North Korean leader makes rare visits to security and judicial agencies SEOUL, November 19 (AJP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited several key security and judicial agencies, emphasizing their role in defending the regime, state media reported on Wednesday. According to the state-run on the occasion of the 80th founding anniversary of the state security organ," KCNA said. The department is a key agency responsible for eliminating threats to the regime. KCNA described it as a "strong fortress for defending the socialist system and the people." Welcomed with "loud cheers," Kim delivered a congratulatory message, praising the dedication of the security personnel and their achievements. It is rare for a North Korean leader to make such a public appearance there, since he made a similar visit in 2012. In separate visits later in the day, Kim also met with officials at the judicial and prosecution organs, instructing them to "further strengthen the socialist legal system," based on the country's "juche" or self-reliance ideology. * This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP. 2025-11-19 10:11:32

KAI to deepen defense collaboration with UAE's Edge Group SEOUL, November 19 (AJP) - Korea Aerospace Industries said on Wednesday that it had signed an agreement with the United Arab Emirates’ Edge Group to explore joint marketing and development of weapons systems. The partnership will link KAI with Edge’s Platforms & Systems division, opening the door to cooperation across air, land and maritime platforms. Company officials said the arrangement is expected to strengthen KAI’s competitiveness in a region where demand for advanced defense technologies has grown sharply in recent years. Edge, a state-owned conglomerate created by the UAE government, has rapidly become one of the Middle East’s most formidable defense players. The group maintains more than 35 subsidiaries and focuses on technologies such as autonomous drones, precision munitions and cyberwarfare tools. It employs roughly 17,000 people and reports annual revenue of about $5 billion. KAI said the two sides will study potential projects involving drones, armored vehicles and maintenance operations, as well as fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft and other unmanned systems. “This agreement brings together the aerospace capabilities of both companies to create new opportunities for growth,” Cha Jae-byeong, KAI’s chief executive, said in a statement. “We aim to strengthen our technological and industrial ecosystems and deliver concrete results in the global aerospace market.” * This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP. 2025-11-19 09:59:12

South Korea, UAE agree to deepen partnership in AI and nuclear energy SEOUL, November 19 (AJP) - President Lee Jae-myung agreed with United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to expand bilateral cooperation with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and healthcare, while deepening collaboration in the defense and energy sectors during their talks in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, according to the presidential office. In a joint declaration after the summit, they pledged to pursue a "new leap forward for another 100 years of partnership." Cooperation in nuclear energy was among the key topics, building on the success of the UAE's first nuclear power plant in Barakah, which is now fully operational after 12 years of construction by South Korea's state-run Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO). The two leaders agreed to enhance nuclear efficiency through AI, establish a joint data center to carry out comprehensive strategic projects, and expand cooperation across various sectors through joint development and local production. They also pledged to deepen their strategic partnership through regular visits, while enhancing cultural and educational exchanges including plans for youth internship programs and other initiatives. * This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP. 2025-11-19 09:25:58

Seoul finally puts Lone Star saga behind after ICSID declares complete win SEOUL, November 19 (AJP) -South Korea has finally put to rest its years-long investment dispute with U.S. private equity firm Lone Star, after the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) overturned its earlier ruling that ordered Seoul to pay $216.5 million in compensation plus interest over the fund’s 2012 sale of a Korean bank. “The government's compensation liability — about 400 billion won at today’s exchange rate — has been retroactively cancelled,” Prime Minister Kim Min-seok said late Tuesday, announcing the final ruling by the Washington-based tribunal. Instead, Lone Star has been ordered to cover South Korea's legal expenses of 7.3 billion won ($5 million) within 30 days. The nullification marks a rare reversal by ICSID: only eight such cases have been overturned out of 503 settlements since the tribunal’s establishment in 1972. Seoul appealed the arbitral court’s 2022 decision, which had partially sided with Lone Star’s claim that it incurred losses of $4.67 billion due to alleged government interference in the sale of Korea Exchange Bank (KEB). The presidential office welcomed the ruling as a “correction” of the earlier interpretation. Lone Star purchased KEB in 2003 for 1.38 trillion won during the banking failures that followed South Korea’s Asian financial crisis and 1998 International Monetary Fund bailout. After multiple failed attempts to offload the lender, the fund sold KEB to Hana Financial Group in 2012 for 3.92 trillion won. The two sides have been locked in legal battles ever since, with Lone Star alleging that Seoul’s heavy involvement in the sale process depressed the bank’s value. 2025-11-19 07:25:39

