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NiziU's receives platinum certificate in Japan SEOUL, September 11 (AJP) - K-pop girl group NiziU's second Japanese EP has earned platinum certification in Japan, JYP Entertainment said Friday. "GOOD GIRL BUT NOT FOR YOU," released in Japan on April 1, received platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of Japan. The industry body awards platinum status to albums that reach cumulative shipments of 250,000 copies. The EP is led by "Too Bad," a title track built around the theme of moving forward on one's own terms. The certification comes as NiziU prepares to release its first Korean mini album, "Sour Grapes," on Sept. 28. JYP Entertainment has been rolling out promotional material for the album, including a prologue film, mood posters, a promotion scheduler and a digital cover image. "Sour Grapes" will mark NiziU's first Korean release in about a year and a half since its second Korean single, "LOVE LINE," in March 2025. The group made its Korean debut in October 2023 with the single "Press Play." NiziU will release "Sour Grapes" at 6 p.m. on Sept. 28. AJP Takeaways - NiziU's Japanese EP "GOOD GIRL BUT NOT FOR YOU" received platinum certification in Japan. - Platinum status is given to albums with cumulative shipments of 250,000 copies. - The certification comes ahead of NiziU's Korean comeback on Sept. 28. 2026-09-11 13:53:33 -
IBK Bank Opens Children's Financial Experience Center at KidZania Seoul IBK Bank has opened a digital financial experience center to allow children to explore financial careers and basic economic education.On September 11, IBK Bank announced the opening of the 'IBK Digital Financial Center' in collaboration with KidZania, a global children's career experience theme park. The opening ceremony held at KidZania Seoul was attended by key figures including IBK Bank President Jang Min-young and KidZania CEO Ahn Jun-sik.IBK Bank plans to open another IBK Digital Financial Center at KidZania Busan on September 21.The IBK Digital Financial Center is designed for children to experience financial tasks and learn basic economic concepts. The center includes a career experience zone where children can learn about diversified investment as financial dealers, a customer experience zone for simulating account and card issuance, and a parent experience zone that analyzes children's financial tendencies to provide customized financial reports.Jang Min-young, President of IBK Bank, stated, "We will do our best to help the next generation develop sound financial habits."* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-09-11 13:48:10 -
Shinhan Card Opens 'Aram Library' at Gimhae Foreign Worker Support Center 신한카드가 외국인 근로자의 지역사회 정착을 돕기 위한 독서·문화 공간을 마련했다. 신한카드는 경남 김해시에 위치한 김해외국인근로자지원센터에 ‘아름인도서관’을 개관했다고 11일 밝혔다. 지난 10일 열린 개관식에는 정영두 김해시장과 김영일 신한카드 페이먼트그룹 부사장 등이 참석했다. 이번 아름인도서관은 외국인 근로자와 다문화가정이 자유롭게 이용할 수 있는 커뮤니티 공간으로 조성됐다. 다양한 도서를 접할 수 있는 독서 공간과 함께 가족·이웃이 교류하며 지역사회에 자연스럽게 정착할 수 있는 소통 공간으로 활용될 예정이다. 신한카드는 국내 거주 외국인과 다문화가정이 늘면서 생활환경 개선과 지역사회 정착을 위한 지원 필요성도 커지고 있다고 설명했다. 이번 도서관을 통해 지역사회 구성원 간 문화·정보 교류를 확대하고 포용금융의 가치를 이어간다는 계획이다. 신한카드의 아름인도서관 사업은 2010년 지역아동센터를 시작으로 병원과 복지관, 공공기관, 군부대 등으로 지원 대상을 넓혀왔다. 이번 김해 도서관은 560번째 아름인도서관이다. 신한카드는 앞으로도 지역사회에 필요한 독서·문화 공간을 조성해 주민 누구나 이용할 수 있는 복합문화공간으로 발전시켜 나갈 방침이다.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-09-11 13:48:00
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Samsung E&A lands $3.5 billion Saudi fertilizer plant deal SEOUL, September 11 (AJP) -Samsung E&A has won a $3.5 billion contract to build a major fertilizer complex in Saudi Arabia, extending its run of large overseas orders and deepening its foothold in one of its most important Middle Eastern markets. The South Korean engineering company said Friday it signed an engineering, procurement and construction contract with SABIC Agri-Nutrients for the SAN-7 project, worth about 4.7 trillion won ($3.5 billion). Samsung E&A will carry out the project on a sole EPC basis, with completion scheduled for 2030. The plant will be built in the industrial city of Jubail in eastern Saudi Arabia and will use natural gas to produce 3,500 tons of ammonia a day. The ammonia will then be used to manufacture 7,700 tons of urea fertilizer daily, with all output destined for export. The project will also incorporate a post-combustion carbon capture system designed to capture carbon dioxide generated during ammonia production and reuse it in the synthesis of urea, reducing emissions while improving operating efficiency, according to the company. The contract was signed Wednesday at SABIC's headquarters in Jubail. Samsung E&A Chief Executive Namkoong Hong attended alongside senior executives from SABIC and SABIC Agri-Nutrients. The deal