Gov't ramps up safety inspections for high-rise buildings after Hong Kong's deadly fire SEOUL, December 3 (AJP) - Following a massive fire at a high-rise apartment complex in Hong Kong, government authorities here are conducting emergency safety inspections of buildings over 30 floors. Despite current regulations mandating the use of non-combustible materials and the installation of safety-related equipment, some buildings constructed before these regulations took effect still use flammable materials. Of some 140 skyscrapers over 50 floors or 200 meters, 18 are affected, the National Fire Agency said on Wednesday. The agency began inspections of these buildings on Dec. 1, along with more than 80 mid-rise structures. In collaboration with local governments and experts, it will also carry out comprehensive safety checks on approximately 6,280 high-rise buildings across the country. Similarly, the Ministry of Employment and Labor will inspect construction sites for buildings over 30 stories to ensure compliance with safety measures. Training and public awareness will also be strengthened, with annual evacuation drills in preparation for fires and other disasters. Meanwhile, the death toll from last week's fatal fire in Tai Po, northern Hong Kong has risen to 156. * This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP. 2025-12-03 17:27:11

Major Asian markets climb; China slips on deepening recession fears SEOUL, December 03 (AJP) - Asian equity markets ended mixed on Wednesday, with South Korea, Japan and Taiwan advancing on rising expectations of a U.S. interest rate cut, while China-related indices slid across the board amid renewed recession worries. The Korean won closed at 1,467.8 per dollar, up 1.7 won, supported by sustained foreign and institutional buying on the KOSPI and what traders described as “steady, visible intervention” by financial institutions and FX authorities. Government bond yields rose broadly, with the three-year sovereign yield finishing 1.9 basis points higher at 3.041 percent in the afternoon session. South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI climbed 1.04 percent to 4,036.30, reclaiming the 4,000-point threshold as a two-day rally gained traction. Institutions led the gains with 756.5 billion won ($515 million) in net purchases, followed by foreign investors who bought a net 159 billion won. Retail investors took profits, selling 898.7 billion won. Market leaders were mixed. Samsung Electronics rose 1.06 percent to 104,500 won, extending gains for a second day. SK hynix slipped 1.08 percent to 552,000 won after its Japanese NAND affiliate Kioxia posted weaker-than-expected earnings. Samsung C&T closed 9.35 percent higher at 245,500 won following news that Hong Ra-hee, former director of the Leeum Museum of Art, completely gifted her entire stake in the company to her son and Samsung Group Chairman Lee Jae-yong. Hong's decision raised expectations that Chairman Lee's management control defense line would be significantly strengthened, leading the Samsung Group to pursue a more consistent strategy. Nuclear-energy names also spiked after U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Washington would prioritize nuclear plant projects funded jointly with Korea and Japan. Hyundai Engineering & Construction jumped 6.98 percent to 70,500 won, while Doosan Enerbility rose 4.53 percent to 78,400 won. Theme stocks related to the Seoul Express Bus Terminal redevelopment surged after the Seoul Metropolitan Government selected the developer for the project. Chunil Express, the second largest shareholder of the terminal, surged 29.97 percent to 399,000 won, and Shinsegae, the selected developer, closed 4.19 percent higher at 248,500 won. Chunil Express, however, has been designated as an investment warning stock after seeing an extraordinary surge of over 700 percent since November 18, despite the official start of the development project being yet to commence. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.14 percent to 49,864.68, led by semiconductor-related names. Advantest soared 5.3 percent to 20,860 yen ($134.13), and Tokyo Electron gained 4.73 percent to 32,780 yen. Kioxia Holdings slid 2.24 percent to 9,011 yen on disappointing earnings. Export-heavy autos fell as a BOJ rate hike appeared increasingly probable, with Toyota down 1.31 percent at 3,005 yen and Honda off 0.76 percent at 1,504 yen. Taiwan’s TAIEX gained 0.83 percent to 27,793.04 after signals of a nearing U.S. rate cut buoyed risk sentiment. TSMC, which represents more than 40 percent of the market, climbed 1.4 percent to 1,450 Taiwan dollars ($46.32). MediaTek fell 1.06 percent to 1,400 Taiwan dollars as profit-taking continued for a second day. Chinese markets weakened uniformly. The latest manufacturing PMI contracted for an eighth straight month, reinforcing concerns that China remains trapped in recessionary conditions. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.51 percent to 3,878, while the Shenzhen Component slipped 0.78 percent to 12,955.25. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index traded 1.23 percent lower at 25,773 as of 4:30 p.m. 2025-12-03 16:53:49

