Seoul apartment transactions surge in October ahead of new housing curbs SEOUL, November 28 (AJP) - Apartment sales in Seoul saw a dramatic jump in October, fueled by a wave of last-minute purchases ahead of sweeping government real-estate curbs, official data and policy documents show. Nationally, housing transactions — including apartments and other types of residences — reached 69,718 last month, up 10 percent from September and 23.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the October housing statistics from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. According to analysts, this frenzied pace was driven by apprehension over newly announced curbs. On Oct. 15, the government unveiled its most aggressive housing regulation package yet: all 25 districts of Seoul and 12 municipalities in the surrounding Gyeonggi Province were designated as regulated zones. In the capital region, transactions surged. The Seoul metropolitan area recorded 39,644 deals — a 26.7 percent rise from September and 58.5 percent increase compared with October 2024. Within that, the city of Seoul alone logged 15,531 transactions, up 41.3 percent month-on-month and 116.8 percent year-on-year. By contrast, outside the metropolitan region non-metro areas saw a decline: transactions fell 6.2 percent from September and 4.7 percent from the same month last year. On the apartment market, the trend was even more pronounced: nationwide apartment sales reached 56,363 — up 13.5 percent from the prior month and 31.3 percent from a year earlier. Apartment transactions in Seoul soared by 62.5 percent month-on-month and an extraordinary 176 percent year-on-year. In the broader metropolitan zone, apartment deals rose 35.5 percent from September and 79.4 percent compared with last October. * This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP. 2025-11-28 08:33:36

Samsung Electronics moves HBM team back under DRAM division after one year SEOUL, November 27 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics announced on Thursday it is dissolving its standalone high bandwidth memory development team created last year and moving related personnel back under the DRAM development division. The HBM development team will be absorbed into the design team under the DRAM development division, with Vice President Son Young-soo, who led the HBM team, appointed as head of the design team. Samsung created the dedicated HBM development team in July 2024, about a month after Executive Vice President Jun Young-hyun was appointed head of the Device Solutions division. The move came as Samsung lost ground to SK Hynix in the HBM market. The reorganization after about one year suggests confidence in securing technology for next-generation HBM products including HBM4. HBM team personnel will continue developing HBM4 and HBM4E products under the design team. Samsung has recently built partnerships with major tech companies including Nvidia, AMD, OpenAI and Broadcom in HBM. The company ranked third in the HBM market in the second quarter this year. Market research firm TrendForce expects Samsung to achieve more than 30 percent market share in the global HBM market in 2026 based on expanded HBM4 supply. Samsung plans to complete the reorganization this week and hold a global strategy meeting in early December to review next year's business plans. 2025-11-27 17:38:07

National Assembly passes arrest motion for PPP's former floor leader SEOUL, November 27 (AJP) - The National Assembly on Thursday passed a motion to arrest Choo Kyung-ho, the main opposition People Power Party (PPP)'s former floor leader over his alleged involvement in disgraced former President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law debacle in December last year. The motion, proposed by independent prosecutors investigating the debacle, comfortably passed with 172 votes in favor, four against, two abstentions, and two invalid votes at the parliamentary session, with the ruling Democratic Party (DP) holding the majority of seats. All PPP lawmakers including Choo boycotted the vote. Choo has been accused of interfering with parliamentary efforts to lift the martial law declared by Yoon on Dec. 3. By law, sitting lawmakers are immune from arrest while parliament is in session and can only be arrested with a majority vote from the National Assembly. A court is now set to hold a hearing to decide whether to issue an arrest warrant for Choo. 2025-11-27 17:35:50

LG Chem replaces CEO, taps materials chief Kim Dong-chun to lead next phase SEOUL, November 27 (AJP) - LG Chem has appointed Kim Dong-chun, head of its advanced materials division, as its new chief executive officer, marking the first leadership change in seven years. Kim succeeds Shin Hak-cheol. The board approved Kim’s promotion to president and CEO on Thursday. Kim is credited with boosting profitability within the advanced materials division and broadening the company’s global customer base, particularly in high-tech sectors. “Kim is the right person to lead innovation and refine our business portfolio amid uncertain conditions,” LG Chem said in a statement, adding that it plans to continue reinforcing its competitiveness across core businesses. Born in 1968, Kim studied industrial chemistry at Hanyang University and later obtained an MBA from the University of Washington. He joined LG Chem in 1996 and has since held key roles across semiconductor and electronic materials, as well as in group-level strategy and new business development. * This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP. 2025-11-27 17:22:55

