Pyongyang unveils new weapons, warns Seoul and Washington at military exhibition

SEOUL, October 05 (AJP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his country will continue to strengthen its military capabilities to counter what he called growing threats from the United States and South Korea, as he opened a major military hardware exhibition in Pyongyang showcasing new missile systems, including what appears to be a hypersonic variant of the KN-23. The exhibition, titled "Defence Development-2025," opened in the North Korean capital on October 4 to mar

October 5, 2025

Government restores 132 systems after Daejeon data center fire, mobile ID service back online

SEOUL, October 05 (AJP) - Ten days after a massive fire crippled South Korea's main government data network, 132 of the 647 affected information systems have been restored, including 22 top-priority platforms, according to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters on October 5, 2025. As of 6 a.m. Sunday, the overall recovery rate stood at 20.4 percent, up 0.3 percentage points from the previous day. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said that the parti

October 5, 2025

Breakfast habits change in South Korea as more young adults skip morning meals

SEOUL, October 05 (AJP) - Breakfast is falling out of favor in South Korea, especially among young adults, according to new government data showing a steady rise in people skipping their morning meal. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said Sunday in its 2024 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey released on October 5, 2025, that 35.3 percent of Koreans aged one and older did not eat breakfast regularly last year. That means more than one in three

October 5, 2025

PHOTOS: Parade marks National Foundation Day

SEOUL, October 03 (AJP) - On Oct. 3, Kukhakwon members held a commemorative parade from Anguk-dong Rotary to Jonggak in Seoul’s Jongno District, followed by a ceremony to mark National Foundation Day. The holiday, known as “the day the sky opened,” commemorates the founding of Gojoseon, the first Korean state established by Dangun Wanggeom, and celebrates the beginning of Korean history.

October 3, 2025

President Lee urges humanitarian progress on divided families

SEOUL, October 03 (AJP) - President Lee Jae Myung said on October 3 that communication among divided families must move forward and pledged to ask North Korea to treat the matter on humanitarian grounds. Lee invited eight displaced people to the Peace Observatory in Ganghwa, Incheon, on the first day of the Chuseok holiday. He told them decades of separation between relatives were the result of political failures and vowed to work toward improving inter-Korean relations. "

October 3, 2025

Korean automakers turn out sales growth despite US tariffs

SEOUL, October 03 (AJP) - South Korea’s five major automakers posted a 5.4 percent increase in sales in September from a year earlier, overcoming stronger U.S. tariffs and partial union strikes at home. The companies shipped 683,150 vehicles last month, up 5.4 percent from a year ago, according to disclosures.Hyundai Motor sold 66,001 units domestically, up 18.3 percent, and 306,297 units overseas, up 6.4 percent, buoyed by robust performance of its key brands. “Ou

October 3, 2025

LG Energy Solution to resume US trips one month after detention of S. Korean workers

SEOUL, October 03 (AJP) - LG Energy Solution is sending staff back to the United States, ending a one-month freeze on business travel triggered by the mass detention of South Korean workers at its joint battery plant in Georgia. The move signals a step toward normalizing operations for South Korea’s battery industry, which had been rattled by the unprecedented crackdown. The company announced on October 2 that it would restart trips gradually after the Chuseok holiday, South

October 3, 2025

Survey shows 80% of South Koreans reject U.S. upfront demand in tariff talks

SEOUL, October 03 (AJP) - A strong majority of South Koreans believe Washington's demand for a $350 billion upfront investment in the ongoing tariff negotiations is unfair, according to a survey of 1,008 people aged 18 and older, conducted by pollster Realmeter. The poll found that 80.1 percent of respondents said the demand was unreasonable. Within that group, 61.4 percent called it "very unreasonable" and 18.7 percent said it was "somewhat unreasonable."

October 3, 2025

KAIST builds 'physics-smart' AI to discover new materials faster

SEOUL, October 03 (AJP) - The Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) says it has developed an artificial intelligence that understands the laws of physics, making it possible to discover new materials quickly even with only small amounts of data. The advance could speed up work in energy, aerospace, electronics, and other areas where designing and testing materials normally takes years of costly experiments. Traditionally, figuring out a material's prop

October 3, 2025

Concerns rise over safety of 'mega batteries' after fire at government data center

SEOUL, October 03 (AJP) - A fire at the National Information Resources Service in the central city of Daejeon on September 26 brought down South Korea's main government data network, halting 647 public services and internal systems and leaving the government's cloud system unusable. The blaze started in a server room lined with lithium-ion batteries and was only declared fully extinguished 22 hours later. The impact was severe. Ninety-six systems in the fifth-floor data ha

October 3, 2025