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

Chief Justice calls for thorough discussion on judicial reform SEOUL, December 3 (AJP) - The Supreme Court's Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae emphasized the need for thorough public discussion on ongoing talks for judicial reform, citing the importance of protecting citizens' rights and maintaining social order. Speaking at a luncheon with President Lee Jae Myung at the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul, Cho said, "While not everyone may agree with judicial decisions, these verdicts gain legitimacy and trust through the constitutional three-tier court system." This was seen as his cautious stance toward the ruling Democratic Party (DP)’s proposals for judicial reform, including increasing the number of top court justices, as well as establishing a separate bench to review impeached former President Yoon Seok Yeol's cases. Yoon has been on trial for charges of insurrection and abuse of power related to his botched Dec. 3 declaration of martial law last year. Cho's comments on the three-tier system were interpreted as a veiled opposition to the DP's proposals for a retrial system, which many fear could delay cases or be abused to allow those with wealth or power to evade accountability. He expressed hope that the ongoing discussions would serve the public's best interests. Cho also reaffirmed the judiciary's stance that Yoon's declaration of martial law was "unconstitutional" but refrained from commenting further as relevant trials are ongoing. Cho concluded by affirming his belief in the judiciary's independence, stressing that each court would continue to deliberate and deliver rulings independently in accordance with the constitution and the law. * This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP. 2025-12-03 16:42:46

Samsung wins national technology award for GDDR7 as AI inference demand grows SEOUL, December 03 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics’ latest graphics memory was recognized by South Korea’s government as a key technology underpinning the country’s future AI competitiveness, amid growing industry focus on AI inference rather than model training. At the 2025 Korea Tech Festival, hosted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy at COEX in Seoul on Wednesday, Samsung received the Korea Technology Awards Presidential Prize for its 12-nanometer, 40 gigabits-per-second, 24-gigabit GDDR7 DRAM, according to Samsung. The award is granted annually to technologies judged to have made outstanding contributions to national industrial competitiveness. The company said the GDDR7 product is designed for graphics processing and AI computation, and has been adopted across use cases including high-end graphics cards, gaming consoles, laptops and data center servers that require thermal stability and reliability. The award comes as the AI industry shifts part of its focus from model training to inference, where cost efficiency and power consumption have become increasingly important. GDDR7 offers advantages over high-bandwidth memory (HBM) in terms of cost, power efficiency and form factor, making it suitable for large-scale inference deployments, Samsung said. Major AI platform companies are expanding adoption of graphics memory for inference workloads. Nvidia has said it plans to equip its Rubin CPX inference-focused GPU with up to 128 gigabytes of GDDR7, a move analysts say could broaden demand for high-speed graphics DRAM. Market research firm TrendForce has forecast that demand for GDDR7 will rise sharply alongside growing GPU shipments for edge AI and generative AI applications, including Nvidia’s upcoming RTX 5090 series. Samsung has been expanding its portfolio of next-generation memory products alongside GDDR7. The company said its sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory product, HBM4, based on 1c DRAM, is undergoing customer evaluation, while development is also under way for compute express link (CXL) memory modules using the CXL 3.1 standard. In addition, Samsung’s advanced research arm has published research on ferroelectric transistor technology for low-power NAND flash in the journal Nature, which the company said could significantly reduce power consumption if commercialized. Samsung also said several of its semiconductor products, including a quantum security chip and next-generation mobile memory, have been selected for innovation awards ahead of the CES 2026 technology show in Las Vegas. The Korea Technology Awards are presented annually by the government to recognize technologies deemed to strengthen the country’s industrial competitiveness, with winners selected from corporate research and development achievements. 2025-12-03 16:36:05

