Intel says few firms ready for robots at scale SEOUL, October 13 (AJP) - Most companies expecting to run robot fleets are not ready to deploy them at scale, said John Healy, vice president of Intel's industrial and robotics division, in Seoul on Tuesday, citing an Intel survey that included South Korea. Healy spoke at the Physical AI Tech Week, hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT at COEX. He cited The Robotics Readiness Gap, an August report in which Intel surveyed 800 leaders across six countries, including Korea. October 13, 2026

AJP On-site: Korea's physical AI push still borrows its brains SEOUL, October 13 (AJP) - A Chinese-made robot dog knelt on the floor of a Seoul exhibition hall Tuesday, lowered the gripper mounted where its head should be and snapped at empty air, just short of the tissue it was meant to pick up. The robot is a graduation project by Shin Jung-wook, a 27-year-old senior at Korea University of Technology and Education. He wrote the code himself and mounted an arm from Chinese maker AgileX on a Unitree A2 quadruped. It was one of the robots on October 13, 2026

Samsung Electronics extends chip windfall to local suppliers SEOUL, October 13 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics, fresh from projecting a quarterly operating profit milestone of $80 billion for the July–September period, is moving to share its windfall with local suppliers through financial assistance and workplace and welfare support programs. The chipmaker said it is rolling out its “DS Together” initiative for some 58,000 employees at semiconductor partner companies, offering coffee trucks, refreshments and family movie scree October 13, 2026

North Korea opens defense museum showcasing slew of weapons SEOUL, October 13 (AJP) - North Korea opened a new museum over the weekend showcasing a range of weapons and military equipment, including an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) under development, with its leader Kim Jong-un in attendance, state media reported on Tuesday. The museum's opening ceremony was held last Sunday to mark the 81st founding anniversary of the Workers' Party, which fell on Oct. 10, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KC October 13, 2026

Korea could be physical AI's Taiwan, Nvidia Korea chief says SEOUL, October 13 (AJP) - South Korea could take over the pivotal supply-chain role that Taiwan plays in data centers once physical AI matures into a major industry, said Jeong So-young, head of Nvidia Korea, on Tuesday. Jeong spoke at the opening session of the Physical AI Tech Week, hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT at COEX in Seoul. Jeong pointed to foundries such as TSMC and the server and storage makers that anchor the data center value chain. "If physical AI g October 13, 2026

Soft beetle robot shows operator what it touches SEOUL, October 13 (AJP) - A soft robot modeled on a beetle can walk, pick up small objects and report back what it sees and how firmly it is gripping, while a person steers it by bending a finger. Researchers at KAIST, the South Korean science and technology university, and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), working with a team at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, described the robot, called BeetleBot, in the journal Science Advances in August. KAIST October 13, 2026

Samsung teams up with AMD to ease AI memory bottlenecks SEOUL, October 13 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics unveiled a joint AI memory expansion solution with U.S. chipmaker AMD to address growing bottlenecks in AI inference, building on a longstanding alliance highlighted by AMD chief executive Lisa Su’s visit to Seoul last week. At this year’s Open Compute Project (OCP) Global Summit, Samsung demonstrated a solution based on Compute Express Link (CXL), an interconnect technology that allows processors to access additional memor October 13, 2026

USFK chief calls for more dispersed drills across South Korea SEOUL, October 13 (AJP) - U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Xavier Brunson has called for changes to large-scale South Korea-U.S. military exercises, saying the allies need more dispersed training across the Korean Peninsula as North Korea gains battlefield experience from the war in Ukraine. Speaking Monday at the Association of the United States Army's annual meeting in Washington, Brunson said the allies currently conduct two major command-post exercises each year but need to October 13, 2026

Seoul envoy says U.S. intelligence concerns remain unresolved SEOUL, October 13 (AJP) - South Korea's ambassador to the United States acknowledged Monday that Washington's concerns over intelligence cooperation remain unresolved despite efforts to address them, while admitting that communication with senior White House officials has fallen short of Seoul's expectations. Ambassador Kang Kyung-wha made the remarks during a parliamentary audit at the South Korean Embassy in Washington, describing intelligence cooperation as the most October 13, 2026

SK earthon begins first oil production at new offshore block in Viet Nam SEOUL, October 13 (AJP) - SK earthon, the energy resources development arm of SK Innovation, has begun oil production at an offshore block in Viet Nam, about two years after full-scale development began, it said on Tuesday. According to SK innovation's subsidiary, Murphy Oil, the U.S.-based operator of Block 15-1/05, began its first oil production at the Golden Camel structure in late September, ahead of schedule, expanding the company's production base in the Southeast Asia October 13, 2026