Seoul Turns Gwanghwamun Plaza Into Outdoor Reading Space Central Seoul is being recast as a city of readers. Areas once closely associated with rallies and protests — Gwanghwamun Plaza, Seoul Plaza and parts of the Cheonggyecheon stream corridor — are drawing strong public response as places to read and relax. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Sunday it has opened its outdoor library program, operating spaces at Gwanghwamun Plaza and along Cheonggyecheon where residents can read freely. Visitors who came over the weekend spent time reading or resting in warm spring sunshine. Along Cheonggyecheon, seats filled with people reading to the sound of running water. At Gwanghwamun Plaza, a “book yard” offered a range of setups, from cushioned chairs for reclining with a book to small tents for quieter personal time. Visitors said they welcomed the change, coming with friends, partners and family. One resident of Gwanak-gu said, “Downtown always feels noisy, so it feels special to have a place like this where you can read quietly.” Another resident, from Seocho-gu, said, “When I think of Gwanghwamun, I only think of rallies, traffic and noise, so I can’t say how happy I am that there’s now a place to read.” The “Seoul Outdoor Library” began in 2022 as “Reading Seoul Plaza,” aimed at helping people encounter reading culture in everyday life. The city expanded the concept beyond indoor libraries to sites across the downtown area. Seoul said the program drew a cumulative 8 million visitors through last year. Seoul plans to open an additional “Reading Plaza” on May 1. The city said it will place about 5,000 books each at Seoul Plaza and Gwanghwamun Plaza, and about 2,000 along Cheonggyecheon — about 12,000 in total — to broaden access. The initiative has also drawn international attention. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development selected the Seoul Outdoor Library as an example of government innovation, and 22 overseas institutions, including from Japan and the United States, have sought to benchmark it, the city said. Lee Min-kyung, spokesperson for the Seoul Metropolitan Government, said the reading spaces are expanding around Gwanghwamun Plaza and Cheonggyecheon for use in all four seasons. “We will continue to expand an environment where anyone can easily access books in the heart of the city,” Lee said. * This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-26 10:24:16

LG Unveils Hybrid In-Vehicle Emergency Call System That Works Across 2G-5G Networks LG Electronics has unveiled an in-vehicle “Hybrid e-Call” system designed to quickly send crash information to emergency rescue centers after an accident. The company said April 26 that it demonstrated the system on April 23 at the 37th General Assembly of the 5G Automotive Association, a global vehicle communications group, in Gothenburg, Sweden. An e-call system is an in-car emergency communications function that automatically transmits details such as the crash location, time and vehicle information to a nearby rescue center when an accident occurs. In Europe, e-call systems have been mandatory on newly launched vehicles since 2018. Starting next year, Europe will require “NG e-Call” (Next Generation emergency-Call), a 4G- and 5G-based system. The regulation is expected to expand to regions including China and the Middle East. LG’s Hybrid e-Call is installed in a vehicle telematics control unit and supports networks from 2G through 5G. The company said it combines the fast, high-capacity data transmission of 4G and 5G with the broader coverage of 2G and 3G to minimize connectivity dead zones. LG said it has completed reliability verification and has been supplying the system to global automakers since this year. At last year’s 5GAA general assembly in Paris, LG unveiled a solution using satellite-based non-terrestrial networks, or NTN, to enable two-way in-vehicle communications in areas where terrestrial networks are difficult to access. The company is also expanding its telematics certification capabilities. LG said its VS Certification Lab, under its Vehicle Solution business division, operates a testing and evaluation system based on the international standard ISO/IEC 17025. The lab obtained accreditation last year as an authorized testing institution from the Korea Laboratory Accreditation Scheme, or KOLAS, and also secured qualifications for major European and North American communications certifications, including GCF (Global Certification Forum) and PTCRB. LG said this allows it to handle the full process in-house, from development and testing to conformity certification for vehicle communications components. “Based on world-class technology, we will further strengthen our leadership in the global telematics market,” said Lee Sang-yong, vice president and head of LG Electronics’ VS Research Laboratory.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-26 10:19:08

