OPINION: Korea's markets in 2025: prices surged, structures quietly weakened

By the end of 2025, South Korea’s financial markets offered a paradox. Prices moved sharply, yet the system did not break. Equity indices surged, bond yields rose and the won weakened — but none of this tipped into crisis. Beneath the surface, however, the numbers tell a more uneasy story: stability was preserved, but vulnerabilities quietly accumulated. The Bank of Korea’s semiannual Financial Stability Reports capture this duality well. The Financial Stress I

December 28, 2025

OPINION: Yasukuni Shrine and Japan's quiet sanitization of its WWII crimes

SEOUL, December 26 (AJP) - Japan often portrays itself as a paragon of modern civility - an orderly, technologically sophisticated society known for its consumer electronics, comics and clean toilets. However, that carefully cultivated image of

December 26, 2025

OPINION: Illegal crypto operators on the rise in Korea

More operators are running virtual-asset businesses without reporting to South Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit, in violation of the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information, commonly known as the Specified Financial Information Act. Despite the FIU’s hard-line enforcement through ongoing monitoring, user tips and cooperation with related agencies, information encouraging use of unreported operators — including false or exaggera

December 26, 2025

OPINION: South Korea's 2026 structural reforms must shift how wealth is built

The mission for next year is structural reform. If 2025 was the year to set the direction and strategy for change, the coming year must be about execution. Structural reform is often misunderstood as synonymous with layoffs or austerity, recalling the trauma of the Asian financial crisis. But its true meaning is different. At its core, structural reform concerns how an economy creates wealth — its mechanism of accumulation. For decades, South Korea’s accumulation m

December 26, 2025

OPINION: Iteca Exhibitions marks 30 years of Uzbekistan's exhibition industry development

SEOUL, December 23 (AJP) - The achievements of the anniversary season set an ambitious benchmark for the years ahead. In 2026, the calendar of exhibitions will expand to 22 exhibitions and 5 conferences, alongside new initiatives designed to support the domestic manufacturers, promote investment and further strengthen the key sectors of the national economy Since its establishment in

December 23, 2025

OPINION: Are museum admission fees worth it?

SEOUL, December 22 (AJP) - Debate is intensifying over whether the National Museum of Korea should start charging admission fees. Proponents of free entry argue that public museums exist to serve everyone, while opponents point to chronic budget shortfalls that leave few viable alternatives. But this debate often fixates on price, overlooking a more fundamental issue: what, exactly, would visitors be paying for, and is the experience worth charging for? That question becomes clearer

December 22, 2025

OPINION: A decade that changed US-China economic power

SEOUL, December 22 (AJP) - The year 2025 is likely to stand as a watershed in U.S.-China relations. After nearly a decade of confrontation, the Trump administration has effectively acknowledged the limits of its strategy to contain China — a campaign pursued in earnest since 2017. The contrast between two tariff battles tells the story. In the trade war launched in 2018, President Donald Trump pressured President Xi Jinping and extracted a Phase One trade deal in early 2020.

December 22, 2025

OPINION: When all that glitters mixes with FX markets

For decades, gold sat politely outside the foreign-exchange conversation. It was a hedge against inflation, a shelter in crises, an asset of last resort—but rarely a variable that moved currencies themselves. Exchange rates were explained in the familiar grammar of trade balances, interest-rate differentials and capital flows. Gold belonged to another chapter. That separation is beginning to fray in Asia. The first clear signal has come from Thailand. In recent month

December 20, 2025

OPINION: Why Korea Zinc's US smelter deal makes strategic sense

SEOUL, December 19 (AJP) - Korea Zinc recently signed a strategic partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Commerce, agreeing to pursue a joint investment to build a large, integrated smelter in Tennessee. The U.S. administration has increasingly treated critical minerals as strategic assets essential to national defense and economic security, elevating supply self-reliance and trusted supply chains to top policy priorities. Against that back

December 19, 2025

OPINION: A Periodic Table war at play

The world is already in a war — just not the kind most people picture. There are no gunshots, troop movements or televised front lines. Yet its outcome will shape industrial competitiveness and long-term national resilience. The battlefield is the periodic table. This “periodic table war” is the intensifying global competition for the elements that underpin modern industry and technology: copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, graphite, rare earths, ga

December 19, 2025