KOSPI heads back south on overnight Wall Street tech retreat SEOUL, August 06 (AJP) — The roller-coaster ride in Seoul headed back south Thursday, as South Korean stocks tracked an overnight pullback in U.S. tech shares that spread across the region's semiconductor sector. The KOSPI fell 4.13 percent to 6,325.82 as of 10:08 a.m. local time, with losses deepening as the session wore on. Foreign investors were the biggest sellers, offloading a net 1.14 trillion won ($798 million) in shares. Retail investors bought a net 995.6 billion August 6, 2026

Korean military eyes leniency to fight gambling addiction in conscripts SEOUL, August 06 (AJP) -South Korea's Defense Ministry is considering offering reduced penalties to service members who voluntarily report illegal online gambling, marking a shift toward treating gambling addiction as a military readiness and welfare issue rather than solely a criminal offense. In a written reply to Rep. Cheon Ha-ram, a member of the National Assembly's Defense Committee, the ministry said it is reviewing a self-reporting program under which troops who come August 6, 2026

Heat-related illness cases surpass 500 in Gyeonggi Province SEOUL, August 6 (AJP) - With a heatwave advisory in place across Gyeonggi Province for about two weeks, more than 60 people have been treated for heat-related illnesses per day, bringing the cumulative total above 500. The provincial government said on Wednesday that figures compiled from some 93 medical institutions and emergency rooms in the province showed that 537 people suffered from heat-related illnesses including two deaths between May 15 and last Tuesday. The sharp incre August 6, 2026

KAIST develops technique to recognize objects hidden behind fog SEOUL, August 06 (AJP) - A KAIST research team has developed an imaging method that finds a transparent object buried inside fog and works out its shape, thickness and position from a single camera exposure, the university said Thursday. Glass, clear plastic film and living cells are almost invisible to an ordinary camera because they barely change the brightness of the light passing through them. They do change something else. Light slows very slightly as it crosses them, and tha August 6, 2026

Trump's tariff on polysilicon cloud outlook for Korean firms SEOUL, August 06 (AJP) - The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump could unveil a set of measures curbing imports of foreign polysilicon, a step that stands to reverberate through South Korea's solar and semiconductor makers, multiple sources reported. Reuters, citing sources, said the administration plans to release the findings of its Section 232 investigation into polysilicon as soon as Thursday (local time), with a 15 percent tariff slated for imported polysilicon de August 6, 2026

Kookmin students win prize for vehicle solar standard SEOUL, August 06 (AJP) - Five undergraduates from Kookmin University's School of Materials Science and Engineering won the grand prize at a national standardization competition on July 24, taking the award given in the name of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources for a proposed durability test covering solar panels built into vehicle bodies. No existing test protocol subjects such panels to light, heat and vibration at the same time, the combination a panel mounted August 6, 2026

Automakers recalling half a million vehicles over various defects SEOUL, August 6 (AJP) - A combined 512,393 vehicles across 13 models from Hyundai Motor, Kia, Honda and Stellantis will be voluntarily recalled to fix manufacturing defects, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on Thursday. Hyundai accounts for the bulk of the recall, with nearly 400,000 vehicles affected including 104,781 across two models including the Tucson, for which repairs have been underway since July 30 due to a software error in the forward collision August 6, 2026

Samsung tests global appetite for pricier Galaxy foldables and wearables SEOUL, August 06 (AJP) -Samsung Electronics rolled out its latest Galaxy foldable smartphones and smartwatches worldwide on Thursday, betting strong pre-orders can overcome sticker shock as soaring memory and component costs push flagship handset prices to new highs and weigh on global smartphone demand. The world's largest smartphone maker said the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold8, Galaxy Z Flip8, Galaxy Watch Ultra2 and Galaxy Watch9 will go on sale from Aug. 7 in major ma August 6, 2026

In a record year for K-pop, NOWZ picks a lane instead of a fight SEOUL, August 05 (AJP) - K-pop boy group NOWZ released its latest digital single "Achilles" on Wednesday into one of the busiest stretches of the K-pop calendar, but the group framed the comeback less as a head-to-head contest and more as an attempt to sharpen its own identity. The five-member boy group released "Achilles" at 6 p.m, (0900GMT) marking its first Korean comeback in about 10 months since "Play Ball" and its first new release in five month August 5, 2026

Excavators return as Guryong Village redevelopment moves forward SEOUL, August 05 (AJP) - Even in the early morning, temperatures hovered well above 30 degrees Celsius in tropical humidity — conditions ill-suited to bulldozing work, let alone human protest. Still, an excavator moved methodically through piles of soil, pipes, twisted metal and torn blue tarpaulins inside Guryong Village, the last surviving shantytown in affluent Gangnam, southern Seoul, on Tuesday. Behind corrugated metal fencing, workers in hard hats continued dismantlin August 5, 2026