider this. AI can automate tasks but it cannot replace relationships. AI can generate content but it cannot provide judgment. AI has knowledge but teachers have lived experience. AI amplifies teachers but it does not replace them. That said, AI should not be feared but leveraged. Education now has a responsibility to equip teachers and students with the skills, tools, and ethical guidelines required for meaningful learning and responsible innovation in an AI-powered world. I recently presented at the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea (AMCHAM) Education Committee Meeting, which convened at Dulwich College Seoul with various stakeholders present to examine how AI is reshaping learning, teaching, and workforce preparation. Following are the key points including the why around reflecting AI in curricula, reasons AI will not replace teachers, and biases we need to be aware of when applying it to learning. Equipping teachers to leverage AI AI is a driver of education’s evolution — a more complex version of what happened when the digital calculator came along. To make sure it is helping rather than hindering the honing of critical thinking skills, we need to make sure students are being taught and assessed appropriately. For example, curricula should keep AI under a critical lens and not lean heavily on tasks that can be handled by AI alone. Students may want to learn using AI and improve their own AI and data literacy. This is understandable given there is rising demand for graduates with these skills. Consider that 78% of global organizations used AI in 2024, up from 55% the year before, according to Stanford University’s 2025 AI Index Report. It is reminiscent of the early days of the Internet where we saw explosive growth in a short period of time. The first order of things is to ensure teachers understand and are familiar with AI and its various tools. The Stanford report states less than half of pre-K through Grade 12 computer science teachers in the U.S. feel equipped to teach AI — even though over 80% believe it should be included in foundational computer science education. Empowering teachers to leverage AI is essential because it enhances their capacity to personalize learning, streamline workload, and create richer, more responsive educational experiences. Without the skills and confidence to use AI effectively, schools risk widening the gap between what technology makes possible and what students actually receive in the classroom. Second, guidelines matter. AI governance is essential so that learning integrity and student privacy are protected. Responsible AI evaluation is not yet normative in schools, and it is imperative that they become familiar with and implement AI policies, including following rapidly evolving government regulations. Today’s AI landscape in education mirrors the search-engine boom of the 1990s, with companies rapidly developing features and exploring different directions at remarkable speed. At present, the market is crowded with competing products, but no single platform has emerged as the definitive leader. It remains to be seen whether a decade from now we will look back and identify one dominant player, much as we now recognize Google’s rise to the top. Being aware of AI biases Awareness of bias in AI is crucial because these systems can unintentionally reinforce stereotypes or produce unequal outcomes if their data or design is flawed. Ensuring that teachers and students understand this empowers them to use AI critically and responsibly, protecting fairness and trust in the learning environment. Simple requests in generative AI exemplify this problem of bias. Try for yourself to see the result when you ask to “create an image of a CEO” - most likely “a middle-aged white man in a suit” will come up. Even models trained to be unbiased still show implicit bias, including based on gender or racial inequality. There is also an American bias. A major underlying reason is skewed investment. The U.S. dominates spending on AI. The Stanford report shows that, as of last year, U.S. private AI investment reached $109.1 billion — nearly 12 times China’s $9.3 billion and 24 times the U.K.’s $4.5 billion. For comparison, South Korea's level stood at $1.3 billion in 2024, although the government has since taken steps to encourage a much higher rate of AI adoption. Aside from bias, we also see a real threat of a deepening digital divide. Back in 2019, the Brookings Institution found that there was no evidence of computer science education in 146 out of 217 countries. While that number has now halved, more advanced IT programs will have had the opportunity to move even further ahead with AI. It is essential that this imbalance is addressed to prevent what I am calling the AI Empowerment Divide, where only some communities gain the skills and opportunities needed to benefit from the next generation of technology. Some of these issues can only be solved at the level of nations and governments. Still, hopefully others can join me in taking steps to embrace the opportunities of AI in education, and make sure teachers and students where we work are ready for a world in which AI is already part of the infrastructure. *The author is the Director of Technology at Dulwich College Seoul 2025-12-15 09:36:18