Kimchi-making costs expected to drop slightly SEOUL, November 18 (AJP) - The cost of making kimchi, the country's staple side dish, for a family of four is estimated to decrease by 5.6 percent from last year to 201,151 Korean won, according to the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT). The estimate came after a survey of prices for about a dozen key ingredients at about 17 farmers' markets and 36 large retailers. Despite more and more households opting to buy kimchi these days, many South Koreans still maintain the traditional seasonal ritual of kimjang, the process of making and preserving kimchi in preparation for the long, cold winter season. Unseasonably frequent autumn rains led to poor harvests, driving up wholesale prices for cabbages and radishes. But the government's support measures including discounts aimed at stabilizing the market, helped lower retail prices overall. Cabbage prices dropped 10 percent and radishes 24 percent, compared to last year. Wholesale prices for agricultural produce are likely to decline further as supplies from southern regions are expected to increase later this month. "We are releasing government reserves of garlic and onions to stabilize prices during the kimchi-making season and will continue working to ensure stable supplies," said Moon In-cheol, an official at aT. * This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP. 2025-11-18 17:38:20

Micron courts talents in its rivals' home turf as heat intensifies in memory sector SEOUL, November 18 (AJP) - The three-way memory race in the high-stakes AI battlefield has spilled onto South Korean campuses, as the U.S. contender Micron Technology aggressively hunts for engineering talent on its rivals’ home turf amid intensifying competition in advanced chipmaking. Micron has been posting multiple Korea-based engineering roles on LinkedIn — including HBM system architecture, DRAM product engineering, and logic-integration positions — and will hold a recruiting session at Seoul National University’s College of Engineering next month, along with visits to other top tech universities. The SNU event advertises Micron’s global talent programs, relocation tracks, and “fast-track” or on-site engineering recruitment. The company toured Seoul, Daejeon, and Busan last year in a similar talent drive. Micron’s push comes as demand for high-performance memory surges on the back of AI and hyperscale servers. The U.S. company produces high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for GPUs powering AI applications across three regions — design and development in the U.S., memory fabrication in Japan, and advanced packaging and testing in Taiwan. DRAM accounts for nearly 70 percent of Micron’s revenue, with most NAND output — the remaining 30 percent — manufactured in Singapore. Recruits from Korea largely join these Asian operations. According to Micron’s post on SNU’s job board, the Idaho-based company hired 98 graduates and soon-to-be graduates from Korea for its Taiwan operations last year. Micron declined to comment on its reasons for stepping up recruitment in Korea. Korean memory makers, however, are well aware of their U.S. rival’s intentions. “Talent competition among the three DRAM makers has always existed. Micron’s activity in Korea appears tied to the intensifying HBM race, but Korean companies are not yet worried about a meaningful drain of engineers,” said a source familiar with SK hynix’s HR affairs. Samsung Electronics also declined to comment. Still, both Korean chipmakers have recently strengthened compensation packages to hold on to skilled engineers. Graphics by AJP Song Ji-yoon Samsung Electronics, long the comfortable leader among the three companies that together command more than 90 percent of the global DRAM market, has been losing ground since HBM emerged as the defining metric of DRAM leadership in the hyperscale era. As of June 2025, SK hynix leads the HBM market with a 62 percent share, followed by Micron at 21 percent and Samsung at 17 percent. Micron — once a distant third — has surged on strong U.S. demand for HBM. The company is now targeting engineers with one to three years of hands-on experience in HBM packaging, through-silicon via (TSV) technologies, and DRAM design — a talent pool heavily concentrated in South Korea. Without stronger defenses, Korea’s chip supremacy — built on its high-quality engineering base — is at risk, experts warn. “Korean engineers are among the most attractive in the global market. Losing mid-career engineers to overseas companies will directly weaken Korea’s chip competitiveness,” said Ahn Ki-hyun, executive director at the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association. Micron, which is racing to narrow the gap with Samsung and SK hynix in HBM3E and HBM4, is simultaneously expanding engineering capabilities across Boise, Singapore, Taiwan, and Japan. Analysts say Micron must deepen its expertise in advanced packaging and DRAM-logic integration to compete in AI-era data-center memory — the fastest-growing segment in the semiconductor market. Korean universities have become a critical battleground, leveraging long-standing academic-industry networks that accelerate testing and commercialization of next-generation chips. 2025-11-18 17:34:23

