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  Heat wave warning issued again in Seoul as unbearable heat persists SEOUL, July 24 (AJP) - A heat wave warning was issued in Seoul on Thursday, after this summer's brief monsoon season came to an end last week. According to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), the warning was issued around 10 a.m. for the capital as well as surrounding Gyeonggi Province, as scorching heat continues nationwide with daytime highs soaring up to 36 degrees Celsius. The highest-level warning, first issued this season earlier this month before being tempo July 24, 2025
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  [K-Tech] Hyundai Motor's earnings drop sharply despite record sales, weighed down by US tariffs SEOUL, July 24 (AJP) - Hyundai Motor reported a double-digit drop in second-quarter operating profit on Thursday, as new U.S. tariffs and intensifying market competition eroded margins. Operating profit fell 15.8 percent from a year earlier to 3.60 trillion won, or about $2.6 billion — the company’s sharpest quarterly decline since the third quarter of 2020. The drop came even as revenue rose 7.3 percent to a record 48.29 trillion won, buoyed by strong sales of hybrid July 24, 2025
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  TRAVEL: General's Tomb and the Gwanggaeto Stele Ji'an, July 24 (AJP) - Located in Ji'an, Jilin Province, China, the General's Tomb is a Goguryeo-era stepped stone pyramid made of large, reddish-beige rectangular blocks stacked to the height of a five-story apartment building. With the exception of some blackened patches on the stone surface, it looked almost like a newly built structure. Only the topmost stones showed signs of slight damage or disalignment, a remarkable testament to the tomb’s endurance over the July 24, 2025
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  [K-Tech] SK hynix posts record earnings on surging AI memory demand SEOUL, July 24 (AJP) - SK hynix reported its strongest-ever quarterly results on Thursday, fueled by surging demand for high-performance memory chips used in artificial intelligence applications. The South Korean chipmaker posted second-quarter revenue of 22.23 trillion won (about $16.3 billion), with operating profit reaching 9.21 trillion won ($6.8 billion) and net income rising to 6.99 trillion won ($5.1 billion), eclipsing its previous record set in the final quarter of 2024. July 24, 2025
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  Prosecutors raid former PM's residence in martial law probe SEOUL, July 24 (AJP) - Independent prosecutors on Thursday raided the residence of former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo as part of their investigation into disgraced former President Yoon Suk Yeol's botched martial law debacle late last year. Searches were conducted at Han's private home and his former official residence as prime minister in central Seoul. The raid came just about three weeks after Han was questioned for about 14 hours earlier this month. Prosecutors all July 24, 2025
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  [K-Tech] Kakao releases its own open-source AI models SEOUL, July 24 (AJP) - Kakao has released two new open-source artificial intelligence models, including Korea’s first publicly available mixture-of-experts (MoE) model and a lightweight multimodal model. The company announced on Thursday that both models — Kanana-1.5-v-3b, a compact multimodal language model, and Kanana-1.5-15.7b-a3b, an MoE model designed for efficient inference — are now available on Hugging Face, a leading platform for open-source AI tools. July 24, 2025
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  [K-Tech] From creepy-crawly to culinary contender: Companies bet big on edible insects SEOUL, July 24 (AJP) - The first bite delivered a crispy snap, followed by an unexpectedly savory burst — something between charred prawns and stir-fried anchovies. There was no musty aftertaste, no trace of the gamy aroma one might expect. “These are mealworms,” said Celina Lee, founder and chief executive of Grub Lab, a South Korean food-tech startup focused on edible insects. She watched her guest's reaction with a practiced calm, then offered a second helpi July 24, 2025
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  [K-Film] South Korean coming-of-age drama to compete at Toronto film fest this fall SEOUL, July 24 (AJP) - Director Yoon Ga-eun's film has been invited to the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) to be held in Canada this fall. According to the film's distributor on Thursday, "The World of Love" has been selected to compete along with nine other films in the "Platform" section, the TIFF's only juried competition, which "spotlights films with high artistic merit and strong directorial vision." Organizers of July 24, 2025
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  Ex-Naver chief eager to bring tech-savvy vision to small business policy as minister SEOUL, July 24 (AJP) - Han Seong-sook, the former CEO of Naver and one of South Korea’s most prominent tech executives, is set to lead the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. Her appointment marks a decisive shift toward digital transformation in the country’s small business policy. Best known for steering Naver from 2017 to 2022 and being named to Fortune’s “Most Powerful Women International” list for four consecutive years, Han brings deep experience July 24, 2025
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  China's BYD edges out Tesla, reshaping global auto order Editor's Note: This article is the 28th installment in our series on Asia's top 100 companies, exploring the strategies, challenges, and innovations driving the region's most influential corporations. SEOUL, July 23 (AJP) - BYD, the Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer that began as a modest battery startup three decades ago, reported record revenue of 777.1 billion yuan ($107 billion) for 2024, overtaking Tesla’s $97.7 billion. The milestone comes as BYD sold July 24, 2025