adds to Samsung E&A's long track record in Saudi Arabia, where it entered the market in 2003 and has since carried out about 30 projects. In 2024, the company secured a roughly $6 billion contract for Saudi Aramco's Fadhili gas expansion project, its largest order since its establishment. Samsung E&A also has extensive project experience in the Jubail industrial complex, giving it access to existing infrastructure, local suppliers and project resources that could support execution of the latest contract. The SAN-7 order further strengthens its relationship with SABIC, Saudi Arabia's state-linked petrochemical producer. SABIC Agri-Nutrients is the group's fertilizer arm. Samsung E&A has worked on major SABIC petrochemical projects since 2003, including ethylene oxide and ethylene glycol facilities and polypropylene plants. Ammonia and urea plants are among Samsung E&A's core chemical-engineering businesses. The company is also working on a low-carbon ammonia project in the United States. Demand for fertilizer investment is expected to remain firm as growing global food consumption, food-security concerns and supply-chain disruptions push governments and producers to secure production capacity, Samsung E&A said. The company has been building its overseas order book this year. It won a $2.4 billion overseas chemical project in February and a $790 million water-treatment project in the Middle East in June before adding the SAN-7 contract. Samsung E&A is also bidding for several fertilizer and gas projects in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Shares of Samsung E&A are 0.6 percent higher at 50,500 won as of 1:30 p.m. in Seoul where the main KOSPI remains 2 percent lower from the previous session. AJP Takeaways - Samsung E&A won a $3.5 billion EPC contract from SABIC Agri-Nutrients to build the SAN-7 fertilizer complex in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, with completion scheduled for 2030. - The plant will produce 3,500 tons of ammonia and 7,700 tons of urea fertilizer a day, with all urea output destined for export and carbon capture used to recycle CO2 into production. - The deal strengthens Samsung E&A’s Saudi foothold after about 30 projects since 2003, including its record $6 billion Fadhili project secured in 2024. 2026-09-11 13:45:03 -
KDRT Team 2 Arrives in Nepal to Deliver Aid Following Floods The second team of the Korea Disaster Relief Team (KDRT) arrived in Nepal on September 11 to assist with recovery efforts following severe flooding. The team, consisting of eight members, is scheduled to operate for seven days.According to Yonhap News Agency, the KDRT Team 2 landed at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu at 8:44 a.m. local time. A government official explained the composition of the team, stating that it includes two members each from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Fire Agency, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), and a medical team.Additionally, the military transport aircraft carrying Team 2 also brought approximately four tons of relief supplies. Park Du-soon, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, mentioned in a regular briefing the day before that the supplies, valued at 180 million won, were donated by a Korean NGO and will be delivered to Nepal.Meanwhile, the first KDRT team, which consisted of 44 members and was dispatched on September 2, is preparing to return home. Their initial ten-day mission is concluding today. A foreign ministry official stated that the first team is expected to depart Nepal and arrive in South Korea early on September 12. They successfully rescued one Chinese survivor ten days after the flooding occurred.However, nine South Koreans remain unaccounted for. Some family members of the missing have held a press conference in Nepal, urging the government to intensify search efforts.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-09-11 13:28:00
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Editorial: Korea's AI republic needs a human survival plan Suddenly, the hottest question in artificial intelligence is no longer whether AI will take our jobs. It is whether, one day, it could kill us. The prospect remains fiercely disputed and may sound like science fiction. Yet researchers inside some of the world's leading AI companies are now openly warning about the possibility of humans losing control of increasingly autonomous systems, with some putting the risk of human extinction within the next decade above 10 percent. The warnings have become serious enough to draw bipartisan calls for tougher safeguards in Washington and a scramble among technology companies and policymakers to devise "kill switches" and other mechanisms capable of stopping