KOSPI rebounds 5.8 percent on chip rally SEOUL, July 03 (AJP) - South Korean stocks staged their sharpest rebound of the year on Friday, as institutional buying and a fresh artificial intelligence catalyst for Samsung Electronics erased most of the previous session's rout in a single day. The benchmark KOSPI surged 5.8 percent to close at 8,088.3. The index added 440.3 points, recovering the bulk of Thursday's 7.9 percent plunge, as a report that Anthropic is in talks with Samsung Electronics to manufacture a cu July 3, 2026

China clears Unitree's $618 million Shanghai IPO in record time SEOUL, July 03 (AJP) - China's securities regulator has approved humanoid robot maker Unitree Robotics' initial public offering on Shanghai's STAR Market, clearing the company's final regulatory hurdle less than four months after it filed. The China Securities Regulatory Commission announced the approval on its website on Friday, according to industry sources. The clearance hands Unitree its "admission ticket" to become the first embodied AI company to list July 3, 2026

KAIST develops airflow tech for future EVs SEOUL, July 03 (AJP) - A research team at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has built a system that adjusts the flow of air around an electric vehicle in real time, adapting to how the car is being driven to improve speed, braking and cornering. The work, developed with support from Hyundai Motor Company, won the top student paper prize at one of the world's leading conferences on intelligent vehicles, a result that signals South Korea's growing reach in July 3, 2026

BOYNEXTDOOR's 'VIRAL' enters Melon monthly chart as Busan shows sell out SEOUL, July 03 (AJP) - K-pop boy group BOYNEXTDOOR's latest single "VIRAL" entered Melon's monthly chart for June, while tickets for the group's upcoming Busan concerts sold out, the group's agency KOZ Entertainment said Friday. VIRAL, the lead track from BOYNEXTDOOR's first full-length album "HOME," ranked No. 80 on Melon's June monthly chart released Tuesday. According to the agency, it was the only song released in June to enter the m July 3, 2026

Stock investing in Korea now means buying Samsung and SK hynix SEOUL, July 03 (AJP) — The hotter South Korea's stock market becomes, the narrower it grows. Investing in Korean equities is now synonymous with owning Samsung Electronics or SK hynix. "People don't ask whether you own stocks anymore. They ask whether you own Samjeonnix," insurance planner Lee Min-joo said, referring to the Korean investor shorthand combining Samjeon (Samsung Electronics) and SK hynix. "Those two stocks dominate almost every conversati July 3, 2026

Canada-led global defense bank may include South Korea SEOUL, July 03 (AJP) - Canada plans to announce a group of about 10 countries expected to join a proposed global defense bank at next week’s NATO summit in Türkiye, with South Korea among the potential members, Reuters reported Thursday. Isabelle Hudon, chief executive of the Business Development Bank of Canada and Canada’s lead negotiator for the initiative, said Ottawa was working toward unveiling the founding members of the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank, July 3, 2026

Court terminates Homeplus rehabilitation bid SEOUL, July 03 (AJP) - The Seoul Bankruptcy Court terminated the corporate rehabilitation proceedings of Homeplus on Friday, putting South Korea's second-largest retail chain on a path toward bankruptcy unless a buyer steps forward in the coming weeks. Rehabilitation Division 4 of the court, headed by Jung Jun-young, president of the Seoul Bankruptcy Court, who presided over the case, ruled that the revised restructuring plan Homeplus submitted on June 30 was unlikely to succe July 3, 2026

G-Dragon named ambassador for UNESCO World Heritage Committee SEOUL, July 03 (AJP) - G-Dragon of K-pop boy band BIGBANG has been named promotional ambassador for the 48th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, set to open in Busan on July 19, Korea Heritage Service said Friday. It will be the first time Korea has hosted a session of the UNESCO body, which reviews the conservation of World Heritage sites and decides on additions to the World Heritage List. Ahead of the session, the JUSPEACE Foundation, founded by G-Dragon, will July 3, 2026

Korea's chip republic meets the law of semiconductor cycles SEOUL, July 03 (AJP) -The market has finally started asking the uncomfortable question. For the last 18 months, investors treated AI memory as a one-way trade. High-bandwidth memory (HBM) shortages, exploding AI server demand and the near-duopoly of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix turned South Korea into the center of the global AI hardware story. After Seoul unveiled a string of government-backed semiconductor mega projects swelling above $1 trillion across Yongin, Honam and July 3, 2026

Lee's approval rating rebounds to 54% SEOUL, July 3 (AJP) - President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating has rebounded in about three weeks. In a survey of about 1,005 adults nationwide conducted by pollster Gallup Korea earlier in the week, 54 percent of respondents said Lee is doing well, up 3 percentage points from the previous poll in the second week of last month. About 36 percent disapproved of his performance, while 10 percent remained undecided. Among Lee's supporters, the most-cited reason was &q July 3, 2026