Korea's AI committee pledges results as budget nearly doubles SEOUL, September 08 (AJP) - South Korea's presidential artificial intelligence committee marked its first anniversary with a pledge to turn a year of policy blueprints into gains that businesses and households can feel, a week after the government proposed nearly doubling AI spending. "Global AI competition is spreading beyond technology development into an all-out national contest that decides industry, security and growth," said Ha Jung-woo, standing vice chair of th September 8, 2026

Will Korea's most-loved game StarCraft become a K-game? SEOUL, September 08 (AJP) - South Korean game publisher Nexon is moving to bring the iconic StarCraft franchise under its arm through a licensing deal with Blizzard Entertainment, aiming to roll out the first new mainline installment of the battle game loved for nearly three decades in 16 years. The Chosun Ilbo reported that the deal was "on the verge of being finalized," after which Nexon would hold development rights to a successor to the existing series. "We can September 8, 2026

Korea opens first industrial insect protein complex SEOUL, September 08 (AJP) - South Korea opened its first industrial-scale insect complex in Chuncheon, a 20 billion won ($14.85 million) facility built to produce up to 1,000 tons of mealworms a year for food and pharmaceutical buyers. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said Tuesday the site in Gangwon Province covers 23,815 square meters and is anchored by a smart factory farm where artificial intelligence and robots watch the larvae and adjust temperature, humidit September 8, 2026

HMM lands $3.5 billion long-term shipping contract with Vale SEOUL, September 08 (AJP) - HMM has signed a 4.7 trillion won ($3.5 billion) long-term shipping contract with Brazilian mining giant Vale, locking in cargo for eight new bulk carriers for 25 years as South Korea's largest container shipper expands stable earnings outside its mainstay container business. The agreement is HMM's third major long-term contract with Vale following two 10-year deals signed in May and September last year worth a combined 1.07 trillion won, the So September 8, 2026

Hyundai Motor to expand future mobility education program to France SEOUL, September 8 (AJP) - Hyundai Motor will launch its educational initiative in France for the first time in Europe, the automaker said Tuesday, as part of its efforts to help young people learn about emerging mobility technologies and changes in the automotive industry. It signed an agreement with the Korean Education Center in Paris the previous day to launch its "future mobility school (FMS)" program. The program, which helps teenagers learn about the latest a September 8, 2026

Samsung board faces breach-of-trust complaint SEOUL, September 08 (AJP) - A shareholder group said it will file an additional criminal complaint against Samsung Electronics' entire board and executives of a company labor union over performance bonuses, widening a legal dispute over the chipmaker's profit-linked compensation scheme. The Korea Shareholders Alliance said it plans to submit the complaint to the National Office of Investigation on Wednesday at 10 a.m. outside the agency's headquarters in Seoul. The September 8, 2026

Seoul picks three operators for autonomous taxi platform SEOUL, September 07 (AJP) - Seoul has selected Kakao Mobility, Hyundai Motor and T-money Mobility to operate private platforms for autonomous vehicle transport services, shifting the city's robotaxi system from a single-app model to a three-way platform structure. The move is expected to end Kakao Mobility's two-year run as the sole platform operator for Seoul's autonomous taxi calling service. Under the city's recruitment notice, selected operators will be allowe September 7, 2026

One year in, Korea's humanoid still toddles SEOUL, September 07 (AJP) - KAIROS showed off its dancing skills to a national calisthenics tune on a Seoul stage Monday, but to an audience accustomed to somersaulting and kung fu-performing Chinese humanoids, its wobbly movements and seemingly glued feet hardly drew genuine applause. The performance offered a candid look at how far South Korea has come — and how far it still has to go — little more than a year into a state-backed effort to close the humanoid gap with C September 7, 2026

Astra ups heat in Samsung-SK hynix HBM4E 1c showdown SEOUL, September 07 (AJP) - "AGI has arrived,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang declared as he congratulated OpenAI on the release of GPT-6 Astra, which the ChatGPT creator calls its most intelligent and aligned model yet. AGI stands for artificial general intelligence, a loosely defined concept generally referring to AI capable of performing intellectual tasks across a broad range of domains at or beyond human levels. Whether Astra has actually crossed that threshold remains di September 7, 2026

Robotics may be the destination for Louisiana steel mill SEOUL, September 07 (AJP) - The $5.8 billion Louisiana mill backed by South Korea's two biggest steelmakers is designed primarily to feed America's auto industry, but its largest customer and investor Hyundai Motor Group has a deeper ambition for the metal — robotics. Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun said Sept. 4 that steel from Hyundai-POSCO Louisiana Steel (HPLS) should eventually find its way into Atlas, the humanoid robot being developed by group-owned Bo September 7, 2026