Independent prosecutors set to wrap up six-month probe into martial law debacle SEOUL, December 15 (AJP) - Independent prosecutors are set to brief on the findings of their investigation on Monday into disgraced former President Yoon Suk Yeol's botched Dec. 3 martial law debacle last year. Wrapping up their six-month-long probe led by prosecutor Cho Eun-suk, they will explain the details of the investigation that led to charges against 27 individuals including Yoon. Of the 12 arrest warrants requested, five were issued. Prosecutors have also sought an extension of former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun's detention, which expires on Christmas next week, with a decision slated for later this week. Cho's team secured Yoon's arrest within three weeks of starting their investigation on charges of insurrection and abuse of power related to the debacle, while former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min was also indicted on similar charges. However, arrest warrants for several other officials including former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, were denied. Cho believes Yoon planned his martial law gambit in late 2022 to conceal controversies involving his wife, Kim Keon-hee, who faces multiple allegations including accepting bribes, involvement in a stock manipulation scheme, and a slew of other charges. * This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP. 2025-12-15 09:27:17

OPINION: Rethinking economic security in age of AI SEOUL, December 15 (AJP) - In early December, Reuters reported that private capital would help launch the “Invest America Program,” a cornerstone policy of President Trump’s second term. Michael Dell and his wife pledged $6.25 billion to activate what are known as Trump Accounts, an initiative embedded in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law in July. Under the program, every American child born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028, will receive $1,000 in seed money at birth. The funds, locked away until age 18, will be invested in index funds tracking the S&P 500. The idea is ambitious: to integrate every American child into the stock market from the moment of birth, reviving an old political ideal of an “Ownership Society” for a new technological era. That experiment is unfolding as artificial intelligence and robotics accelerate far faster than many economists once anticipated. Automation, long associated with factory floors and logistics centers, is now reshaping professional and office work as well. Advanced AI systems are increasingly capable of performing tasks once reserved for analysts, designers and administrators, reducing the centrality of labor itself. Earlier forecasts assumed a gradual erosion of jobs, allowing labor markets and social systems time to adapt. Instead, the pace of technological change is compressing that timeline. As labor income weakens, the foundations of income distribution, taxation and social security are coming under strain. Traditional policy responses focused on job creation are proving insufficient, suggesting that deeper structural redesign may be unavoidable. It is in this context that the "Ownership Society" has reemerged as a potential alternative. Rather than relying solely on wages, the concept seeks to enable citizens to sustain themselves through capital income. Unlike basic income programs, which prioritize consumption, an Ownership Society emphasizes asset accumulation and long-term opportunity. There are several ways such a transition could take shape. One approach would provide basic asset accounts at birth or early adulthood, seeded with public funds and invested for education, housing or retirement. Another would establish a national A.I. and robotics dividend fund, distributing a share of excess profits generated by technological advances. A third would expand fund-based retirement systems to cover platform workers and nontraditional forms of employment, while a fourth would reform national pension systems to ensure long-term sustainability through lifetime income models. The central challenge, however, is funding. Directly taxing the profits of technology companies may sound radical, but variations of this idea are already taking hold. Digital taxes, data usage fees and platform regulations are being institutionalized by the OECD and the European Union. For countries like South Korea, where rapid aging coincides with a manufacturing-heavy economy, the impact of AI and robotics may be especially acute. Redirecting a portion of technology-driven profits toward social safety nets and asset-building could offer a path to sustainable growth. A more conservative approach would encourage private participation through philanthropy, ESG investing, joint public-private funds and tax incentives. After all, data — the raw material of the A.I. economy — is a public resource generated by citizens themselves. The technology industry rests on social foundations, and sharing its gains with the broader public raises questions not only of fairness, but of long-term viability. As labor income declines, an Ownership Society offers one vision for maintaining economic stability and social cohesion. If public policy fails to keep pace with the transformations unleashed by A.I. and robotics, inequality and instability may deepen. But with the right framework, the same forces could be turned into shared opportunity. The future economy may rely less on wages and more on ownership, dividends and capital income. In that world, the state’s role would not be to guarantee jobs, but to open the door to assets. The debate over an Ownership Society, once theoretical, is becoming increasingly urgent in the age of intelligent machines. About the author -Ph.D. in Economics from Sungkyunkwan University -Former President of the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs -Former President of the Korean Economic Association -Former President of the Korean Fiscal Policy Association * This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP. 2025-12-15 08:58:37