Asian shares mostly positive; Korean won rebounds as debt yields jump on BOK warning SEOUL, November 27 (AJP) - Asian equity markets extended gains Thursday, led by tech stocks benefiting from Google’s dual breakthroughs in AI chips and the Gemini 3.0 model. In Korea, the won strengthened sharply while government bond prices slumped after the Bank of Korea governor struck a hawkish tone on FX risks and inflation after keeping the base rate at 2.50 percent in the final policy meeting of the year. The 3-year yield jumped 11.8 basis points to 3.013 percent and the 10-year rose 10 basis points to 3.351 percent. The dollar fell 8.40 won to 1,462.10 won. The benchmark KOSPI closed 0.66 percent higher at 3,986.91 after briefly retaking the 4,000 mark. Institutional investors—responding to the government’s appeal to shore up the won—net bought 434.3 billion won ($296.4 million). Foreign investors also reversed course, buying a net 149.6 billion won, while retail investors sold 610.2 billion won. All major bellwethers advanced. SK hynix gained 3.82 percent to 544,000 won, recovering recent losses. Samsung Electronics gave up early gains but still closed 0.68 percent higher at 103,500 won. Samsung Epis Holdings jumped 19.7 percent to 434,500 won on expectations of strong growth potential following its spin-off to focus on new drug and biosimilar businesses. Some stocks lagged. Hanwha Ocean fell 2.99 percent to 110,500 won after signs of a possible end to the Ukraine war and the company’s failure to win a Polish submarine contract. Naver slid 4.55 percent to 251,500 won after a 50 billion won hacking loss at Dunamu, which is set to merge with Naver Financial. The loss darkened prospects for a potential NASDAQ listing. The KOSDAQ edged up 0.31 percent to 880.06, with gains across chip and robotics names. Rainbow Robotics rose 2.68 percent to 383,500 won. Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 1.23 percent higher at 50,167.10. Chip suppliers led the advance: Advantest rose 4.88 percent to 20,410 yen, while Ibiden gained 5 percent to 11,450 yen. Battery stocks also rallied, with Panasonic up 5.08 percent at 1,934 yen after securing a supply contract with Zoox, Amazon’s autonomous taxi unit. Taiwan’s TAIEX added 0.53 percent to 27,554.53. Market heavyweights were mixed: TSMC slipped 0.35 percent, while MediaTek gained 3.08 percent and Hon Hai rose 1.76 percent, suggesting a rotation away from the TSMC-centric bias. Mainland Chinese markets saw a late-session reversal. The Shanghai Composite closed 0.29 percent higher at 3,875.26, while the SZSE Component fell 0.25 percent to 12,875.20. News that Vanke, China’s largest developer, entered talks to extend bond maturities pressured Shenzhen and Hong Kong markets. Shanghai, meanwhile, drew investors betting on central government stimulus to avert a Vanke-triggered credit shock. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index remained flat at 25,941.2, weighed down by profit-taking in tech names—Tencent down 1.45 percent and Alibaba down 2.71 percent—and by cooling consumer sentiment after the deadly Tai Po apartment fire that killed at least 55 people. 2025-11-27 17:10:48

South Korea imposes sanctions on Prince Group and others over online scams in Southeast Asia SEOUL, November 27 (AJP) - The government has imposed sanctions on 15 individuals and 132 business entities including Cambodia-based conglomerate Prince Group for their involvement in online scams and crimes targeting South Korean citizens in Southeast Asia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday. This marks the country's first independent and largest sanctions against transnational criminal activities. According to the ministry, the sanctions target criminal organizations and their affiliates and other accomplices. The Prince Group, along with China-based Huiyuan Group, allegedly involved in large-scale online scams and money laundering, are among those sanctioned. The Prince Group was previously sanctioned by the U.S. and U.K., and the Huiyuan Group was flagged by the U.S. Treasury for money laundering. Sanctioned individuals and entities will face asset freezes, restrictions on financial transactions, and entry bans. The ministry said, "These sanctions demonstrate our commitment to fighting organized crimes, fraudulent schemes, trafficking, and other illicit operations in Southeast Asia. We will continue to work closely with international authorities to tackle these issues." * This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP. 2025-11-27 17:10:45