rogue systems. South Korea ought to be paying attention. Not because Seoul should abandon its ambition to become an "AI republic," stop building data centers or retreat from the semiconductor boom that has given the country one of its greatest economic opportunities in decades. Korea cannot afford to sit out a technological transformation that may determine national competitiveness for a generation. But neither can "we will fall behind" become the answer to every question about AI. Korea has a familiar tendency to turn technological competition into a national speed contest. Once the race is declared, disagreement becomes obstruction, caution becomes timidity and almost every problem is answered by spending more money and moving faster. That reflex is particularly dangerous with AI because some of the casualties are no longer hypothetical. Between June 2022 and June 2026, employment among Koreans aged 15 to 29 fell by 285,000. An extraordinary 268,000 of those lost jobs — 94 percent — came from industries highly exposed to AI, according to the Bank of Korea. Youth employment fell 31.4 percent in information services, 27.4 percent in publishing and 16.6 percent in computer programming. Employment among people in their 50s, meanwhile, continued to increase in many of the same industries. AI is not simply replacing workers. It risks removing the first rung of the career ladder. Companies can use AI to perform the research, coding, translation, document preparation, customer support and routine analysis once assigned to junior employees. Senior workers who already possess judgment, networks and institutional knowledge become more productive. Young people who were supposed to acquire those things through entry-level work may never get through the door. The result could be a cruel paradox. Korea, already struggling with one of the developed world's toughest environments for young people entering stable employment, could become spectacularly successful at producing the chips and computing infrastructure that make AI possible while allowing AI to hollow out the route by which the next generation enters the professional economy. Compare the urgency of the two policy responses. When the subject is semiconductor fabs, AI data centers, GPUs and electricity, the government knows how to hit the accelerator. Seoul has unveiled massive semiconductor and AI infrastructure projects, including plans tied to KRW 550 trillion in private investment and data-center capacity totaling 18.4 gigawatts. AI-service data centers have been brought into expanded strategic investment tax incentives, while public financing is being mobilized for GPUs and computing infrastructure. The government is not entirely ignoring the employment shock. In July it announced a five-year industrial-transition plan that aims to provide AI-related training to more than 1 million people by 2030 and establish an early-warning system for jobs vulnerable to technological change. But retraining people after their jobs disappear is not the same thing as deciding what kind of labor market an AI economy should have. Nor does an AI Basic Act built primarily around promoting innovation and establishing general safeguards answer who bears responsibility when AI eliminates junior positions, makes employment decisions, concentrates income among capital owners and highly skilled incumbents, or leaves a generation permanently behind. Indeed, lawmakers themselves have already pointed to gaps in protections when AI is used in hiring, evaluation, promotion and other workplace decisions. But the conversation in Korea has barely begun. The country does not need to choose between AI advancement and AI restraint. It needs to stop pretending that acceleration alone constitutes a strategy. If people developing the world's most advanced AI systems believe it is worth asking whether their creations could eventually threaten humanity, surely a country betting its industrial future on the technology can ask a more immediate question: Who is being sacrificed while Korea races to become an AI republic — and what exactly is the republic being built for if its people are treated merely as the cost of getting there first? 2026-09-11 13:22:27 -