Seoul holds emergency meeting as KRW set to end at its record low average SEOUL, December 14 (AJP) -South Korea’s fiscal, monetary and financial authorities convened an emergency meeting on Sunday as the Korean won continued to weaken against major currencies, defying a broad retreat in the U.S. dollar. The meeting was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol and attended by Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eog-weon, Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang-yong, Financial Supervisory Service Governor Lee Chan-jin, and Presidential Chief Secretary for Economic Growth Ha Joon-kyung. Reflecting heightened concern over foreign-exchange volatility, the meeting also included Lee Seu-ran, vice minister of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which oversees the National Pension Service — a major player in FX market — as well as Park Dong-il, director general at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources. The emergency talks followed renewed weakness in the won after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points on Dec. 10 to a range of 3.50–3.75 percent, narrowing the interest-rate gap between South Korea and the United States from 1.50 percentage points to 1.25 percentage points. Despite the rate cut — which typically supports the won by easing interest-rate differentials — the currency failed to hold gains. The won-dollar exchange rate briefly fell before rebounding toward the 1,470-won level. The dollar closed at 1,473.7 won last Friday and touched 1,479.9 won in after-hours trading, its highest level since April’s presidential impeachment turmoil. Data from the Bank of Korea’s Economic Statistics System show that the average exchange rate based on weekly closing prices reached 1,460.44 won last month, the highest monthly average since March 1998 during the Asian financial crisis, when it averaged 1,488.87 won. So far this month, the two-week average has climbed further to 1,470.4 won. The exchange rate has not fallen below 1,450 won even intraday since Nov. 7, underscoring the won’s persistent weakness. The won has been the sole underperformer among major currencies this month. While the Korean currency has fallen 0.69 percent against the dollar, other major currencies have strengthened, including the Australian dollar (+1.56%), Canadian dollar (+1.50%), euro (+1.20%), British pound (+0.94%), and Japanese yen (+0.17%). The dollar index fell to 98.404 on Dec. 12 from 100.251 on Nov. 20, returning to mid-October levels, when the won was trading around 1,420 per dollar. If current trends persist, South Korea’s annual average exchange rate is projected to reach a record high. The year-to-date average stands at 1,420.0 won, already exceeding the 1998 average of 1,394.97 won, marking the weakest annual level on record. * This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP. 2025-12-14 19:12:23

Samsung, Hyundai, LG and SK chart AI-driven growth strategies for 2026 SEOUL, December 14 (AJP) - South Korea's four largest conglomerates are racing to finalize their 2025 business strategies, with artificial intelligence emerging as the linchpin of their growth plans amid persistent economic uncertainty. Samsung Electronics will convene its biannual global strategy meeting on Dec. 16, bringing together senior executives and overseas subsidiary heads to chart next year's direction. The company, pursuing a transformation into an "AI-driven company," will focus on bolstering AI semiconductor competitiveness and stabilizing mass production of its 2-nanometer foundry process. The memory division will discuss customer-tailored strategies centered on sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory, HBM4, while the consumer electronics unit will concentrate on enhancing AI features across smartphones, televisions and home appliances. Hyundai Motor Group plans to counter potential U.S. tariffs through supply chain diversification while expanding its hybrid lineup to more than 18 models by 2030. The automaker is also pushing to launch robotaxi services in major U.S. cities next year. LG Group held its executive meeting on Dec. 10, where Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and about 40 chief executives discussed strategies to nurture growth engines in AI, biotechnology and clean technology. LG Electronics will hold a company-wide management meeting on Dec. 19 under newly appointed CEO Lyu Jae-cheol. SK Group held its annual CEO seminar in early November, with Chairman Chey Tae-won urging executives to strengthen competitiveness and seize leadership in the AI race. SK hynix has established regional AI research centers, while SK Innovation created an AI transformation unit reporting directly to the CEO. 2025-12-14 14:52:46

