Teacher rights violations remain high despite recent decline SEOUL, September 04 (AJP) - South Korean education authorities reviewed more than 4,000 cases of alleged violations of teachers' rights last year, more than triple the level recorded five years earlier, data showed Friday. Teacher Rights Protection Committees reviewed 4,034 cases during the 2025 school year, about 3.4 times the 1,197 cases recorded in 2020, according to data published by the Korean Educational Development Institute. The number rose to 2,269 in 2021, 3,035 i September 4, 2026

KAIST method cuts 87 % of AI query errors and token costs SEOUL, September 04 (AJP) - When an artificial intelligence system writes a database query that will not run, the database that rejected it already knows what is wrong with it. Most systems treat that rejection as a plain failure signal and hand the whole query back to the AI to be written again from scratch. A team at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has built software that reads the rejection as a set of directions and repairs only the broken piece. Tested September 4, 2026

Yasukuni visit casts shadow over Seoul Defense Dialogue SEOUL, September 04 (AJP) - Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi is expected to skip next week's Seoul Defense Dialogue amid controversy over his visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, cooling a recent run of high-level defense exchanges between the two neighbors. Japan will instead send a vice-minister-level official to the 15th Seoul Defense Dialogue, an annual multilateral security forum hosted by South Korea's Ministry of National Defense from Sept. 7 to 9, as the minist September 4, 2026

Chip stocks rebound to support KOSPI SEOUL, September 04 (AJP) -Seoul stocks opened sharply higher Friday as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix pulled out of a two-session slide after remarks from a U.S. Federal Reserve governor cut market-implied odds of an American rate hike this month to roughly a coin flip. The KOSPI, the benchmark index of the Korea Exchange, rose 90.59 points, or 1.4 percent, to 6,670.07 in early trade, while the KOSDAQ, the secondary board for smaller and technology-heavy companies, gained 2.3 per September 4, 2026

Search continues for six missing sailors after tugboat capsizes off Busan SEOUL, September 4 (AJP) - Coastguards are still searching for six sailors who went missing after a tugboat capsized off the coast of Busan, but strong winds and worsening weather are hampering the rescue operation, officials said on Friday. The 286-ton tugboat, carrying eight crew members including two Indonesians, capsized in waters about 9 kilometers southeast of Oryukdo islets at around 1:30 p.m. last Wednesday and sank completely about two hours later. One Indonesian crew September 4, 2026

Seoul readies possible Hormuz deployment: report SEOUL, September 04 (AJP) - South Korea under repeated pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump for military contribution to the U.S. operations in the Strait of Hormuz, is making concrete preparations to deploy naval assets including P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, an explosive ordnance disposal team and a logistics support ship to the Persian Gulf, a report said. The Defense Ministry spokesperson, however, denied the report Friday, saying it was "not true" and September 4, 2026

KOSPI loses cash and conviction SEOUL, September 03 (AJP) -The KOSPI's summer hangover has followed it into September. Money is leaving South Korea's stock market, retail investors are nursing losses and foreign funds remain hesitant. Increasingly, the buyers keeping the market afloat are the companies themselves. The benchmark KOSPI managed a 0.26 percent gain Thursday to 6,579.48 despite net selling by all three major investor groups. Retail investors sold 955 billion won, foreigners 419.5 billion won September 3, 2026

At Kiaf and Frieze, Seoul's art crowds come before the buyers SEOUL, September 03 (AJP) - Kiaf Seoul, Korea's flagship art fair, has plenty to celebrate in its 25th edition. On Thursday morning, its audience looked ready for the occasion. Minutes before the 11 a.m. opening, VIP guests were already gathered inside COEX. The dress was polished rather than extravagant: neat jackets, muted colors, the practiced restraint of an art-fair crowd. Then the doors opened and the phones came out. Visitors paused before paintings, stepped back September 3, 2026

Seoul joins global arms race with record defense spending SEOUL, September 03 (AJP) - South Korea is joining a global rearmament push by packaging the largest military spending increase in nearly two decades against widening geopolitical conflict, changing warfare and U.S. pressure on allies to shoulder more of their own defense The government has proposed a record 73.28 trillion won ($54.0 billion) defense budget for 2027, up 8.2 percent from this year, with much of the additional money directed toward missile defense, drones, artificial September 3, 2026

Korea weighs asking chipmakers to prepay power for AI build-out SEOUL, September 03 (AJP) - South Korean memory makers envisioning an expansive build-out under government's ambitious push to turn the country into a chip republic involves more than billions of dollars for construction and purchases of land and equipment as chip facilities rely on seamless power and water supplies to keep the fab running 24/7. Under unprecedented government eagerness to the chip expansion to add chip facilities in Yongin as well as Honam region, southern par September 3, 2026