KOSPI positive on U.S. concessions, other Asian markets await Trump–Xi meeting SEOUL, October 30 (AJP) - South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI extended gains early Thursday after Seoul and Washington reached a long-awaited tariff agreement, removing a key bilateral sticking point ahead of a high-stakes U.S.–China summit later in the day, while other Asian markets were on hold as investors awaited direction on broader geopolitical tensions. The KOSPI climbed 0.3 percent to 4,090 as of 10:30 a.m., following confirmation that President Lee Jae Myung and U.S October 30, 2025

Data breach drives SK Telecom to first quarterly loss in decades SEOUL, October 30 (AJP) - South Korea’s largest mobile carrier, SK Telecom, reported a steep decline in profit and a swing to a net loss in the third quarter on Thursday, as the fallout from one of the country’s largest personal data breaches continued to batter its business and reputation. The net loss ended the company's streak of consecutive quarterly profits that had continued since 2000. The company said its consolidated operating profit plunged 90.9 percen October 30, 2025

UPDATE: Samsung Elec Q3 memory OP stronger than expected at $5 bn, upbeat on Q4 (Updated with conference call comments) SEOUL, October 30 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics’ chip division staged a decisive turnaround in the July–September quarter, with profit from its core memory operation jumping to 7 trillion won ($4.9 billion) — nearly 18 times from the last quarter — on the back of record memory revenue fueled by high-value server demand. Memory sales climbed 26 percent on quarter and 20 percent on year to a fresh quarterly high of 26.7 October 30, 2025

S. Korean economists see signs of rebound, but growth momentum remains fragile SEOUL, October 29 (AJP) - South Korea’s economy is showing clearer signs of recovery, led by rebounding semiconductor exports and stronger outbound shipments, suggesting that the country may have passed the bottom of the current downturn. According to preliminary data released by the Bank of Korea on Monday, real gross domestic product (GDP) grew 1.2% in the third quarter from the previous quarter, beating market expectations of 1.0%. It marked the fastest quarterly expansi October 29, 2025

Korea's young pharma breed Samsung Biologics and Celltrion bulk up as bottom line holds SEOUL, October 29 (AJP) - Korea's relatively young pharma heavyweights Samsung Biologics and Celltrion are outgrowing their older peers at home and abroad through aggressive and unconventional expansion. Samsung Biologics, founded in 2011, has scaled up relentlessly and now ranks No. 3 in the global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) market. Within its second Bio Campus in Songdo, Incheon, the Samsung Group unit plans to complete Plants 6 to 8 by 2032, October 29, 2025

Why HBM defines the AI race and seats SK hynix in the lead SEOUL, October 29 (AJP) - DRAM has long been the dependable workhorse of computing — a flat, two-dimensional structure built to read and write data one cycle at a time. It remains essential for general-purpose CPUs, but its architecture is now running into hard physical limits as artificial intelligence demands exponentially higher data throughput. High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) upends that classical design. Instead of laying chips out side-by-side, HBM stacks multiple DRAM layers October 29, 2025

HOT STOCK: Power equipment stocks rally on Saudi contract, US nuclear cooperation hopes SEOUL, October 29 (AJP) - Shares of South Korean electrical-equipment makers, particularly transformer manufacturers, climbed sharply on Wednesday after a consortium led by Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) was named the preferred bidder for a major wind power project in Saudi Arabia — a decision that investors saw as a boost for Korean exports in the energy-infrastructure sector. Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy announced Tuesday that the KEPCO consortium had October 29, 2025

APEC CEO Summit opens in Gyeongju with focus on AI, regional cooperation GYEONGJU, October 29 (AJP) - The CEO Summit as part of as part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit kicked off on Wednesday in South Korea's southeastern city of Gyeongju, drawing top business leaders and political figures from across the Asia-Pacific region to discuss artificial intelligence (AI), digital transformation and sustainable growth. President Lee Jae Myung delivered the opening address at the Gyeongju Arts Center, emphasizing the summit's themes October 29, 2025

Asian markets mixed as investors await Trump-Xi meeting SEOUL, October 29 (AJP) - Major Asian stock markets closed with mixed results on Wednesday, as investors weighed optimism over technology earnings against caution ahead of a high-stakes meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. In South Korea, the benchmark KOSPI index rose 2 percent to close at 3,921.52, led by gains in semiconductor giants Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. Both extended their recent rally amid renewed hopes that Washington mig October 29, 2025

French quantum computing firm Pascal to establish research center in Seoul SEOUL, October 29 (AJP) - The Seoul Metropolitan Government said on Wednesday that it had secured a major investment from Pascal, a leading French quantum computing company. Under a memorandum of understanding signed this week, Pascal plans to invest $52.8 million to establish a quantum computing research and development center in Seoul, a project expected to create 51 jobs. The two sides will also collaborate on talent development and support programs for startups and companies October 29, 2025