Nvidia-Google rivalry translates to bigger AI chip pie for Korean memory foundries SEOUL, November 27 (AJP) - Expectations that Google’s in-house tensor processing units (TPUs) will challenge Nvidia’s near-monopoly in AI accelerators are translating into a bigger market for memory giants Samsung Electronics and SK hynix in Korea and Micron Technology in the United States. Nvidia still commands an overwhelming share of the global AI accelerator market. But growth of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and neural processing units (NPUs) — including Google’s TPU — is expected to far outpace GPUs in 2026. TrendForce projects the ASIC/NPU segment to grow 44.6 percent next year versus 16.1 percent for GPUs, signaling a structural shift in AI infrastructure spending. Nvidia’s strength remains anchored in its CUDA software ecosystem and rapid hardware-refresh cadence, which allow its GPUs to handle virtually all AI models with broad compatibility. But custom silicon is gaining appeal among hyperscalers seeking lower power consumption, tighter system-level integration and reduced long-term costs — priorities that grow more acute as AI data centers expand. Google’s seventh-generation TPU, codenamed Ironwood, marks a significant inflection point. The chip delivers FP8 performance nearly on par with Nvidia’s flagship Blackwell B200 GPU and matches its 192-gigabyte HBM3E memory capacity. Google also highlights the TPU’s ability to scale across pod-based clusters of more than 9,000 chips — a configuration suited for long-context inference and sustained workloads. External adoption is strengthening TPU’s credibility. Anthropic has committed to using up to one million TPUs under a multibillion-dollar cloud agreement, while Meta, OpenAI and Apple are reportedly testing or negotiating access to Google’s AI hardware. Such momentum has fueled concerns that Nvidia’s dominance, while intact for now, could gradually narrow as cloud providers diversify their compute stacks. The stakes are rising alongside AI investment. Combined capital expenditure by major hyperscalers is forecast to reach $602 billion in 2026, up 36 percent from this year, with roughly three-quarters of that spending tied to AI-related infrastructure. As custom silicon captures a larger share of these budgets, competition among chip architectures is intensifying. The most immediate ripple effect is in the memory market, where the AI boom largely benefit the memory oligopolies SK hynix, Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology High-bandwidth memory (HBM) — critical for both GPUs and custom accelerators — is projected to grow 77 percent in 2026 and 68 percent in 2027, according to TrendForce. As of the second quarter of 2025, SK hynix led the HBM market with a 62 percent share, followed by Micron at 21 percent and Samsung at 17 percent. Surging demand from U.S. hyperscalers tightened the DRAM race further as Micron climbed to 22 percent while the Korean makers held shares in the 30-percent range in DRAM that includes HBM. Shares of Samsung Electronics jumped 9 percent this week under Google-driven effect, while SK hynix shares gained 4.4 percent. Supply is already tight. Both SK hynix and Micron say most of their 2026 HBM output has been allocated, while next-generation products such as HBM4E are expected to dominate by 2027. Nvidia’s own roadmap underscores the mutual dependence between chip designers and memory suppliers. SK hynix is the primary HBM partner for Nvidia’s upcoming Rubin GPU platform, while Samsung and Micron are racing to secure larger roles in future generations through yield gains and customized solutions. Beyond market share shifts, geopolitics and energy constraints are reshaping the landscape. Stricter U.S. export controls on advanced AI chips, surging electricity demand at data centers, and government pushes to localize semiconductor supply chains are all nudging cloud companies toward more efficient, tailor-made hardware. For South Korea, the changing balance presents both opportunity and risk. The intensifying AI-chip race is driving unprecedented demand for HBM — benefiting all three major memory makers — but also exposing them to sharper policy swings, higher customer concentration and the strategic whims of hyperscalers increasingly committed to designing their own silicon. As the era of one-size-fits-all AI hardware gives way to a more fragmented, power-conscious ecosystem, the rivalry between Nvidia’s GPUs and Google’s TPUs is set to shape not only the future of compute but the next chapter of global memory competition. 2025-11-27 17:00:11

