'Teach You a Lesson' Holds No. 1 on Netflix's Non-English Chart for 4th week SEOUL, July 01 (AJP) - "Teach You a Lesson" remained the No. 1 non-English TV show on Netflix's global charts this week, marking its fourth consecutive week atop the ranking as Korean titles continued to dominate the platform's non-English lists. The series, which follows a fictional agency that intervenes in schools to protect teachers' rights and restore order, made the Top 10 in 75 countries, including markets in Asia and Europe. Several other Korean ti July 1, 2026

NiziU releases first Japanese greatest hits album 'Portfolio' SEOUL, July 01 (AJP) - NiziU released its first Japanese greatest hits album, "Portfolio," at midnight Wednesday, the group's agency JYP Entertainment said Wednesday. The release came with a 2026 version of the music video for "Make You Happy," the group's pre-debut single. NiziU is a nine-member Japanese girl group formed through a joint project between JYP Entertainment and Sony Music. The 29-track compilation traces the group's activities s July 1, 2026

Hyundai Motor pledges $1 million in aid for Venezuela earthquake victims SEOUL, July 1 (AJP) - Hyundai Motor Group will donate US$1 million in relief aid to Venezuela, where powerful earthquakes and aftershocks have caused heavy damage, the automaker said on Wednesday. The donation will be delivered through humanitarian organization Korean Red Cross and used for disaster relief, recovery efforts and other emergency assistance. "We extend our condolences to Venezuelans affected by the sudden quakes and hope the support will help speed recovery,&qu July 1, 2026

South Korea denies reports of order to scrap chipmakers' bonus schemes SEOUL, July 01 (AJP) - South Korea's labor and industry ministries on Wednesday denied online reports claiming the government had instructed Samsung Electronics and SK hynix to scrap existing employee bonus agreements as part of a proposed semiconductor profit-sharing scheme. The Ministry of Employment and Labor described the reports as "completely groundless" and said it had never sent an official document to either company regarding changes to their performance-bas July 1, 2026

Korea's startup contest turns dream into data leak nightmare SEOUL, July 01 (AJP) - Government startup competitions usually demand polished business plans, lengthy resumes and years of preparation. This one asked for none of that. Ideas were enough. Anyone with an entrepreneurial dream was welcome. That openness was exactly what caught the attention of 23-year-old Choi Yeon-ju when she spotted a recruitment notice on Everytime, the campus community app popular among South Korean university students. She signed up hoping to turn her idea July 1, 2026

KOSPI opens lower as foreign selling hits chipmakers SEOUL, July 1 (AJP) - South Korea's benchmark KOSPI opened lower on Wednesday despite strong overnight gains in U.S. tech stocks, as foreign investors shrugged off a global semiconductor rally. With less than a couple of hours of trading, the index fell 1.62 percent to 8,339.34, while the junior KOSDAQ rose 2.84 percent to 942.21. The sluggish start came despite a strong performance on Wall Street overnight, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index surging 3.92 percent, whil July 1, 2026

Stock mania makes gamblers out of Korean retail investors SEOUL, July 01 (AJP) — Tech-savvy and risk-taking South Koreans are learning fast on exotic bets, turning from sluggish cryptocurrency trading to highly leveraged equity investments. An expanding army of mom-and-pop investors is pouring billions of dollars into high-risk leveraged products on offshore cryptocurrency exchange Binance, where they can place bets of up to 150 times on the KOSPI through products banned at home. According to crypto industry sources, Binance beg July 1, 2026

Mocking Gwangju is no child's play, baseball aspirants learn SEOUL, July 01 (AJP) - "A man is responsible for his ignorance," Milan Kundera once wrote. Young Koreans are now learning that lesson the hard way. Just last week, Starbucks Korea was forced to close stores early nationwide for employee history lessons, absorbing an estimated 2 billion won ($12.8 million) in losses after a promotional campaign on May 18 sparked outrage in Gwangju. Its "Tank Day" promotion of 5/18 tumbler sparked social outrage for its painf July 1, 2026

KAIST AI reads mouse gestures as language SEOUL, July 01 (AJP) - A research team at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has built an artificial intelligence model that treats an animal's body movements the way a language model treats words, and the system used that approach to find, entirely on its own, the core social deficit in a mouse model of autism. The result points toward a new class of AI tool for brain research, one whose reasoning scientists can actually inspect rather than take on faith. July 1, 2026

Collaborative single by three K-pop acts stays on Billboard Hot 100 for another week SEOUL, July 1 (AJP) - "Iconic By Mistake," a collaborative single by K-pop girl groups LE SSERAFIM, ILLIT and KATSEYE, remained on Billboard's Hot 100 chart for a second straight week. According to the latest American music chart released on Monday, the song ranked No. 43 on the main singles chart for the week ending Saturday, after making its entry at No. 38 last week. Earlier, the song was also included in Spotify's weekly top songs charts in 46 countries July 1, 2026