South Korea happy to stay the laggard in self-driving race in Asia SEOUL, May 21 (AJP) - The self-driving race on Asian roads is heating up, but South Korea is in no hurry as it bets safety-first approach will take it farther at the end of the day. China is rapidly scaling up commercial robotaxi fleets while Japan has unlocked Level 4 services on public roads. Modest in comparison, Hyundai Motor Group is launching a citywide testbed in Gwangju to close the gap with overseas rivals. Speaking to reporters last week at the group’s headquart May 21, 2026

AJP Focus: Samsung's bonus war and the price of AI prosperity "Money often costs too much." Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that line in the 19th century, but it reads today almost like a warning for the age of artificial intelligence. The real cost of the AI boom is no longer measured only in capital expenditures, GPU prices or trillion-dollar market valuations. It is increasingly measured in resentment, polarization, labor conflict and the quiet erosion of social cohesion — socially, politically, psychologically. South May 21, 2026

Subnautica 2 sells 4 million copies in five days after early access launch SEOUL, May 21 (AJP) - Subnautica 2, the underwater survival sequel developed by Krafton's creative studio Unknown Worlds Entertainment, has sold about 4 million copies worldwide within five days of its early access release on May 15. The title, built on Unreal Engine 5 and set on a new alien ocean planet, logged 1 million sales at launch before surging past 2 million within the first 12 hours. Peak concurrent players on Steam reached about 467,000, while average daily active use May 21, 2026

AJP Watch: Samsung closes pay gap with SK hynix in landmark semiconductor labor accord SEOUL, May 21 (AJP) -Samsung Electronics employees in its memory-chip division could receive performance bonuses of up to 600 million won ($440,000) this year under a landmark labor agreement that mirrors — and in some cases surpasses — rival SK hynix’s uncapped AI-era reward system that has transformed compensation expectations across Korea’s semiconductor industry. The provisional wage deal reached late Wednesday ties Samsung’s new special semiconduct May 21, 2026

Samsung Live: Strike suspended, union puts the agreement to vote until May 27 SUWON, May 20 (AJP) -Samsung Electronics narrowly avoided a closely watched 18-day general strike late Wednesday after marathon last-minute negotiations led by Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon produced a tentative wage agreement between management and the company’s largest labor union. The deal halted what could have become the biggest labor disruption in the history of the world’s largest memory chipmaker, which accounts for nearly 40 percent of the global DRAM market and May 20, 2026

Samsung Live: Samsung Union halts historic strike after eleventh-hour wage deal SEOUL, May 20 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics' largest labor union on Wednesday night suspended its planned full-scale strike, narrowly averting a historic walkout just an hour before it was scheduled to begin. The dramatic breakthrough came after management and union leadership reached a tentative agreement on the 2026 wage negotiations. "The general strike scheduled from May 21 to June 7 will be suspended until further notice," the union’s joint strike committ May 20, 2026

Korea, India discuss expanding arms cooperation in first defense talks in 7 years SEOUL, May 20 (AJP) - South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back discussed ways to expand defense and defense industry cooperation with his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh in Seoul on Wednesday, the Defense Ministry said. During the meeting at the ministry’s headquarters in Seoul, the two ministers agreed to further broaden cooperation in defense and arms industry fields, building on the “joint strategic vision” adopted at last month’s summit between the lea May 20, 2026

S. Korea pushes nuclear submarine plan, but fuel supply remains key hurdle SEOUL, May 20 (AJP) - South Korea’s long-running ambition to deploy nuclear-powered submarines has gained fresh momentum as Seoul and Washington move to implement security agreements reached at their latest summit, though securing nuclear fuel remains the project’s biggest obstacle. The challenge facing the program is no longer simply whether South Korea can build or acquire nuclear-powered submarines, but how it would fuel them. According to data submitted by the Min May 20, 2026

CJ Group seeks police probe over leak of female employees' personal data SEOUL, May 20 (AJP) - CJ Group filed a complaint with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency over the leak of personal information belonging to about 330 female employees via a Telegram channel, in the latest in a string of data security breaches rattling corporate Korea. The disclosed material the group revealed on Wednesday included mobile phone numbers, internal extensions, job titles and profile photographs, all of which matched current and former staff records, the company said. May 20, 2026

Samsung Live: Labor minister steps onto the mound to save talks and stop strike SEOUL, May 20 (AJP) -With a nationwide strike at Samsung Electronics just hours away, South Korean Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon on Wednesday personally stepped into wage negotiations after government-mediated arbitration collapsed, underscoring mounting fears in Seoul that a prolonged walkout could destabilize the semiconductor industry at the center of the global AI boom. The Ministry of Employment and Labor said Kim would directly oversee renewed talks between Samsung managemen May 20, 2026