NCT to mark 10th anniversary with Seoul Fashion Week showcase SEOUL, August 13 (AJP) - K-pop boy group NCT will mark the 10th anniversary of its 2016 brand launch with a Seoul Fashion Week collaboration built around stage costumes, a runway show and a charity flea market, SM said Thursday. The project turns a decade of NCT's music and stage concepts into a fashion-focused program at Lotte World Tower during the 2027 spring/summer edition of Seoul Fashion Week. The collaboration will unfold in three parts: a costume exhibition, a runwa August 13, 2026

Seoul shuts down Africa-based sites for piracy on K-webtoons SEOUL, August 13 (AJP) - Korean authorities have taken down three North Africa-based piracy sites accused of illegally distributing tens of thousands of Korean webtoons and web novels, following a cross-border investigation involving Interpol and Naver Webtoon. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the National Police Agency said Thursday that one site operator was arrested locally and all three platforms were shut down as part of the joint operation. The case marks August 13, 2026

LG Innotek enters MSCI Korea, four exit SEOUL, August 13 (AJP) —LG Innotek will enter the MSCI Korea Index at the end of this month as the country's sole addition in the global index provider's August review, setting up potential passive-fund buying as four Korean companies are pushed out. LG Innotek shares rose following the announcement, trading 3.81 percent higher at 626,000 won ($443) on Thursday morning. MSCI said LG Innotek will be added to its Korea Standard Index, while HLB, LG Display, POSCO Inte August 13, 2026

Korea revives startup contest with doubled scale after data leak SEOUL, August 13 (AJP) - South Korea's Ministry of SMEs and Startups unveiled plans to relaunch its flagship "Startup for All" competition at twice the scale, pressing ahead with an ambitious idea-driven audition just weeks after a personal data breach forced the program's indefinite suspension. The ministry said Thursday it would recruit 10,000 participants for the second round — double the 5,000 chosen in the inaugural edition — under a plan announced August 13, 2026

Hyundai Rotem, KAI team up to home-grow fighter jet SEOUL, August 13 (AJP) - Hyundai Rotem has agreed to team up with Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) to develop homegrown aviation weapons technology including a long-range air-to-air missile for the county's KF-21 fighter jet. Hyundai Rotem said Thursday it signed a memorandum of understanding with KAI the previous day at KAI's headquarters in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, to combine its guided weapon and propulsion technologies with KAI's aircraft platform expert August 13, 2026

Seoul cuts red tape to fast-track mega AI projects SEOUL, August 13 (AJP) -South Korea has hit the accelerator on President Lee Jae Myung’s “chip-and-beyond” industrial drive, clearing land and construction rules holding up more than 4.2 trillion won in planned investment as Seoul races to get new semiconductor capacity in southern region running before his term ends in 2030. The package unveiled Thursday turns Lee’s call earlier this week for a “decisive battle” on industrial investment into a August 13, 2026

Naver invests in wave-powered ocean data center startup Panthalassa SEOUL, August 13 (AJP) - Naver announced it has invested in Panthalassa, a U.S. startup building floating, wave-powered artificial intelligence data centers, deepening its push to lock down next-generation infrastructure as the global scramble for computing power intensifies. The deal revealed Thursday extends a rapid buildout by Naver, which has been racing to secure AI capacity through a string of high-profile partnerships. In July, the company, Nvidia and Brookfield Asset Mana August 13, 2026

HD Hyundai chief set to meet Bill Gates in Seoul SEOUL, August 13 (AJP) - Bill Gates, founder and chairman of U.S. nuclear energy firm TerraPower, is set to meet HD Hyundai chairman Chung Ki-sun in Seoul this week to discuss ways to expand cooperation in small modular reactors (SMRs), according to industry sources on Thursday. Their meeting comes about seven months after they last met on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, in January. The Microsoft founder is also scheduled to meet with Prime August 13, 2026

Kairospace verifies satellite de-orbit device in space SEOUL, August 13 (AJP) - A South Korean startup announced it had successfully demonstrated a device designed to pull defunct satellites out of orbit faster, a modest but concrete step in the global effort to curb the growing hazard of space debris. Kairospace said Thursday that its in-house de-orbit system, dubbed DORB, had proven its performance aboard a CubeSat launched into space by South Korea's homegrown Nuri rocket, in what the company described as a full validation under August 13, 2026

Seoul plants 7 tech seeds for post-AI growth SEOUL, August 13 (AJP) -South Korea is placing seven long-term bets on technologies from small modular reactors and fusion power to quantum computing and brain-computer interfaces to secure new growth engines for the 2030s and beyond, as demographic decline and slowing investment threaten to deepen structural low growth. The government on Wednesday unveiled the seven SEED projects at Cheong Wa Dae on Wednesday, laying out development and commercialization targets spanning clean August 13, 2026