Naver moving to acquire Korea's top cryptocurrency exchange operator

SEOUL, September 25 (AJP) - South Korean internet and tech powerhouse Naver Corp. is moving to integrate the nation's leading cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit, into its ecosystem by acquiring Upbit's operator, Dunamu Inc. The core of the proposed deal is a comprehensive stock swap between Naver's fintech subsidiary, Naver Financial, and Dunamu. The news, which marks a major convergence between South Korea's dominant internet portal and the country's largest

September 25, 2025

US command ship docks in Busan

SEOUL, September 25 (AJP) - The USS Blue Ridge, the command ship of the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet, arrived on Thursday in South Korea's southern port city of Busan to replenish supplies and provide rest for crew members. According to the Navy, the ship will carry out activities aimed at enhancing cooperation between the two allies. "The arrival of the Blue Ridge will strengthen exchange and cooperation between the U.S. and South Korean navies," said a Navy officer

September 25, 2025

BlackRock's Samsung stake surpasses Lee family as KOSPI soars

SEOUL, September 25 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics Co. remains a top pick for BlackRock Inc., which has reaped outsized gains from its bullish bet on the KOSPI — this year's best-performing major equity index globally. The world's largest asset manager now holds a larger stake in Korea's chip titan than the controlling Lee family. BlackRock owns 5.07 percent of Samsung Electronics, a position valued at 25.4 trillion won ($18.1 billion) based on Tuesday's closing p

September 25, 2025

Busan Museum to showcase Shakespeare First Folio and Harry Potter first edition in special exhibition

SEOUL, September 25 (AJP) - The Busan Museum, located in South Korea's second-largest city, will open a major international exchange exhibition, "Writers Revealed: From Shakespeare to 500 Years of Literature and Art," on September 30, bringing together rare treasures from the canon of English literature. The show will run until January 18, 2026. The exhibition features 140 works spanning five centuries, including portraits of 78 celebrated authors, handwritten manusc

September 25, 2025

Park Chan-wook's latest film draws over 300,000 on opening day

SEOUL, September 25 (AJP) - Director Park Chan-wook's latest film "No Other Choice" attracted over 331,000 moviegoers on its opening day, instantly climbing to the top spot at the box office. The Korean Film Council on Thursday said the thriller starring Lee Byung-hun and Son Ye-jin topped the box office upon its release the previous day, setting the highest opening record among his previous hits like "Decision to Leave" in 2022 and "The Handmaiden&q

September 25, 2025

Hanmi Global expands in Middle East with Kuwait, Saudi contracts

SEOUL, September 25 (AJP) - Hanmi Global announced on Thursday that it had secured a series of construction management contracts in the Middle East. The company won three construction supervision contracts from Kuwait’s Public Authority for Housing Welfare, valued at about 31 billion won, or roughly $22 million. In Saudi Arabia, it secured a separate deal worth 16 billion won to provide project management services for part of the kingdom’s vast Green Riyadh initiativ

September 25, 2025

Lee meets US top tariff negotiator, pushes for progress in trade talks

SEOUL, September 25 (AJP) - President Lee Jae Myung met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in New York and expressed hopes for progress in tariff negotiations which should be "commercially rational." Their meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly came about a month after the two met during Lee's visit to Washington for his first bilateral talks with U.S. President Donald Trump. Lee emphasized that trade talks should be "in line with the inte

September 25, 2025

Autonomous navigation advances as Samsung Heavy completes trans-Pacific test

SEOUL, September 25 (AJP) - Samsung Heavy Industries said on Thursday that it had successfully tested an artificial intelligence–based autonomous navigation system on a trans-Pacific voyage, a milestone in the shipping industry’s push toward automation and efficiency. The system, known as Samsung Autonomous Ship (SAS), was installed on a 15,000-TEU container vessel operated by Evergreen Marine of Taiwan. The ship departed Oakland, Calif., on Aug. 25 and arrived in

September 25, 2025

OPINION: Bogota's first metro train is wake-up call for South Korea

In September 2025, Bogota welcomed its first-ever metro train, a sight that many Colombians thought they might never live to see. After seven decades of delays, false starts, and political infighting, the arrival of a sleek Chinese-built train was celebrated across the Colombian capital as a long-awaited triumph. But for South Korea, watching from afar, it should serve as something else: a moment of reckoning. As someone who worked closely on infrastructure cooperation betwee

September 25, 2025

OPINION: The age of restless youth

Kim Sang-chul, director of Global Business Research Center The world today feels as if it is locked in a cycle of turmoil. Wars drag on, economies falter, and political dysfunction seems the rule rather than the exception. For many, especially young people, frustration has boiled over into anger, and anger into action. In recent months, Southeast Asia has seen its youngest citizens — largely Gen Z — take to the streets in protest. From Jakarta to Manila, Dhaka to Dili, de

September 25, 2025