Nvidia-related rout spills over to Asian markets, spoiling Baby Shark creator's KOSDAQ debut SEOUL, November 18 (AJP) - The Wall Street tech rout — fueled by renewed concerns over Nvidia’s overvaluation — spilled into Asia on Tuesday, hammering semiconductor names and dragging down major regional indices. South Korea’s KOSPI plunged 3.32 percent to 3,953.62, losing the symbolically important 4,000 level. Sentiment soured after news that Thiel Macro — the hedge fund founded by Palantir Technologies chairman Peter Thiel — had fully liquidated its Nvidia stake. Foreign investors dumped 440 billion won ($300 million) of shares, while institutions unloaded 677 billion won, deepening the sell-off. Individual investors, however, stepped in with 1.24 trillion won in bargain hunting. SK hynix led the decline among heavyweight stocks, tumbling 5.94 percent to 570,000 won. Samsung Electronics slid 2.78 percent to 97,800 won. Shipbuilding stocks — buoyed early in the session by optimism over the Korea–U.S. trade fact sheet — also reversed. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, which touched 626,000 won intraday, ended flat at 603,000 won, while Hanwha Ocean slipped 2.37 percent to 127,800 won. The tech-heavy KOSDAQ shed 2.66 percent to 878.70, falling below 900. The broad selling pressure spoiled the much-anticipated debut of The Pinkfong Company, creator of the global “Baby Shark” hit. Shares closed at 41,500 won, up 9.34 percent from the IPO price of 38,000 won — positive but well short of expectations for a stronger first-day pop. Japan’s Nikkei 225 also tumbled, losing 3.22 percent to 48,702.98 and slipping below the 50,000 mark. As in Seoul, Nvidia-linked suppliers were hit hardest. Advantest fell 3.7 percent to 19,260 yen ($124), Tokyo Electron dropped 5.47 percent to 31,480 yen, and semiconductor circuit-board supplier Ibiden posted the steepest loss with an 8.48 percent plunge to 12,140 yen. Taiwan’s TAIEX also declined as tech stocks dragged the market lower. Chipmaking titan TSMC, Nvidia’s largest foundry partner, slid 2.77 percent to 1,405 Taiwan dollars ($45), while chip designer MediaTek dropped 4.88 percent to 1,170 Taiwan dollars. China’s Shanghai Composite Index dipped 0.81 percent to 3,939.81, a milder fall compared with Seoul, Tokyo and Taipei but still weighed down by weaker-than-expected Singles’ Day consumption. The Shenzhen Composite Index lost 0.92 percent to 13,080.49. The sharpest correction in Greater China was seen in Hong Kong, where the Hang Seng Index dropped 1.86 percent to 25,893.06. Lenovo fell 4.46 percent to 9.64 Hong Kong dollars ($1.24) after Nomura cut its target price from 14 to 11 Hong Kong dollars, worsening the broader tech slump. BYD slid 3.82 percent to 96.85 Hong Kong dollars amid renewed concerns over margin pressure and supply gluts in China’s EV market. 2025-11-18 17:07:30