Korean seaweed rides high as U.S. tariff exemption adds fuel to export boom SEOUL, December 14 (AJP) - South Korea's seaweed exports are on track to shatter records this year, and a newly announced U.S. tariff exemption is set to accelerate the momentum for the country's beloved K-gim. A White House fact sheet released last month listed seasoned seaweed as the sole seafood product to receive duty-free treatment, effectively slashing the previous 15 percent levy to zero, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said Sunday. The exemption took effect on Nov. 13 based on customs clearance dates. Dried seaweed, however, remains subject to the 15 percent reciprocal tariff alongside other seafood items. Still, data reveals that seasoned seaweed accounts for more than 90 percent of the country's seaweed exports to the United States, the tariff to have minimal impact. The ministry said it would negotiate with Washington to secure duty-free status for dried seaweed and tuna fillets as well. The exemption comes as Korean seaweed continues to gain traction among American consumers. Exports to the U.S. reached $228 million in the first 11 months of 2025, up 15.9 percent from a year earlier, despite the imposition of reciprocal tariffs earlier this year. November shipments alone surged 25.2 percent on-year to $24.5 million, outpacing the cumulative growth rate for the January to November period. The U.S. accounts for more than 20 percent of South Korea's total seaweed exports. South Korea's global seaweed exports totaled $1.04 billion in the first 11 months, marking a 13.3 percent increase from the same period last year. This marks the first time annual shipments have surpassed the $1 billion threshold. Last year, exports narrowly missed the milestone at $997 million. The ministry forecasts full-year exports to exceed $1.1 billion for the first time in 2025. 2025-12-14 13:36:26

OPINION: When a language becomes a barrier Every society reveals its anxieties in its exams. South Korea revealed quite a lot this year. The English section of the College Scholastic Ability Test, the Suneung, became so difficult that it briefly escaped the country’s borders. The BBC compared it to deciphering an ancient script. The New York Times, with a mix of bemusement and challenge, presented readers with excerpts from the test — a passage invoking Immanuel Kant, another steeped in gaming jargon — and invited them to try solving it themselves. For many Koreans, this reaction felt embarrassing. For others, vindicating. The world, it seemed, was finally seeing what students had long known: English in Korea is no longer treated as a language. It has become a barrier. The question at the heart of the controversy is not really about difficulty. It is about purpose. Are we teaching English as a living tool for communication, or as an abstract puzzle designed to separate winners from losers? For years, the system has quietly chosen the latter. Reading passages have grown denser, sentence structures more tortuous, and multiple-choice options more devious. Speaking, listening and writing — the ways real humans actually use language — have been sidelined. Students learn how to eliminate distractors, not how to introduce themselves. They master test-taking strategies, not conversations. The result is a peculiar national paradox: students who score near-perfectly on English exams yet freeze when asked a simple question by a foreigner. Excellence without fluency. Precision without confidence. This distortion worsened after English was converted to an absolute grading system in 2018. The idea was sensible. English would be treated as a basic competency, not a competitive weapon. The pressure would ease. Private tutoring costs would fall. Instead, this year’s exam quietly betrayed that promise. The share of top scorers was cut roughly in half, from around 6 percent to about 3 percent. An absolute evaluation had begun behaving like a relative one. The system wanted its rankings back. Global data suggest the consequences are already visible. In EF Education First’s 2025 English Proficiency Index, based on millions of adult test-takers worldwide, South Korea ranked 48th out of 64 non-English-speaking countries, with a score of 522 — firmly in the “moderate” range. This places Korea below several countries with far fewer educational resources, and uncomfortably close to the middle of the global pack. This is not because Koreans do not study English. They do — intensely. But the structure is mismatched to the goal. According to the U.S. Foreign Service Institute, it takes roughly 4,300 hours of study to develop professional working proficiency in a foreign language. Korea’s entire formal education system — from elementary school through university — provides barely a quarter of that. Time matters. So does direction. Then there is artificial intelligence, hovering over this debate like a tempting shortcut. Translation apps are improving. AI chatbots can draft emails, summarize articles, even simulate conversation. It is increasingly fashionable to ask whether English still matters at all. This is the wrong question. The real danger is not that English will become obsolete, but that inequality will deepen. A 2025 report titled Digital Literacy in the Age of AI warns of what it calls “the AI Empowerment Divide, where only some communities gain the skills and opportunities needed to benefit from the next generation of technology.” AI does not distribute power evenly. It amplifies existing capabilities. Those who already possess language skills, critical judgment and digital literacy will use AI as leverage. Those who do not will rely on it blindly. In that sense, English is becoming less optional, not more — especially in an AI-mediated world where evaluating, correcting and contextualizing machine output requires human judgment and linguistic nuance. What follows is not mysterious. English education needs a philosophical reset. Classrooms must shift away from treating English as a riddle to be solved and toward treating it as a medium to be used. Speaking and listening must reclaim equal status with reading. Writing must be more than filling in blanks. AI