Stray Kids earn six new RIAA certifications SEOUL, November 27 (AJP) - K-pop boy band Stray Kids received six new certifications from the U.S. Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on Wednesday. They earned a "gold" certification for their latest album "Karma," after selling over 500,000 copies in the U.S. since its release in August this year, bringing their total certified albums to six, including the previous ones like "Ate," "Maxident," and "5-Star." They also received four more certifications for their singles such as "Case-143," "Chk Chk Boom," "Lalalala," and "S-Class." Additionally, "God's Menu," the lead track from their album "Go Live" released in June 2020, earned their first “platinum” certification after selling over one million copies there. Originally created to recognize artists and track recording sales, the certification programs "have come to stand as a benchmark of success for any artist - whether they've just released their first song or a greatest hits album," according to the RIAA. Meanwhile, Stray Kids continue to make history on the Billboard 200 chart, as "Karma" ranks 45th this week, marking 13 consecutive weeks in the top 100. * This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP. 2025-11-27 16:46:08

Sticky prices and weak won to stretch Korea's belt-tightening to next year SEOUL, November 27 (AJP) - Koreans tightened their belts through most of the year as stubborn inflation and the steepest depreciation of the won eroded purchasing power, government data showed Thursday. Nominal household income rose 3.5 percent on year in the July–September period to 5,439,000 won ($3,713), while real income—adjusted for inflation—grew 1.5 percent, supported largely by government stimulus handouts, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics. But the aid program did little to lift actual spending. Real household consumption fell for a third straight quarter, the longest downturn since the pandemic-hit year of 2020, underscoring the gap between chilled domestic demand and the hot stock, housing, and chip-export markets powering broader economic data. The income boost was driven mainly by government-issued consumption coupons distributed between July and November. Earned income inched up 1.1 percent, and business income rose just 0.2 percent, while public transfer income — government benefits and subsidies — surged 40 percent to 744,000 won, the highest since records began in 2020. With income growth stagnating and inflation proving sticky, families cut back on their biggest discretionary burden — private education — and scaled down recreational spending. Household expenditures centered on essentials and summer vacations. Consumer sentiment improved sharply in November, reaching its highest level in eight years, but the optimism has yet to translate into stronger consumption. Debt remains a heavy drag. Households are unlikely to see further relief after Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang-yong signaled an end to the easing cycle to curb leveraged asset investment and defend the sinking won. As of Nov. 20, outstanding household loans at the five major commercial banks stood at 769.27 trillion won, up 2.65 trillion won in November alone — already exceeding October's full-month increase. Daily loan growth has climbed to its fastest pace since July. "Given the three- to six-month lag in the pass-through from a weak won to import prices and then consumer prices, inflation pressure is likely to build during the first half of next year," said Kim Myung-sil, analyst at iM Securities. "The rise in market rates and diminished expectations for a rate cut will weigh on business investment — particularly in construction — and hurt household consumption," added Park Ju-noo, analyst at Hana Securities. 2025-11-27 16:31:27

LG Electronics names home appliance chief as new CEO SEOUL, November 27 (AJP) - LG Electronics has appointed Ryu Jae-cheol, head of its Home Appliance & Air Solution (H&A) division, as chief executive officer, replacing Cho Joo-wan. The board approved the leadership change on Thursday as part of its executive appointments and organizational restructuring. Ryu, known for his technical background and operational experience within LG’s flagship appliance unit, will be tasked with sharpening the company’s competitiveness across all business lines. The reshuffle includes 34 executive promotions with two new presidents, two vice presidents, nine senior executives and 21 executives. Cho Joo-wan, who stepped down as CEO, is credited with laying the groundwork for a more service-oriented business model and improving LG’s global competitiveness. The leadership handover marks the company’s first CEO change in four years. * This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP. 2025-11-27 16:14:59