AI Summit Seoul & Expo 2026 returns this month SEOUL, August 05 (AJP) - South Korea's largest AI-focused exhibition and conference will return to Seoul later this month with a larger show floor and a sharper focus on how companies are putting artificial intelligence to work across industries, COEX said Wednesday. AI Summit Seoul & Expo 2026, or AISE 2026, will run from Aug. 19 to 21 at COEX in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul, jointly organized by COEX, DMK Global and the Korea International Trade Association (KITA). T August 5, 2026

Korean scam ring shifts to Central Asia on SE Asia crackdown SEOUL, August 05 (AJP) -South Korean fraud rings are spreading from Southeast Asia into Central Asia to stay ahead of law enforcement, with authorities dismantling their first known Korean-run scam operation in Kazakhstan and bringing home 14 suspects. The arrests underscore what South Korean police called a "secondary balloon effect," in which criminal organizations relocate to increasingly distant countries as crackdowns close traditional operating bases across Southeast August 5, 2026

New association formed to tackle challenges amid growing AI use in filmmaking SEOUL, August 5 (AJP) - A new association has been launched to help establish standards for the growing use of generative artificial Intelligence (AI) in filmmaking including scriptwriting, image creation, video production, voice generation and post-production. At its inaugural meeting in Seoul last month, the non-profit Korea Association of AI Film Directors (KAIFD) said it was established to support directors and video creators using AI, as concerns over copyright, consent, credit August 5, 2026

Korea's battery makers find ESS gold rush at home SEOUL, August 05 (AJP) - In a high-profile display, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, flanked by chip titans Lee Jae-yong of Samsung Electronics and Chey Tae-won of SK Group, unveiled a nearly $1 trillion vision to transform the country from the world's high-tech factory into an AI factory. That ambition extends far beyond semiconductors. Every AI factory — from chip fabrication plants and advanced packaging facilities to hyperscale data centers and AI inference cluste August 5, 2026

Boy band NEXZ's new album teased ahead of release later this month SEOUL, August 5 (AJP) - K-pop boy group NEXZ will release their fourth mini album later this month, returning four months after their single released last spring, their agency JYP Entertainment said on Wednesday. "SAUCIN'," set for release on Aug. 24, combines "sauce" with the suffix "-ing," reflecting the group's idea of bringing their own flavor and style wherever they go. The members then move through the arcade with their own s August 5, 2026

Bad loans at Korea's top banks hit 7-year high SEOUL, August 05 (AJP) -South Korea's five largest banks saw bad loans climb to a seven-year high in the second quarter, driven overwhelmingly by deteriorating corporate credit quality as stress spread across lenders' balance sheets. Loans classified as "estimated loss" — the weakest asset-quality grade and the portion banks consider effectively unrecoverable after accounting for collateral and expected recoveries — totaled 1.21 trillion won ($849 milli August 5, 2026

FSC pushes back on Bloomberg's 'uninvestable' claim SEOUL, August 05 (AJP) — South Korea's financial regulator has rejected a Bloomberg column that described the country as becoming "uninvestable," saying the assessment relied on inaccurate data and overlooked the country's economic fundamentals. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) in a statement released late Tuesday said there was no basis for concerns that South Korea could be regarded as an uninvestable market, saying the country has emerged as an ir August 5, 2026

Tesla dominates imported car market as monthly sales surpass 10,000 vehicles SEOUL, August 5 (AJP) - Sales of imported cars in South Korea exceeded 30,000 units again last month, with Tesla taking the top spot after its monthly sales surpassed 10,000 vehicles, according to data released on Wednesday by the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association. The number of newly registered imported passenger cars totaled 30,976 in July, up 14.3 percent from a year earlier but down 18.6 percent from 38,059 in the previous month, with the association at August 5, 2026

Korea eyes July 2027 start for Honam chip cluster utilities SEOUL, August 05 (AJP) - South Korea aims to break ground in July 2027 on the electricity and water supply facilities that will underpin its planned semiconductor cluster in the Honam region, the government said, as the timeline for the flagship project takes firmer shape. The government intends to select a project operator and formally designate the cluster site — a stretch of land around the Gwangju military airfield — before the end of this year, officials said Wednes August 5, 2026

Samsung and SK hynix CEOs face criminal complains over bonus SEOUL, August 05 (AJP) -The chief executives of South Korea's two dominant memory chipmakers are facing criminal complaints after a shareholder activist group accused them of breaching their fiduciary duties by agreeing to AI-era performance bonus schemes that could pay chip-related workers hundreds of millions of won. The Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency has assigned the complaints against Samsung Electronics co-CEOs Jun Young-hyun and Roh Tae-moon, and SK hynix Chief E August 5, 2026