World Cup 26: Wave of red and faces of hope and disbelief SEOUL, June 19 (AJP) -— At Gwanghwamun Square, the familiar wave of Korean red was joined by a new shade of lavender purple — matching Team Korea's away uniform — and occasional splashes of daring Mexican green. Together, they painted an emotional portrait that shifted every few minutes. By late morning, all 11,000 prepared seats had been filled, forcing authorities to open nearby roads as more spectators poured into the square. Under June 19, 2026

Seoul seeks to reassure U.S. Congress over tighter OPCON oversight SEOUL, June 19 (AJP) - South Korea is actively explaining its wartime operational control transfer plan to the U.S. Congress after a Senate committee approved legislation that would strengthen congressional oversight of the process, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said Friday. A ministry official declined to directly assess legislation still under consideration in Washington but said South Korea and the United States were closely consulting on the transfer of wartime operational cont June 19, 2026

Shinsegae Duty Free launches K-Beauty exhibition in online upgrade SEOUL, June 19 (AJP) - Shinsegae Duty Free announced that it is continuing its K-beauty ingredient-focused curation exhibition in collaboration with the beauty platform Hwahae. The two companies have been co-hosting exhibitions that link Hwahae's beauty data with duty-free shopping demand since last year. The latest event, themed "What's in my pouch," focuses on ingredients and brands that are currently drawing high customer interest. Under the themes of trave June 19, 2026

Korean frenzy over SpaceX pours another $1 billion into stock SEOUL, June 19 (AJP) - South Korean retail investors can't get enough of SpaceX, pouring another $1 billion into the stock as money floods out of semiconductor plays and into Wall Street's hottest new trade. According to data from Korea Securities Depository as of Friday, Korean investors purchased a net $346.9 million worth of SpaceX shares on Monday alone, equivalent to about 528.8 billion won. Gross purchases reached $376.6 million, while selling totaled just $29.7 mil June 19, 2026

SK hynix showcases advanced AI memory portfolio at HPE Discover 2026 SEOUL, June 19 (AJP) - South Korean chipmaker SK hynix showcased its extensive lineup of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure memory products, including High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) and server DRAM, at the HPE Discover 2026 IT exhibition in the United States according to the company on Friday. Hosted annually by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), a U.S. firm specializing in hybrid cloud and data center servers, the global technology conference ran for four days from June 15 t June 19, 2026

Korea moves to break down data barriers for self-driving AI SEOUL, June 19 (AJP) - South Korea's science ministry has stepped in to ease a chronic data bottleneck holding back the development of self-driving artificial intelligence, issuing the country's first common standards for building and sharing autonomous-driving training data. The Ministry of Science and ICT said on Friday it had published a guideline and specification document allowing industry, academia and research institutes to jointly build and share training data for en June 19, 2026

Kookmin undergraduate publishes major robot vision paper SEOUL, June 19 (AJP) - Self-driving cars and robots must accurately understand their physical surroundings to operate safely, making the development of better spatial recognition systems a key focus in modern engineering. Addressing this need, an undergraduate student has led a research team to publish a new paper on artificial intelligence technology that helps machines see blocked objects, Kookmin University said Friday. Conventional visual systems for robots often fail to map a June 19, 2026

Seoul to release 21 million imported eggs as bird flu squeezes supply SEOUL, June 19 (AJP) - South Korea will channel about 21.12 million imported fresh eggs from the United States and Thailand into the market through next month, the agriculture ministry said, moving to ease a price surge that has strained household budgets. Starting Friday, 1.12 million U.S. eggs will reach shelves at major retailers including E-Mart and Lotte Mart. E-Mart will stock them at all outlets except those on Jeju Island, while Lotte Mart will sell them at 40 stores nationw June 19, 2026

Media giant JoongAng Ilbo defaults on 22 bln won SEOUL, June 19 (AJP) - South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo has suffered an initial default on 22 billion won in commercial paper after failing to meet a creditor's early repayment demand due to a lack of funds. The financial failure marks a shocking development in the local media industry, as JoongAng Ilbo stands as one of South Korea's most iconic and influential major media groups. The default publicly exposes the severity of an escalating liquidity crisis threatening t June 19, 2026

Pyongyang calls Russo-NK treaty legal weapon SEOUL, June 19 (AJP) - North Korea on Friday marked the second anniversary of its mutual defense treaty with Russia, hailing the pact as an essential legal weapon to reshape the global order. The declaration solidifies a permanent military alignment that directly threatens the security architecture of South Korea. The formalization of the alliance comes as Pyongyang completely shuns Seoul, having recently redefined South Korea as a permanently hostile enemy state rather than a par June 19, 2026