Tajikistan-led UN resolution establishes international peace through 2036 SEOUL, June 29 (AJP) - The U.N. General Assembly has adopted a resolution proclaiming 2027 - 2036 as the International Decade of Strengthening of Peace for Future Generations, following an initiative introduced by Tajikistan, the country's embassy in Seoul said Monday. The resolution, adopted on June 25, calls for greater international efforts to promote peace, dialogue and reconciliation while encouraging cooperation across generations to ensure that the interests of future g June 29, 2026

Stay-at-home fathers in South Korea hit record high in first quarter SEOUL, June 29 (AJP) - The number of South Korean men staying out of the workforce to care for preschool children or manage household duties climbed to a record high in the first quarter, while the number of women doing the same fell to the lowest level since comparable data became available. According to data released Monday by Statistics Korea through the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS), 274,000 men were classified as economically inactive because of childcare or June 29, 2026

Young South Korean Ph.D.s face record employment crisis SEOUL, June 29 (AJP) - More than one-third of South Korea's newly minted Ph.D. graduates were without jobs last year, with the share of unemployed or economically inactive doctorate holders exceeding 30 percent for the first time since the government began compiling the data, according to a government survey released Monday. The survey also showed that more than half of doctorate recipients under age 30 were jobless, underscoring worsening employment prospects even among the c June 29, 2026

Hyundai, Kia win Cannes Lions bronze for child safety technology campaign SEOUL, June 29 (AJP) - Hyundai Motor and Kia won a bronze award at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for a campaign using vehicle safety technology to protect children near school buses, the companies said Sunday. The campaign, titled "Vision Pulse," received bronze in the Design: Use of Emerging Technology category. Cannes Lions, held annually in Cannes, France, is one of the world's leading advertising and creative industry festivals. This ye June 29, 2026

Tungsten race puts Kazakhstan between US and China SEOUL, June 29 (AJP) - Last November, at a summit in Washington where President Donald Trump hosted the leaders of all five Central Asian nations, the United States signed a deal giving an American company development rights to what independent feasibility studies describe as the world's largest known undeveloped tungsten resource. The host country was Kazakhstan. The metal was tungsten. The company is Kaz Resources, a newly formed American firm backed by up to $1.6 billion in June 29, 2026

S. Korean military cites analysis for delayed disclosure of N. Korean launches SEOUL, June 29 (AJP) - South Korea’s military said Monday that it did not immediately disclose North Korea’s June 25 weapons launches because it was still analyzing the projectiles, responding to criticism over why the public was not informed on the day of the test. The South Korean and U.S. militaries detected and tracked multiple projectiles in real time between 7:27 a.m. and 8:20 a.m. on June 25 and closely coordinated against any possible contingencies, the Defense M June 29, 2026

Lee's approval rating remains below 50% for another week SEOUL, June 29 (AJP) - President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating has stayed below 50 percent for another week, extending its decline for six consecutive weeks. In a survey of more than 2,500 adults nationwide conducted by pollster Realmeter last week and released on Monday, 46.5 percent of respondents said Lee was doing well, down 0.2 percentage points from the previous week. About 49.5 percent disapproved of Lee's performance, also down 0.2 percentage points, but still June 29, 2026

Young Koreans take their revote campaign to university district SEOUL, June 29 (AJP) -Young South Koreans demanding an investigation into the June 3 presidential election over ballot shortages have shifted their protest to Seoul's university district as the movement's original rally site in Jamsil has increasingly come to be dominated by hard-line conservative activists. The steady beat of drums drew curious glances from pedestrians in Hongdae on Saturday as hundreds of young demonstrators marched through one of Seoul's busiest com June 29, 2026

KOSDAQ nearly 7% higher ahead of major infrastructure spending SEOUL, June 29 (AJP) -South Korea's junior KOSDAQ index stole the limelight amid broad retreat in Asia, gaining more than 6 percent Monday morning on expectations of the government's unveiling of mega industrial projects led by Samsung Electronics and SK Group expected to announce private-sector investments that could exceed 1 quadrillion won over the next decade. President Lee Jae Myung is set to chair a national briefing later in the day outlining the projects, which c June 29, 2026

K-AI models take root from broadcasting to public administration SEOUL, June 29 (AJP) - South Korean firms are widening the reach of homegrown artificial intelligence, deploying domestically built models across sectors including television production, government work, and chip-powered sovereign computing. The Ministry of Science and ICT disclosed Monday a series of field cases showing how the country's so-called 'K-AI' models, developed under a state-backed sovereign AI drive, are moving from the lab into everyday industrial and publi June 29, 2026