news highlight

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  Hanwha Systems posts 219 percent jump in Q2 operating profit SEOUL, July 28 (AJP) - Hanwha Systems reported sharp growth in second-quarter earnings, driven by major defense export programs and domestic weapons production projects, the company said Tuesday. The defense electronics and ICT company posted 1.12 trillion won ($7.7 billion) in consolidated sales for the April-June period, up 45 percent from a year earlier. Operating profit surged 219 percent on-year to 103.7 billion won. Net profit rose 14 percent to 52.7 billion won. Hanwha July 28, 2026
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  Why Korea is turning to Brazil's C-390 as aging airlift fleet faces pressure SEOUL, July 28 (AJP) - South Korean President Lee Jae Myung wasted little time in Brazil tending to one of Seoul's key dense priorities. Upon arriving in Brasilia for a state visit, Lee headed straight to inspect a Brazilian-built C-390 Millennium military transport aircraft before holding summit talks with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The acquisition addresses two strategic objectives: replacing South Korea's aging tactical transport fleet while diversif July 28, 2026
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  Why South Korean women are drinking more while men cut back SEOUL, July 28 (AJP) — Grabbing a beer after work, unwinding with a glass of wine while watching Netflix or sharing a highball with friends has become a familiar scene in South Korean dramas. Increasingly, it is reflecting real life. Every evening, Kim Ji-hyun, a 45-year-old office worker in Ilsan, pours herself a glass of wine or mixes a highball before settling in with Netflix. Her husband sometimes joins her. "It's not that I drink because of stress," she July 28, 2026
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  How South Korea became Asia's AI ETF test case SEOUL, July 28 (AJP) — Not long ago, Nvidia was the trade that defined the artificial intelligence boom. Today, investors are searching for the next AI winner—and using increasingly leveraged financial products to amplify those bets. That search is reshaping not only Asia's semiconductor industry but also its capital markets. As investors crowd into a handful of AI champions, exchanges are racing to launch new products while regulators grapple with where to draw the July 28, 2026
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  China chip fears send KOSPI plunging over 10% SEOUL, July 28 (AJP) - China's growing push into semiconductors rattled South Korea's stock market on Tuesday. Shares of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix crashed, sparking panic across the market. The sell-off was severe enough to activate automatic trading halts on both the benchmark KOSPI and the junior KOSDAQ, including sidecars and circuit breakers designed to curb sharp market declines. The KOSPI tumbled 10.84 percent to 6,023.66, briefly falling below the 6,000-poin July 28, 2026
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  BLACKPINK's Jennie Breaks K-pop's U.S. Radio Barrier SEOUL, July 28 (AJP) - K-pop has long dominated U.S. streaming and album charts, but mainstream radio has remained one of the industry's toughest markets to crack. BLACKPINK's Jennie has now helped break that barrier, becoming only the second K-pop-related act to top Billboard's Adult Pop Airplay chart, Forbes reported Monday, citing Billboard data. Jennie's collaboration with Australian psychedelic music project Tame Impala, "Dracula," climbed to No. 1 o July 28, 2026
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  South Korea to secure more naphtha supplies despite stable inventories SEOUL, July 28 (AJP) - Naphtha supplies in South Korea are expected to remain stable through August despite renewed tensions in the Middle East, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources said on Tuesday. At an emergency meeting at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in central Seoul, government officials and industry representatives assessed supplies for naphtha and petrochemical products and discussed contingency measures. The meeting came amid growing concerns that July 28, 2026
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  CXMT rise signals a new kind of challenge to Korea's memory giants SEOUL, July 28 (AJP) - China's first publicly traded memory chipmaker hardly poses an immediate threat to Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and Micron Technology at the technological frontier. But ChangXin Memory Technologies' (CXMT) record-breaking stock market debut suggests something potentially more disruptive: Beijing's familiar playbook of localizing production, achieving scale and then moving up the technology ladder may finally be reaching the last major semi July 28, 2026
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  Foreign visitors' plastic spending in South Korea tops 10 trillion won in H1 SEOUL, July 28 (AJP) - Foreign tourists' credit card spending in South Korea topped 10 trillion won (US$6 billion) in the first half of this year, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said on Tuesday. According to the ministry, foreign visitors spent a cumulative 10.39 trillion won on plastic purchases during the first six months of this year, up 50.8 percent from 6.66 trillion won a year earlier, reaching the milestone about three months earlier than last year, when it w July 28, 2026