Jeju Samdasoo, Korea's top bottled water brand, eyes global expansion

SEOUL, October 02 (AJP) - For nearly three decades, Jeju Samdasoo has dominated South Korea’s bottled water market. Now, the company is turning to international markets in search of growth, as competition at home intensifies and consumer habits shift. Baek Kyung-hoon, chief executive of Jeju Development Corporation, which produces Samdasoo, said the company is targeting 600 billion won, or about $435 million, in revenue by 2035. “Domestically, our real competitors

October 2, 2025

Park Bo-gum to promote hanbok globally in time for Chuseok

SEOUL, October 2 (AJP) - A series of giant billboard ads featuring actor Park Bo-gum is set to appear in several major cities overseas including Times Square, New York next week, coinciding with Chuseok, one of the country's biggest holidays. According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on Thursday, the ads showing Park in hanbok or traditional Korean dress will light up the streets of New York, Milan, and Tokyo for a week, starting from Chuseok Day,

October 2, 2025

Posco International opens EV material plant in Poland

SEOUL, October 02 (AJP) - Posco International has opened a new factory in Poland to produce drive motor cores, a critical component for electric vehicles. The plant, located on a 100,000-square-meter site, will begin trial production this month, with full-scale operations scheduled for December. Drive motor cores, often described as the “heart” of an electric vehicle, form the core of the motor that powers the car. Posco International’s version incorporate

October 2, 2025

South Korea logs record C/A surplus for Aug, extends 28-mo gain

SEOUL, October 02 (AJP) -South Korea posted a current account surplus of $9.15 billion in August, extending its black streak to 28 consecutive months, as a sharp fall in energy imports offset weaker exports to key markets including the United States and China. According to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea on Thursday, the August surplus was down from $10.78 billion in July but marked the largest for the month on record. The cumulative surplus for January–August

October 2, 2025

Kakao Games sells golf subsidiary to refocus on global gaming push

SEOUL, October 02 (AJP) - Kakao Games has sold its golf subsidiary, Kakao VX, in a deal that will provide the company with more than $156 million in fresh capital as it shifts its focus toward big-budget video game development for international markets. The company said Thursday that its board approved the sale of 100 percent of Kakao VX shares to IVG, a subsidiary of Kakao Investment, in a transaction valued between $210 million and $250 million. Before transferring full own

October 2, 2025

Glass ceiling still persists for women in public-sector jobs

SEOUL, October 2 (AJP) - Many women, particularly those in state-run and public-sector jobs, still struggle to climb the career ladder due to a persistent glass ceiling in South Korean society. According to data from the Ministry of Personnel Management submitted to lawmaker Kwang Hyang-yeop of the ruling Democratic Party, women accounted for only 12.9 percent of high-level government posts, with just 201 among 1,554 senior officials, as of December last year. Gender disparity

October 2, 2025

INTERVIEW: South Korean start-up bets on AI to transform learning

Long before the recent surge in artificial intelligence triggered by OpenAI in 2023, Ellis Group had been quietly embedding AI tools into education. Founded a decade ago by a team of researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, the company now counts more than 9,500 institutions and 2.75 million users on its AI education platform, EllisLXP. The Seoul-based firm has become a leader in South Korea’s AI education sector, providing software for u

October 2, 2025

South Korea's inflation rises back above 2 percent in September

SEOUL, October 02 (AJP) - Consumer prices in South Korea rose 2.1 percent in September from a year earlier, returning to the 2 percent range after two months of slower growth, according to government data released on Thursday. The uptick was driven largely by higher costs for processed foods and livestock products, the National Data Office said. The consumer price index climbed to 117.06, rebounding from a 1.7 percent increase in August, when a temporary reduction in telecom fee

October 2, 2025

S. Korea must race to grab US-bound talents for leap in AI race: IFEZ czar

SEOUL, October 01 (AJP) - Brain power defines the AI era, and the possibility of a brain drain in Silicon Valley from the U.S. imposition of hefty fees on skilled-worker visas offers an "enormous" opportunity for South Korea, said the nation’s foreign direct investment (FDI) czar. "This is a windfall, and we must move fast in hosting roadshows to draw global brains here," said Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) Commissioner Yun Won-sok in an exclusive inte

October 2, 2025

Chipmaking Team Korea joins OpenAI's $500 Billion AI initiative

SEOUL, October 01 (AJP) - South Korea’s chipmaking giants Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have signed a preliminary agreement with OpenAI to join the $500 billion “Stargate” initiative aimed at proliferating next-generation AI data centers worldwide. Under the letter of intent, Samsung and SK hynix are prepared to commit as much as 8 trillion won ($6 billion) a month to the project, which is co-led by SoftBank and Oracle. The partnership extends beyond memory

October 1, 2025