President Lee Jae Myung meets Bill Gates, discusses SMR and global health cooperation

SEOUL, August 21 (AJP) - South Korean President Lee Jae Myung met with Bill Gates, Chair of the Gates Foundation and co-founder of Microsoft, at the presidential office near central Seoul on Thursday. Lee and Gates' conversation focused on collaboration in global public health, next-generation nuclear energy, and South Korea’s role in emerging industries. Gates, visiting South Korea for the first time in three years, opened the meeting by wishing President Lee well in hi

August 21, 2025

[K-Defense] South Korea moves to develop its own electronic warfare aircraft

SEOUL, August 21 (AJP) - South Korea has taken its first steps toward building a domestically produced electronic warfare aircraft, issuing a $1.38 billion tender that would place the country in a select club of nations able to jam and disable enemy radar systems. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration, South Korea’s arms procurement agency, set up the plan last month under the title “Electronic Warfare Aircraft (Block-I) System Development Project,” acco

August 21, 2025

Korean firms shift supply chains to Southeast Asia amid US-China tensions

SEOUL, August 21 (AJP) - South Korean manufacturers are deepening their presence in Southeast Asia, building factories and export hubs in Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam as they seek to reduce dependence on China and navigate shifting global trade rules. The push reflects both rising geopolitical risks and the draw of lower labor costs in a region that has emerged as one of the world’s most attractive alternatives to Chinese manufacturing. Southeast Asian governments are co

August 21, 2025

[K-Beauty] Korean cosmetics manufacturer Cosmax to set up India subsidiary

SEOUL, August 21 (AJP) - Cosmax, the world’s largest cosmetics manufacturer, said it will establish a subsidiary in Mumbai, India, by the end of 2025, underscoring the company’s ambitions to make India a key pillar of its next stage of global expansion. The South Korean company, a leading provider of original design manufacturing (ODM) services for international brands, outlined the plan during an investor relations meeting in Seoul on Wednesday. Founder and Chairman L

August 21, 2025

South Korea's costly nuclear deal with Westinghouse traces back to 50-year dependency

SEOUL, August 20 (AJP) - South Korea’s fraught nuclear agreement with Westinghouse Electric of the United States, derided by critics as a “50-year slave contract,” is the culmination of a technological dependency that dates back to the earliest days of the country’s atomic energy program. In the 1970s, South Korea built its nuclear ambitions on American blueprints. The nation’s first reactors were based on designs from Combustion Engineering, a U.S. c

August 21, 2025

[K-Tech] Krafton brings real-time AI to its virtual world at Gamescom 2025

SEOUL, August 21 (AJP) - Krafton, the South Korean publisher behind PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, is betting that artificial intelligence will change the way people play life simulation games. At Gamescom 2025, taking place in Cologne, Germany, the company unveiled plans to weave real-time AI into inZOI, its early-access simulation title, enabling players to converse naturally with digital characters and receive lifelike emotional responses. “After listening to our

August 21, 2025

[K-Tech] From 'Lineage' to AI: How NCSOFT is reinventing itself for new gaming era

Editor's Note: This article is the 32nd installment in our series on Asia's top 100 companies, exploring the strategies, challenges, and innovations driving the region's most influential corporations. SEOUL, August 21 (AJP) - In the late 1990s, when South Korea’s internet cafes were still filled with teenagers battling each other in primitive shooting games, a young software engineer, Kim Taek-jin, was quietly building something different. Kim, who had helped

August 21, 2025

Ex-first lady's detention period extended to late this month

SEOUL, August 20 (AJP) - Independent prosecutors investigating multiple allegations involving former first lady Kim Keon Hee can now hold her longer, as her detention period has been extended until the end of this month. In a press statement on Wednesday, prosecutors said the Seoul Central District Court had extended her detention for another 10 days until Aug. 31, as her detention period was set to expire this week. Kim has been detained at a remand prison in southern Seoul sinc

August 20, 2025

[K-Culture] Action-hero TV series 'Twelve' to premiere this Saturday

SEOUL, August 20 (AJP) - The cast and crew of “Twelve,” a new action-hero series produced in part by the actor Ma Dong-seok, gathered for a news conference Wednesday in Seoul. The event, held at the Ambassador Seoul Pullman Hotel, was attended by Ma, along with co-stars Park Hyung-sik, Seo In-guk, Lee Joo-been, Kang Mi-na, Sung Yu-been, Ahn Ji-hye, and Regina Lei. The show's directors, Kang Dae-kyu and Han Yun-seon, were also present. Inspired by the Eastern zod

August 20, 2025

Nonagenarian ex-North Korean soldier attempts to return home after decades in South Korea

SEOUL, August 20 (AJP) - A handful of surviving former North Korean soldiers have recently expressed their willingness to return to the North, with one of them attempting to cross the border in Paju, Gyeonggi Province on Wednesday. The Unification Ministry here said earlier this week that six former North Korean soldiers have recently requested repatriation. Now in their 80s and 90s, they spent decades in prisons here after refusing to abandon communist ideologies and pledge their a

August 20, 2025