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  Seoul city bus service back to normal after wage deal ends record strike SEOUL, January 15 (AJP) -Seoul city buses are back on the roads on Thursday after labor and management reached a wage agreement late Wednesday, ending the longest city bus strike on record. The deal was struck at 11:55 p.m. during a second follow-up mediation session convened by the Seoul Regional Labor Relations Commission at its special arbitration panel. The talks brought together the Seoul City Bus Labor Union, affiliated with the Korean Automobile Workers Federation, an January 15, 2026
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  Washington makes a rare Korean won-supporting remark SEOUL, January 15 (AJP) - In a rare departure from Washington’s long-held opposition to currency intervention, the U.S. Treasury secretary echoed Seoul’s concerns over the weak Korean won, lending verbal support to efforts to stabilize the currency. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with South Korea’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol on Monday (local time) to discuss market developments and preparations for the upcoming critical mi January 15, 2026
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  PHOTOS:Crowds flock to ice festival in Hwacheon Hwacheon, January 14 (AJP) - On a white canvas of snow-covered ice, hundreds of people hunched over holes drilled into the frozen river, their fishing lines disappearing into the dark waters below. Despite temperatures plunging to -14 degrees Celsius and heavy snowfall, crowds gathered from early morning last Monday, just days after the annual mountain trout-themed Sancheoneo Ice Festival kicked off last weekend. Around 10 a.m., parking lots near the entrance to th January 14, 2026
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  Philosophy and AI mix in Korea? Too early to tell SEOUL, January 14 (AJP) - Peter Thiel and Alex Karp, co-founders of Palantir — one of the world’s most prominent artificial intelligence data analytics companies, now valued at more than $426 billion — share an unusual academic background for Silicon Valley: both studied law and philosophy as undergraduates. Karp went further. He earned a Ph.D. in classical social theory under renowned German philosopher Jürgen Habermas at Goethe University in Frankfurt, groun January 14, 2026
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  Hanwha restructuring lifts Korean stocks as Asian shares end mixed SEOUL, January 14 (AJP) - Asian equities ended mixed on Wednesday, with South Korea's benchmark index closing at a record high, while markets elsewhere in the region showed divergent performances. South Korea’s KOSPI rose 0.65 percent to close at 4,723.10. The tech-heavy KOSDAQ fell 0.72 percent to 942.18, as investors rotated selectively between sectors. Market attention centered on Hanwha Group after it unveiled plans to split its businesses, separating defense, ene January 14, 2026
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  SK hynix determined to defend lead through talent and HBM investment SEOUL, January 14 (AJP) - Over the past year, South Korea’s memory chipmaker SK hynix has nearly quadrupled its market value and overtaken Intel in sales to become the world’s third-largest semiconductor company after behind Nvidia and Samsung Electronics. The turning point came in 2025, a decisive year for the AI-driven chip upcycle. Global semiconductor sales jumped 21 percent to $793 billion, led by AI processors, high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and networking chips, ac January 14, 2026
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  After EV slowdown, Korea's battery giants pivot to robots via solid-state cells SEOUL, January 14 (AJP) - After years of EV-led expansion, South Korea's battery makers are confronting a harsher reality as global electric-vehicle sales cool and clean-energy strategies fragment across regions. In response, the industry is doubling down on solid-state batteries — betting that humanoid robots, rather than cars, may offer an earlier and more reliable route to commercialization. POSCO Future M, the battery materials arm of POSCO Group, said this week it has January 14, 2026
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  Korea's M2 growth moderates as investors favor short-term returns SEOUL, January 14 (AJP) - South Korea’s broad money growth stalled in November under a revised definition of M2, reflecting both a statistical adjustment and a deeper shift in investor behavior toward short-term, high-return assets. According to data released Wednesday by the Bank of Korea (BOK), the M2 money supply stood at 4,057.5 trillion won ($2.77 trillion) in November 2025, little changed from the previous month and marking a second consecutive month of flat growth. Th January 14, 2026
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  Overseas investing reshaping Korea's FX market: BOK SEOUL, January 14 (AJP) - A sharp rise in overseas securities investment by South Koreans led to nearly $20 billion in net foreign-exchange outflows last year, the Bank of Korea said in a report Wednesday, underscoring why the won weakened despite large current-account surpluses. Net foreign-currency outflows linked to residents’ overseas securities purchases and overseas investment by pension funds totaled $19.6 billion from January through October last year. The f January 14, 2026
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  Railway passenger numbers hit record due to surge in high-speed train usage SEOUL, January 14 (AJP) - South Korea saw a record number of railway passengers last year, as more people used high-speed trains not only for travel but also for daily commutes, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on Wednesday. The total number of railway passengers reached 172.22 million as of the end of las year, up 0.6 percent from the previous year and the highest on record. Among them, passengers on high-speed bullet trains KTX and SRT totaled 93 million a January 14, 2026