Samsung Heat Pumps and Air Conditioners Rank No. 1 in Italy Consumer Satisfaction Survey Samsung Electronics said its HVAC products, including heat pumps and air conditioners, ranked first in an Italian consumer satisfaction survey. The company said April 26 it was named No. 1 in the heat pump and air conditioner categories in the “Best Value for Money Quality 2026” study conducted by the German Institute for Quality and Finance (ITQF). ITQF, described as a leading brand-preference research group in Italy, evaluated about 1,350 brands across 127 industries by analyzing roughly 640,000 consumer review data points. Samsung placed first in heat pumps for the third consecutive year and in air conditioners for the sixth straight year, it said. It also ranked No. 1 for six consecutive years in major home appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines, and for five straight years in vacuum cleaners. Samsung said it is strengthening its lineup of high-efficiency heat pumps as Europe’s market for environmentally friendly heating and cooling expands. Heat pumps use air heat and electricity to provide space heating and hot water, and the company said they produce less carbon emissions and offer higher energy efficiency than conventional gas boilers. Samsung said its EHS All-in-One, which received strong marks in the survey, provides air heating and cooling, floor heating and cooling, and hot-water supply using a single outdoor unit. It also includes a heat recovery function that reuses waste heat generated during cooling to improve energy efficiency. The product is designed to operate in heating mode at temperatures as low as minus 25 degrees Celsius and to supply hot water up to 65 degrees Celsius, the company said. In air conditioners, Samsung said its WindFree technology was rated highly. The company said the approach reduces direct airflow, targeting European consumers who are sensitive to drafts. Samsung said it has also applied artificial intelligence features to strengthen personalized cooling based on users’ living patterns and indoor conditions, improving energy-use efficiency and convenience. “This result shows the trust local consumers have in Samsung HVAC products,” said Ettore Giovane, an executive director at Samsung Electronics’ Italy unit. “We will continue to strengthen our competitiveness in the global HVAC market.” Samsung said it plans to expand into the electric-based heating market by launching in Korea this month heat pump boiler products that have been proven in global markets.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-26 10:12:17

Hyundai Motor Group’s Vision Pulse safety campaign wins at The One Show and Spikes Asia Hyundai and Kia said April 26 that their “Vision Pulse technology campaign” won two top prizes at The One Show and a bronze award at Spikes Asia, two major international advertising competitions. At The One Show, the campaign received top honors in the Intellectual Property & Product Design category and the Experimental & Research and Development category. At Spikes Asia, it won bronze in the Innovation category. Vision Pulse is an advanced driving safety technology that uses ultra-wideband, or UWB, signals to detect the location of nearby obstacles in real time to assist drivers. When a vehicle, driver or pedestrian carries a UWB device, the system exchanges signals and issues warnings to both sides if a collision is expected. Because it uses ultra-wideband signals in the gigahertz range, the company said interference is low and diffraction and penetration performance are strong. That allows the system to identify an object’s precise location within about 10 centimeters, within a radius of about 100 meters, even in obstacle-heavy areas such as urban intersections. Hyundai and Kia piloted the technology with kindergarten children and buses as part of a campaign aimed at improving school commute safety, and released a video of the project in January. To make the device easy for children to carry, the companies produced the UWB module as a guardian-character key ring. The key ring also functions as a sleep mood light, designed so children naturally connect it to power at bedtime, enabling charging. Judges at The One Show and Spikes Asia cited the campaign’s cost efficiency and scalability through integration with an existing digital key ecosystem, and its use of technology to address a real-world safety issue. Hyundai Motor Group has also expanded UWB applications to industrial settings. It is running a demonstration project to help prevent collisions between forklifts and workers by applying Vision Pulse to a production line at Kia’s PBV Conversion Center in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, last year. Hyundai Motor said it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Busan Port Authority in October last year and plans to verify the technology through demonstration projects aimed at preventing collisions between industrial mobility equipment and workers at Busan Port terminals and nearby logistics areas. A Hyundai and Kia official said the back-to-back wins at The One Show and Spikes Asia reflected recognition of the companies’ commitment to solving social problems by combining advanced technology with creativity.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-26 10:10:01