Google Warned of Legal Responsibility for Digital Sex Crime Victim Data Leak The government has warned Google that it will face legal consequences if it is found to have illegally leaked information regarding digital sex crime victims' requests for video removal to external sites.During a briefing at the Government Seoul Complex on September 11, Minister of Gender Equality and Family Won Min-kyung stated, "We are closely reviewing the Sexual Violence Punishment Act, the Telecommunications Business Act, and the Information and Communications Network Act in conjunction with the Korea Communications Commission. If any illegalities are confirmed, Google will be held legally accountable."According to the Ministry, it was confirmed that some information submitted by digital sex crime victims and support organizations to Google for the removal of harmful videos was unlawfully disclosed on external sites on August 25.This included personal identifiable information such as the victims' names, ages, workplaces, schools, and phone numbers, as well as details describing their victimization. Some of the removal requests that should not have been shared externally were leaked through Google.Minister Won emphasized, "Victims request the removal of their videos with a desperate hope that they will no longer spread. If sensitive information and removal requests submitted during that process are made public in another space, it constitutes a serious matter that inflicts further harm on the victims."She added, "I want to make it clear to Google that this is not a trivial issue that can be dismissed as a mere system error or mistake. Google must take the seriousness of this matter to heart and demonstrate accountability to the victims and the public."Furthermore, she stated, "For platforms like Google that have immense global influence, the responsibility to protect and handle victims' sensitive information is even greater. I will ensure that effective measures to prevent recurrence are established and actually implemented."The site in question is one that collects data to prevent the arbitrary deletion of user data by large platforms, which could lead to censorship or suppression of freedom of expression.Google has stated that it had no other sites to which the controversial data was sent and has apologized to the victims regarding the incident. The company remarked, "It is our principle not to share victim information with that site, and we requested the removal of the data from the database as soon as we confirmed that some information had been unintentionally shared without being deleted."* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-09-11 13:16:00
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KOSPI Falls Over 2% Amid Foreign and Institutional Selling, Drops Below 7000 KOSPI continued its decline, falling over 2% due to rising U.S. long-term interest rates and surging international oil prices, dipping below the 7000 mark. Foreign and institutional investors led the sell-off, while individual investors purchased over 2 trillion won worth of shares. The KOSDAQ also showed weakness, dropping over 2%.As of 1 p.m. on September 11, the KOSPI was down 171.11 points (2.43%) at 6862.81 compared to the previous trading day.The index opened sharply lower, down 231.42 points (3.29%) at 6802.50, before slightly recovering. However, it fluctuated around the 6800 level as selling pressure from foreign and institutional investors persisted.In the securities market, individual investors net bought 2.7888 trillion won, while foreign and institutional investors net sold 2.1365 trillion won and 1.7724 trillion won, respectively. Individual investors absorbed the large sell-off from foreign and institutional players.Most of the top market capitalization stocks declined, including Samsung Electronics (-4.18%), SK Hynix (-3.99%), SK Square (-5.37%), Samsung Electro-Mechanics (-3.15%), Hyundai Motor (-2.57%), Samsung Biologics (-1.26%), Samsung Life Insurance (-1.78%), and Samsung C&T (-2.77%). In contrast, KB Financial Group rose by 2.71%.At the same time, the KOSDAQ index was trading at 818.80, down 18.12 points (2.17%) from the previous trading day.In the KOSDAQ market, individual investors net bought 469.1 billion won, while foreign and institutional investors net sold 350.8 billion won and 121.4 billion won, respectively.Among the top KOSDAQ stocks, Alteogen (-4.33%), EcoPro (-4.26%), EcoPro BM (-7.41%), JUSUNG Engineering (-3.39%), Rainbow Robotics (-3.34%), IOTech (-2.75%), Wonik IPS (-7.07%), Rino Technology (-3.46%), and Simtech (-2.91%) all saw declines.Meanwhile, analysts noted that the rise in interest rates and oil prices, along with concerns over the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) for August, are likely to increase short-term volatility. However, they believe the earnings strength of the domestic market remains solid. They particularly highlighted that the profit momentum of leading sectors like artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductors is still strong, suggesting that any index adjustments due to macro shocks are unlikely to lead to a sustained decline.Han Ji-young, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, stated, "With U.S. 10-year Treasury yields nearing 5% and WTI prices exceeding $100, the pressure from rising rates and oil prices is increasing. However, the earnings strength of leading sectors like AI and semiconductors remains solid. If the August CPI aligns with market expectations, the upward trends in oil and interest rates may reverse, maintaining a floor under the stock market."He added, "Oracle's strong performance could help mitigate the declines in the domestic market. If the CPI does not deviate significantly from consensus, the recovery path for the stock market is likely to be maintained even amid volatility leading up to the September FOMC meeting."* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-09-11 13:08:00