Newcomers to Korean stock markets in roller-coaster ride SEOUL, December 03 (AJP) - Newcomers to South Korea’s stock market are drawing increased warnings from the Korea Exchange (KRX), as freshly listed companies swing sharply in price and trading volume. Samyang Biopharm, which debuted on Nov. 24, was designated an investment-warning issue on Tuesday after its shares overheated in early trading. Nota, listed on Nov. 3, received the same label from Nov. 11 to 25 as AI-themed retail buying sent the stock surging before a rapid pullback. IT Chem, which listed in August, also saw wide intraday swings and was placed under warning from Sept. 26 to Oct. 20. The Pinkfong Company, best known for its children’s content franchise, was flagged as an investment-caution stock on Nov. 19 after its post-listing jump triggered abnormal-trading indicators. The KRX’s alert system classifies stocks under “caution,” “warning” and “risk” categories depending on price spikes, trading surges or excessive short-term concentration. Designations can lead to tighter credit-transaction limits, additional disclosure obligations and temporary restrictions intended to cool speculative trading. The creator of Baby Shark drew early caution status as its trading volume and price surged immediately after listing. Nota’s volatility was fueled by momentum-driven demand from retail investors chasing AI exposure, sending shares on a quick ascent before correcting. Market observers note that newly listed companies tend to have relatively small free floats and attract heavy interest from individual investors—conditions that often produce sharp, sentiment-driven swings. “Since mid-year, the IPO market has been buoyant, and that naturally brings short-term distortions in pricing,” said a securities-industry official. “Investment warnings act as a necessary brake.” Some analysts warn that repeated designations could spill over into broader market sentiment if investors interpret them as signaling stress in specific sectors. “Caution or warning labels usually stem from isolated events,” a Korea Exchange official said. “But when one stock surges excessively, it can amplify volatility across related names.” * This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP. 2025-12-03 16:34:43

Korea sees largest monthly stock outflow as foreign funds pivot to bonds SEOUL, December 03 (AJP) - Foreign investors offloaded a net 14.2 trillion won ($9.7 billion) worth of South Korean equities in November, the largest monthly divestment since records began in the 2000s, the International Finance Center (IFC) said in a report on Wednesday. The outflow surpassed the previous highs of 12.9 trillion won logged in March 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and 10.1 trillion won in April this year amid U.S. tariff-related tensions. While foreign investors exited equities, they sharply increased their exposure to South Korean bonds. Net inflows reached 17.2 trillion won in November, pushing foreign bond holdings from 312.3 trillion won at the end of October to a record 329.5 trillion won a month later. Shin Sul-wee, senior researcher at the IFC, said the large outward flow from stocks reflected rising turnover amid a 57.3 percent jump in the Korean market’s capitalization this year. “The absolute scale of stock sales in November was significant,” Shin said. “But this appears to be portfolio rebalancing in response to higher stock prices and concerns over a potential AI bubble, rather than a sign of deteriorating fundamentals for Korean equities.” * This article, published by Economic Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP. 2025-12-03 16:34:43