Samsung’s ‘Coral in Focus’ wins international awards for reef restoration using Galaxy cameras Samsung Electronics said its coral-reef restoration project, 'Coral in Focus,' which uses Galaxy smartphone camera technology, has received a series of international awards in global social contribution and marine-related categories. Samsung said April 26 that the project won a gold award in the sustainability and environmental conservation category at the 2026 Halo Awards, a global corporate social responsibility awards program. A documentary on the project also received the Coastal and Island Culture Award at the 23rd International Ocean Film Festival, a North American marine-focused film festival, Samsung said. Samsung has been running the reef restoration project since 2024, using a Galaxy camera feature called Ocean Mode. The mode is designed to reduce excessive blue tones in underwater shots and better reproduce the natural colors of coral reefs. It also aims to minimize camera shake and motion blur underwater through optimized shutter speed and multi-frame processing, the company said. Coral-reef images captured by local activists using Galaxy AI phones are sent to research institutions, where they are used to build 3D reef restoration models and support marine research. Samsung said more than 80 3D coral-reef models have been created so far, helping restore more than 20,000 corals. Samsung said it plans to make Ocean Mode available to general users through its Expert RAW app starting with the Galaxy S26 series, and to expand the feature to some additional products later.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-26 10:09:16

Talks with Iran fall through again as US cancels planned trip to Pakistan SEOUL, April 26 (AJP) - Anticipated talks to end the conflict between the United States and Iran fell through again after Washington abruptly canceled a planned trip by U.S. officials to Pakistan. Another round of negotiations, following the collapse of the first meeting earlier this month, was expected to take place this week in Islamabad, but U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the trip was called off at the last minute. In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Donald Trump said U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner would be wasting "too much time" traveling. He added, "There is tremendous infighting and confusion within their 'leadership.' Nobody knows who is in charge, including them. Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!" It comes after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who arrived in Islamabad a day earlier for talks, said Tehran was not planning to meet with U.S. negotiators. "No meeting is planned to take place between Iran and the U.S. Iran's observations would be conveyed to Pakistan," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei wrote on X, formerly Twitter. After meeting with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other senior Pakistani officials, Araghchi praised Pakistan's "brotherly efforts" to help "bring peace back to the region," describing his trip as "very fruitful," but expressed skepticism about Washington's intentions, saying Iran has "yet to see if the U.S. is truly serious about diplomacy." But Trump said he received a new proposal from Iran "within 10 minutes" after the U.S. delegation's trip to Islamabad was canceled. "They gave us a paper that should have been better. And interestingly, immediately, when I canceled it, within 10 minutes, we got a new paper that was much better," Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One in Florida. He said Iran "offered a lot, but not enough," and added that the deal could be "simple," saying, "That whole deal is not complicated. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon." Despite immediate progress being unlikely, neither side has fully closed the door to talks. The conflict is already approaching two months, with lingering uncertainty and rising tensions across the Middle East increasing pressure on Trump to find a way out. Time is also ticking for Trump, as it would be difficult for him to continue military operations against Iran beyond May 1 without congressional approval under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which limits the use of force to 60 days unless approved by Congress. 2026-04-26 10:04:46

Lotte Chairman Shin Dong-bin Visits Vietnam, Urges Push Into New Businesses Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin chose Vietnam for his first overseas on-site management trip of the year, checking major operations and calling for expansion into new businesses while meeting local officials to discuss future growth. Lotte Group said on the 26th that Shin visited Hanoi from the 21st to the 24th and toured key sites including Lotte Mall West Lake Hanoi and Lotte Center Hanoi. On the 23rd, he visited Lotte Mall West Lake, received briefings on the performance of major Lotte affiliates operating in Vietnam — including Lotte Department Store, Lotte Mart and Lotte Hotel — and inspected the facilities. Lotte Mall West Lake, which officially opened in September 2023, is a large-scale mixed-use mall that brings together the group’s core capabilities. Cumulative visitors topped 30 million through last month, and cumulative sales reached 600 billion won as of the end of last year. The group expects it to enter the “1 trillion won sales club” within the year. After touring the site, Shin said Vietnam is a key country for the group’s global business and called the continued growth of its core businesses, including food and retail, “very encouraging.” He urged the company to further strengthen competitiveness in existing businesses while also focusing on new areas such as advanced urban development, eco-friendly materials and advanced logistics. Shin also visited a promotional zone at the mall for “Cau Thu Nhi,” a youth soccer entertainment program Lotte has co-produced with Vietnam’s state broadcaster VTV since 2011. The show, which focuses on discovering and developing young soccer talent, has been popular locally. Shin met Kim Sang-sik, head coach of Vietnam’s national soccer team, wished the team success and expressed support for developing prospects. During the trip, Shin also stepped up engagement with senior Vietnamese figures. On the 22nd, he held a series of meetings with Vu Dai Thang, chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee, and To An Xo, a party secretary and aide to the state president, among others. Shin shared Lotte’s investment results over more than 30 years since entering Vietnam and said the group would pursue various urban development plans centered on its strengths to contribute to Hanoi’s development. Shin also attended official events tied to President Lee Jae-myung’s state visit to Vietnam, including a state banquet and a business forum. He previously led an economic delegation to Indonesia in April last year to seek expanded cooperation between companies in the two countries, and in March he took part in an economic delegation to the Philippines. 2026-04-26 09:57:20