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Jinyoung Hits Upper Limit on First Day of Trading After Stock Consolidation Jinyoung surged to the upper limit on the first day of trading following its stock consolidation.According to the Korea Exchange, as of 12:36 PM on September 11, Jinyoung's shares were trading at 4,760 won, up 1,095 won (29.88%) from the previous trading day.Prior to this, Jinyoung's stock trading was suspended from August 21 to facilitate the consolidation process. Trading resumed today after completing the necessary procedures for the change in stock listing.As a result of the consolidation, Jinyoung's par value per share changed from 100 won to 500 won. Consequently, the reference price for the resumption of trading was set at 3,665 won.Stock consolidation involves merging multiple shares to reduce the total number of shares while increasing the par value per share. Following this process, Jinyoung has completed the consolidation and resumed trading with the adjusted shares.Jinyoung specializes in manufacturing functional plastic sheets and films, supplying surface finishing materials for furniture and interior design, as well as industrial materials.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-09-11 12:40:00
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Apple's iPhone 17 Surpasses $170 Billion in First-Year Sales, Setting Record Apple's iPhone 17 series has achieved over $170 billion in global sales in its first year, setting a record for any iPhone series. Strong sales of the base model and significant growth in the Chinese market drove the overall performance.According to market research firm Counterpoint Research, the iPhone 17 series' first-year global sales exceeded $170 billion, marking an 11% increase compared to the previous iPhone 16 series. This growth was fueled by continued replacement demand across the entire lineup, from the base model to the Pro Max.Notably, the base model of the iPhone 17 saw a 1.3 times increase in sales compared to its predecessor. It also ranked as the top-selling smartphone globally for a single model in the first half of the year, while the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max secured the second and third spots, respectively, making the top three models all part of the iPhone 17 series.Counterpoint Research attributed this success to the expanded features of the base model, which were previously available only in the Pro lineup, as well as enhanced chip and camera performance in the Pro models, stimulating replacement demand among a broad consumer base.Regionally, the recovery in the Chinese market was particularly notable. Sales of the iPhone 17 series in China surged by 35% compared to the previous model, accounting for approximately 24% of global sales. This increase was driven by rising replacement demand for the base model. Growth continued in Japan, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific markets, complementing the modest growth seen in mature markets like North America and Europe.Despite rising memory prices, Apple managed to keep product prices relatively stable, which contributed to its success. Since the fourth quarter of last year, memory prices have quadrupled, prompting many Android smartphone manufacturers to raise prices or adjust specifications. As a result, the price gap between flagship Android products and the iPhone has narrowed.The expansion of installment purchasing and promotions in key markets has also reduced the financial burden of purchasing high-end models, supporting premium demand.Apple aims to leverage the success of the iPhone 17 into future products. On September 9, the company unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, along with its first foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo. Counterpoint Research anticipates that the ultra-premium foldable model will increase the average selling price (ASP) of iPhones and that the addition of more affordable models will support the next sales cycle.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-09-11 12:36:00