tools, if deployed thoughtfully in public education, can help personalize practice and reduce reliance on private tutoring — but only if access gaps in devices, connectivity and teacher training are addressed first. Assessment must change as well. In an era when machines can generate polished answers in seconds, evaluating final products alone is pointless. What matters now is the reasoning process: how students interpret information, question sources, and refine ideas — including those produced by AI. Finally, the English section of the Suneung must remember its original promise. An absolute evaluation should confirm basic proficiency, not reintroduce competition by stealth. When a test breeds aversion rather than confidence, it has already failed. English is not merely a subject. It is the operating system of global exchange — cultural, economic, and increasingly technological. When a society turns that language into a gatekeeping device, it pays a long-term price. The world’s amused reaction to this year’s Suneung should not be dismissed as mockery. It should be read as a mirror. *The author is the managing editor of AJP 2025-12-14 12:16:49

Seoul mayor slams government housing curbs, demands regulatory relief SEOUL, December 14 (AJP) - Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon on Sunday lambasted the government's Oct. 15 real estate regulations, accusing policymakers of crushing ordinary citizens' homeownership aspirations and urging an immediate rollback of lending restrictions and redevelopment controls. "The most ordinary yet desperate dream of owning a home is being trampled under the Oct. 15 measures," Oh said in a Facebook post. "The government must no longer turn a blind eye to the side effects of its real estate policy." The conservative mayor argued that tightened mortgage caps and expanded regulated zones have erected "abnormally high barriers" to property purchases, freezing transactions and funneling frustrated buyers into an already parched rental market. His rebuke comes as official data showed housing transactions surging ahead of the curbs. Apartment sales in Seoul jumped 62.5 percent month-on-month in October and soared 176 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport — a rush analysts attribute to buyers scrambling to close deals before stricter rules took effect. The broader Seoul metropolitan area recorded 39,644 housing deals during the same month, up 26.7 percent from September and 58.5 percent higher than a year ago. By contrast, transactions outside the capital region declined 6.2 percent month-on-month, underscoring the outsized impact of the regulations on the country's economic heartland. The Oct. 15 package designated all 25 districts of Seoul and 12 surrounding Gyeonggi Province municipalities as regulated zones, triggering the most aggressive clampdown on the capital region's property market in years. Oh disclosed he recently met with the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to convey his concerns but found little willingness to address the policy's fallout. He accused the central government of seeking municipal cooperation on housing supply while refusing to revisit market-distorting regulations. The mayor called for an immediate easing of restrictions on urban redevelopment projects and a reversal of lending policies that, in his view, treat genuine homebuyers as speculators. Invoking the previous Democratic Party's Moon Jae-in administration's income-led growth experiment, Oh warned that "policies begun with good intentions become misgovernment when their results prove harmful," and called on authorities to pivot before repeating past mistakes. 2025-12-14 11:23:14

Samsung C&T partners with Poland's Synthos to expand SMR business in Europe SEOUL, December 14 (AJP) - Samsung C&T has signed a memorandum of understanding with Polish small modular reactor (SMR) developer Synthos Green Energy to jointly pursue SMR projects across Central and Eastern Europe, the South Korean construction giant said Sunday. Under the agreement, the two companies will collaborate on expanding SMR business into the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Romania, while also working together on feasibility studies, site surveys and environmental impact assessments for Polish SMR projects. Synthos Green Energy aims to build up to 24 SMRs in Poland by the early 2030s, including the country's first SMR power plant, using BWRX-300 technology developed by GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GVH), a joint venture between General Electric and Japan's Hitachi. The BWRX-300 is a 300-megawatt SMR based on an advanced boiling water reactor design and is considered one of the leading technologies in the emerging SMR sector. Samsung C&T signed a separate agreement with GVH in October to expand SMR projects in Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. "This close partnership with Synthos Green Energy will serve as a milestone in establishing our foothold in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe," Samsung C&T CEO Oh Se-chul said. Synthos Green Energy CEO Rafał Kasprów said he hopes the combination of Samsung C&T's global nuclear project expertise and his company's SMR capabilities will enhance the prospects for Poland's SMR projects and deliver safe, sustainable energy solutions across Europe. The partnership comes as European nations increasingly turn to nuclear power to meet decarbonization targets, with SMRs gaining traction as a flexible, cost-effective alternative to conventional large-scale reactors. 2025-12-14 10:33:02