Academics warn Samsung strike could drive customers away and disrupt supply chain With a Samsung Electronics union warning it may strike next month, an academic has cautioned that the bigger risk may be not the immediate production hit but the possibility that global customers shift orders and reshape supply chains. According to industry officials on the 26th, Song Heon-jae, a professor in the economics department at the University of Seoul, presented the analysis in a recent seminar held by the Anmin Policy Forum under the topic “The ripple effects of a Samsung Electronics union strike.” The Anmin Policy Forum is a private policy research forum chaired by Yoo Il-ho. Song estimated that if semiconductor fabs stop running, losses could reach tens of billions of won per minute, or about 1 trillion won per day. If a strike drags on, he said, the decline in operating profit in the semiconductor business could widen to as much as 10 trillion won. He said the more serious issue is weakened customer confidence and the risk of losing clients. Global big tech companies could diversify supply to competitors such as TSMC to reduce supply-chain risk, he said. “The semiconductor industry is structured so that process qualification requires enormous time and cost,” Song said. “Once a customer leaves the supply chain, it is not easy to bring them back.” Major global companies, he said, treat supply stability as a core evaluation standard. AMD reflects supply-chain resilience in ESG assessments, and NVIDIA is known to use supplier evaluation results when allocating volumes. Song divided strike-related costs into “visible costs,” such as halted production and lost sales, and “invisible costs,” such as eroded trust, delayed investment and shocks to the industrial ecosystem. He said the latter could weaken market standing and undermine industrial competitiveness. He listed key risks as weakened customer trust, permanent loss of market share, delays in AI semiconductor competition, an outflow of key talent and a deepening “Korea discount.” He also said a strike could ripple through suppliers and local economies. About 1,700 materials, parts and equipment suppliers that do business with Samsung Electronics could be affected directly or indirectly, and a production halt at the Pyeongtaek campus could add pressure on jobs and nearby businesses. Song pointed to opaque performance-bonus criteria and information asymmetry as factors behind the dispute. He recommended overhauling compensation based on objective management indicators, adding external verification mechanisms and institutionalizing pre-strike mediation procedures. “With competition in AI semiconductors intensifying, a prolonged internal conflict itself can be a significant opportunity cost,” he said. 2026-04-26 09:39:19