Olive Young a must-visit stop in Korea owe 25% of sales to foreigners SEOUL, December 03 (AJP) - A quarter of revenue at CJ Olive Young stores across South Korea now comes from foreign customers, whose purchases surpassed the 1 trillion won ($770 million) mark this year in a sharp illustration of K-beauty’s global pull, the beauty franchise said Wednesday. From January through November, spending by foreign nationals at Olive Young’s offline stores nationwide reached the milestone, marking a 26-fold increase from 2022, when Korea’s tourism industry was still emerging from the pandemic. Foreign shoppers accounted for more than 25 percent of offline sales this year, compared with about 2 percent in 2022 and just over 10 percent in 2023, as the retailer’s outlets solidified their status as a “must-visit” stop for visitors seeking Korean beauty trends. Nearly nine out of ten foreign cosmetics purchases in South Korea were made at Olive Young, according to Global Tax Free, which tracks tax-refund transactions. Shoppers from 190 countries used tax-refund services at the retailer, effectively giving it a United Nations-wide footprint and turning its nationwide network into an inbound export platform generating significant foreign-currency inflows. Shopping patterns among overseas visitors are evolving as well. According to Olive Young’s internally published report, foreign customers are buying more items, traveling farther between stores and exploring a wider range of brands. About 40 percent of foreign shoppers visited two or more Olive Young locations during their trips, moving between flagship town stores and neighborhood outlets with differing layouts and product curation. Spending outside the Seoul metropolitan area rose sharply, with purchasing in non-capital regions increasing 86.8-fold from 2022, led by Jeju, Busan and Gangwon. An Olive Young official said the chain’s blend of curated flagship stores and region-specific outlets helped attract foreign shoppers seeking both novelty and breadth. Unlike monobrand boutiques, the multi-brand format allows customers to compare and explore a broad range of Korean beauty products in a single location, the official told AJP, adding that the most visited store among foreigners is the Myeongdong Town branch. The official said frequent monthly promotions tailored to seasonal changes have also kept foreign tourists highly engaged, reinforcing Olive Young’s reputation as fast-moving and trend-driven. Accessibility has emerged as another competitive advantage as Korea’s tourist footprint widens. Tourists increasingly travel beyond Seoul, the official noted, and while duty-free shops are concentrated in limited districts, Olive Young branches are ubiquitous nationwide, from Jeju to Busan, making them an easy and familiar stop for overseas visitors. As foreign demand broadens, customers are also purchasing a wider array of brands and product categories. More than half of foreign shoppers bought items from six or more brands, while one-third purchased products from ten or more. Interest is expanding beyond beauty into wellness as sales of health and lifestyle products grow alongside skincare and makeup, reflecting the global uptake of Korean self-care routines. Olive Young said it plans to continue expanding its “global tourist commercial district” strategy, enhancing in-store services and linking offline experiences with its cross-border e-commerce platform to sustain demand after tourists return home. “Reaching 1 trillion won in foreign customer purchases is meaningful because it was achieved together with small and indie brands that met global consumers through Olive Young,” the official said. “We will continue working to ensure K-beauty becomes not only a trend, but a reason for people to revisit Korea.” 2025-12-03 16:20:30