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

Lee seeks to expand cooperation in high-tech industries with UAE SEOUL, November 18 (AJP) - South Korea aims to lay the foundation for a new phase in bilateral relations with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by expanding cooperation in high-tech and future industries including healthcare, artificial intelligence (AI), and other advanced technologies, President Lee Jae Myung said in an interview with the UAE's English-language newspaper Aletihad. Lee, who is currently in Abu Dhabi before attending the Group of 20 (G20) summit in South Africa later this week, explained that choosing the UAE as the first stop on his Middle East tour reflects his "strong will to solidify and advance bilateral relations." South Korea has "the capacity to meet the UAE's requirements for developing its semiconductor ecosystem and strengthening its competitiveness in advanced industries," he said. "As a leading global producer of memory chips in the semiconductor supply chain, Korean-made electric and hybrid vehicles and UAE petrochemical products. This will help expand bilateral trade, enhance industrial competitiveness, and generate benefits for consumers in both nations." After wrapping up his itinerary in the UAE, he will travel to Egypt before heading to Johannesburg for the first G20 summit to be held on the African continent slated for this weekend. After a brief stop in Turkey, Lee is scheduled to return home on Nov. 26. * This article, published by Economic Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP. 2025-11-18 16:35:22

INTERVIEW: Sookmyung Women's University builds global footprint in pharmaceutical science SEOUL, November 18 (AJP) - Sookmyung Women’s University’s College of Pharmacy has emerged as one of South Korea’s most active incubators of medical and pharmaceutical R&D, expanding its global footprint and highlighting the strength of female scientific leadership in the country. In an interview with AJP, Dean Jeon Ra-ok said the college’s competitiveness "comes from its history, and the networks and research foundation that history has built." A central marker of that strength is the college’s back-to-back selection for the Medical Research Center (MRC) program — one of Korea’s most competitive national grants in medical and pharmaceutical science. Only a handful of pharmacy schools nationwide qualify. Sookmyung’s project, built around its Muscle and Sebum Research Center, receives roughly 1.5 billion won (about $1.1 million) per year. "MRC selection is one of the highest research recognitions a pharmacy school can receive," Jeon said. "Being chosen twice in a row reflects not the achievement of one professor but the collective capacity of our entire research team." The long-running program, she added, connects undergraduate internships with graduate-level research and requires "many years of accumulated infrastructure and collaboration." This year, the college also secured a spot in the newly expanded Glocal Lab program, another major government initiative that provides funding on a similar scale. The program mandates global partnerships, and Jeon said the college already collaborates with Princeton University, the University of Massachusetts, and Ghent University in Belgium. "This is not symbolic," she said. "We co-design research and verify results together. Our selection shows that the school has both regional influence and global expansion potential." Alumni have become another pillar of Sookmyung’s rise. Since its founding in 1953, just after the Korean War, the college has produced graduates who now hold mid- to senior-level positions across healthcare and pharmaceuticals. "If you gathered only our graduates, you could form an entire market ecosystem," Jeon said. Among its most distinguished alumnae is Chung Hee-sun, a forensic scientist who served as the inaugural president of the National Forensic Service. Renowned for her work in drug analysis, toxicology, and forensic science, Chung frequently returns to campus for special lectures. Jeon noted that the number of pharmacy-trained professionals in the forensic field has declined, and that Chung "actively encourages more pharmacy graduates to enter." In the pharmacy profession, Kwon Young-hee, president of the Korean Pharmaceutical Association and the first woman to head the century-old organization, is also a Sookmyung graduate. She has pushed to redefine pharmacists as public health professionals and is advocating for generic-name prescriptions, which allow patients to choose among products containing the same active ingredients. The pharmaceutical distribution sector is shaped by another alumna, Cho Sun-hae, co-founder and chairwoman of Geo-Young, Korea’s largest drug distributor with annual sales of around 4 trillion won. She has long supported student and alumni initiatives. In biotechnology, Professor Bae Gyu-un founded Animusquare, a muscle-research-based startup now in discussions with Merck over a Phase II clinical-stage technology. Jeon summarized the college’s strengths as "history, research, and network." Founded in a time of national hardship, the school was one of Korea’s earliest pharmacy programs. "Our long history gives the institution stability and credibility," she said. "When you have stability, you have the confidence to take on new challenges." Reflecting that philosophy, the college recently overhauled its curriculum to include biopharmaceuticals, data science, and bioinformatics — fields expected to define the next era of health care. Faculty expansion has further reinforced the academic structure. "Pharmacy is a professional discipline, but it is also an area where innovation is essential," Jeon said. "I hope our students grow into innovators who can take bold steps forward on a strong foundation." 2025-11-18 16:30:36