Hyosung’s Vietnam Bet Shows How Supply Chains Shift From China to Regional Hubs The global economy’s center of gravity is shifting. For years, multinational companies clustered production where it was cheapest, fastest and biggest, with China at the core. After U.S.-China tensions intensified, that model began to wobble. Companies increasingly face a different question: not where to depend, but how to spread risk. That approach is often called the “China plus one” strategy — splitting production bases and dividing exposure. Yet it has produced a paradox: while companies talk about diversification, they also concentrate heavily in a new place. A clear example is Cho Hyun-joon and Hyosung Group’s expansion in Vietnam. Since entering Vietnam in 2007, Hyosung has invested $5 billion, built nine local units and hired 10,000 workers. It has developed a production chain spanning spandex, tire cord, polypropylene and electric motors. With newer investments in advanced sectors such as bio-butanediol and high-voltage motors, cumulative investment is nearing $6 billion. On its face, that looks less like diversification than concentration. The explanation is that companies diversify one thing and concentrate another. What they seek to diversify is country risk — reducing heavy dependence on a single nation, especially China. What they concentrate is function. Building a cluster that combines production, logistics, labor and technology often requires focus. In today’s supply chains, the pattern is increasingly: diversify globally, concentrate regionally. Hyosung’s Vietnam strategy fits that structure. As it moves away from a China-centered axis, it has consolidated production functions around Vietnam. The shift is not simply relocating factories; it is building a new pillar of its supply chain — closer to a redesign than a transfer. That redesign is reflected in what Hyosung makes there. Vietnam was long seen mainly as a low-wage manufacturing base, but Hyosung’s portfolio goes beyond basic labor-intensive work. Spandex requires stable, high-precision processes, and tire cord is tied directly to global automaker supply chains. With chemicals such as polypropylene and PDH, and with electric motors, Vietnam functions as a production hub rather than a single factory site. As industries become more advanced, research and technical infrastructure matter more. Why, then, does Vietnam remain the stage for expansion? The answer again lies in separating functions. Even in advanced industries, not every step must happen in one place. Research and development can be done in South Korea or other advanced economies, while manufacturing is carried out at efficient bases. Vietnam is positioned for production, combining established infrastructure, accumulated labor capacity, a stable policy environment and multiple free trade agreements that support exports. The core issue is structure, not technology. Technology can move; the environment that makes it work is harder to replicate. What Hyosung has built in Vietnam is not just know-how, but the conditions for that know-how to operate — making the base difficult to replace quickly. The company’s role, the column argues, now extends beyond economics. It cites Hyosung Chairman Cho’s participation as part of an economic delegation accompanying President Lee Jae-myung on a Vietnam trip. In the past, diplomacy was led by governments: states signed agreements and companies followed. Now, the sequence is often reversed, with companies entering first to build relationships and governments layering cooperation on top. That does not mean business becomes diplomacy. Companies pursue profit. But the networks they create can serve as leverage for state-to-state cooperation. Trust with local authorities, industrial infrastructure, and ties built through jobs and investment can provide a practical foundation for bilateral collaboration. Hyosung’s Vietnam footprint illustrates that leverage, the column says. Its production base and local network have become a tangible link between South Korea and Vietnam — a relationship built through long-term investment rather than a single visit. The structure is not risk-free. Concentration in one country can bring exposure to political change, labor conditions and swings in global demand. With cumulative investment nearing $6 billion and key production functions clustered in Vietnam, the burden is real. Still, the column argues the risk should not be viewed only as something to endure. Global companies increasingly pair concentration with contingency plans: spreading parts of production to other countries, diversifying suppliers, and keeping core technology and decision-making at home. The result is a flexible structure — neither fully dispersed nor fully concentrated. Hyosung, it says, is centered on Vietnam while leaving room to expand elsewhere. The key is not a fixed answer but a design that can respond to change. Supply-chain competitiveness comes from architecture, not just location. The column concludes that Cho’s Vietnam strategy raises a broader question: where should a company put down roots, and what kind of structure should it build from those roots? In global competition, it argues, outcomes are no longer decided by the number of factories, but by how companies connect operations, allocate functions and share risk.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-26 09:16:09

HD Hyundai Wins First U.S. Navy Research Office Project Awarded to a South Korean Firm HD Hyundai has won two core research projects from the U.S. Office of Naval Research, becoming the first South Korean company to secure such work and expanding cooperation with the U.S. Navy. The company said April 26 that it recently held a contract-signing ceremony with the Office of Naval Research, or ONR, for two projects related to improving naval vessel performance. ONR, part of the U.S. Department of the Navy, oversees science and technology research and development for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. The ceremony was held at ONR headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, with Jang Kwang-pil, vice president and head of the Future Technology Research Institute at HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, and ONR Director Rachel Riley among those attending. Under the contracts, HD Hyundai will work on a project to improve naval vessel performance using artificial intelligence. Based on its digital ship technologies, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and Seoul National University’s Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, led by Professor Kim Yong-hwan, will jointly develop the technology. HD Hyundai also won a project to develop technologies to raise productivity in naval vessel construction, drawing on its advanced manufacturing capabilities. That research will be carried out by the Future Technology Research Institute at HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering. HD Hyundai said the ONR awards position it as a key partner for joint research with the U.S. Navy spanning naval vessel development through construction, and reflect U.S. recognition of its advanced technologies in the naval sector. Joo Won-ho, president of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and head of its naval vessels and medium-sized ship business, said, “With this ONR project award as a turning point, we will further expand cooperation with the United States in the naval vessel field.” He added, “With pride as a national representative of South Korea, we will devote our full efforts to expanding the reach of K-marine defense industry.”* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-04-26 09:15:14