HBM4 becomes the new battleground in Nvidia–Google chip war SEOUL, December 03 (AJP) - The real battle between Nvidia’s GPU-led ecosystem and Google’s rapidly expanding tensor processing unit (TPU) platform and the outcome hinges on how quickly and at what scale the world's top memory makers based in South Korea can keep up in the rollout of next-gen high-bandwidth memory dubbed HBM4. Samsung Electronics that had been laggard in the early-stage HBM race is positioned for an unexpected leap as it accelerates the conversions to feed the surging demand for memory tied to next-generation AI accelerators. The rollout schedules for Nvidia’s Rubin GPU and Google’s Ironwood TPU signal a broader shift inside the AI hardware stack: memory—rather than compute silicon—is increasingly determining speed, scale and deployment timelines across the sector. Nvidia’s Rubin platform, slated for mass production in 2026, is built around HBM4 and aims for up to 288 gigabytes of memory per superchip, allowing larger models and faster training cycles. Google’s Ironwood TPU, still paired with HBM3E, is widely expected to migrate to HBM4 as inference workloads balloon and energy efficiency become a bigger priority. Other hyperscalers are moving the same direction. Amazon’s Trainium2 and Microsoft’s Maia accelerators are already standardized on HBM-based designs, reinforcing the industry consensus that memory bandwidth—not transistor counts or core architectures—is now the binding constraint. Most new accelerators integrate six to 12 HBM stacks each, meaning chip rollout is only as fast as memory suppliers can expand output. That has put Samsung and SK hynix in the middle of the AI arms race. Samsung recently completed internal production readiness approval for HBM4, signaling it has cleared key development milestones and is prepared to shift quickly into mass production once customer specifications lock in. SK hynix, the current leader in the HBM segment, finished its HBM4 development earlier this year and has already begun sample shipments to large hyperscaler customers, cementing its early advantage. But supply, not just technology, may determine the next phase of competition. By late 2025, Samsung’s monthly HBM wafer capacity is projected at roughly 170,000 wafers, slightly above SK hynix’s estimated 160,000 wafers, while Micron trails at less than one-third of Samsung’s expected level. Samsung is pushing that advantage by converting portions of its P3 and P4 facilities in Pyeongtaek into 1c-class DRAM lines geared for HBM production, while racing ahead with structural construction of the P5 plant. The strategy leans on Samsung’s vast legacy DRAM footprint, which it can retool faster than it can build new fabs. SK hynix is taking the opposite approach: speeding the ramp-up of new facilities, including boosting utilization at the M16 fab in Icheon and accelerating integration of the Cheongju-based M15X fab. Once M15X is fully operational, SK hynix is expected to narrow Samsung’s capacity edge. For hyperscalers, these diverging capacity paths are prompting a diversification of processor architectures and memory sourcing. Nvidia remains the largest consumer of HBM as GPUs dominate AI training workloads, but Google’s growing TPU deployments create a parallel demand stream that strengthens memory makers’ leverage without undermining Nvidia’s consumption. The result is a split but mutually reinforcing ecosystem: SK hynix remains deeply tied to Nvidia’s GPU roadmap, while Samsung is broadening across both GPU and TPU platforms, supplying memory for Nvidia, Google and Broadcom-linked TPU designs. Despite the differing strategies behind GPUs, TPUs and custom AI chips, all major platforms converge on the same bottleneck: memory bandwidth and availability. The industry’s push toward HBM4 underscores how high-performance memory has quietly become the defining resource of AI infrastructure. For all the attention paid to chip architectures, the Nvidia–Google rivalry may ultimately be determined by which ecosystem secures stable, scalable access to next-generation HBM—and which memory supplier can expand capacity fast enough to keep the AI boom fed. 2025-12-03 16:08:27

Former PPP leader apologizes for martial law debacle, calls for unity to move forward SEOUL, December 3 (AJP) - Han Dong-hoon, former leader of the conservative People Power Party (PPP), apologized for failing to prevent martial law a year ago, urging South Korea to focus on the future. Speaking at a press conference in Yeouido, Seoul, Han said, "We cannot abandon hope for the future because of past mistakes." Recalling how he rushed to the National Assembly to lift martial law shortly after disgraced former President Yoon Seok Yeol declared it, "A year ago, South Korea faced martial law but overcame it within hours," he said, crediting it to the country's democratic citizens. Han emphasized that he opposed martial law, which was also the party's decisive action demonstrating its commitment to stand with the people. He then criticized the ruling Democratic Party (DP), saying it paralyzed the government through a series of attempts to impeach key officials, along with unilateral decisions using its parliamentary majority, which eventually led Yoon to resort to an "absurd" gambit. "A year later, democracy has not been fully restored," Han lamented, criticizing the current administration under President Lee Jae Myung for making things worse. "If Yoon ruined the country with martial law, Lee is doing so with everything except martial law." Han called for breaking the chains of past mistakes to move forward, urging unity among those with differing views to protect the country's remarkable achievements from decades of democratic struggles and economic development. When asked about criticism over the PPP's lack of apology, he said, "Apologies should continue until the public deems them sufficient." Meanwhile, about 25 PPP lawmakers including four-term lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo also issued a public apology, vowing to sever their ties with Yoon. * This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP. 2025-12-03 16:00:44