news highlight

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  Can a president consult an AI oracle? SEOUL, October 23 (AJP) - ChatGPT and Claude vie for headlines and users with faster and smarter upgrades, but in South Korea Gemini suddenly came into focus as an AI sage after President Lee Jae Myung disclosed he had consulted the Google chatbot on a matter of state. Lee, an avid social media user, wrote earlier this week that he had asked Gemini whether the heads of new prosecutorial and investigative agencies should attend weekly Cabinet meetings. He shared what he describe October 23, 2026
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  BOK chief's inflation outlook hints rates unlikely to come down before '28 SEOUL, October 22 (AJP) - Bank of Korea Governor Shin Hyun-song on Thursday credited the board’s two successive summer rate hikes with helping cool inflation and steady currency and debt markets while signaling that rates won't likely come down before 2028. Speaking after the monetary policy board unanimously held the base rate at 3.00 percent, Shin described the pause as the payoff from acting early. The BOK raised rates by a quarter percentage point in both July and October 22, 2026
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  South Korea to send letter to UN over DMZ landmine blast SEOUL, October 22 (AJP) - South Korea is set to send a letter to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), urging North Korea to take responsibility for last month's landmine blast in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that injured three South Korean soldiers and to take appropriate action, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here said on Thursday. The letter, to be sent by South Korea's ambassador to the United Nations in New York, will call on Pyongyang to apologize and take respo October 22, 2026
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  Korea's chip boom to bolster consumption in 2027: BOK SEOUL, October 22 (AJP) — South Korea's semiconductor boom could spread more broadly to household consumption in 2027 through bonuses, dividends, fiscal transfers and a stronger won, although the benefits remain uneven, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said Thursday. Private consumption has recovered from a trough in early 2025 but has lagged the broader expansion, rising 2.6 percent from a year earlier in the first half of 2026. Services, nondurable and semidurable goods led October 22, 2026
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  UPDATE: Bank of Korea stands pat, bonds rally on unanimous pause *Updated with Governor Shin Hyun-song’s remarks, central bank statement, data and market response. SEOUL, October 22 (AJP) - The Bank of Korea (BOK) on Thursday kept its key rate steady at 3.00 percent to assess the effects of a half-percentage-point increase across its last two summer meetings, while maintaining a clear restrictive bias. “Since growth and inflation data appear stronger than predicted in August, we should keep up tightening policy stance,” Gover October 22, 2026
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  Nonregular workers make up the bulk of Korea's wage job gains SEOUL, October 21 (AJP) -Nearly four in 10 of South Korea’s 22.5 million wage earners are nonregular workers, adding 103,000 from a year earlier as of August to account for almost all of the 113,000 net increase in wage employment. Worse, the monthly pay gap between nonregular and regular workers widened to 1.94 million won, feeding inequalities on the job front. Nonregular workers increased 103,000 and its share to the work force 38.5 percent - the highest on record - w October 21, 2026
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  Brunson urges fortified supply chain to sustain Korea-U.S. military edge SEOUL, October 21 (AJP) -U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Xavier Brunson called Wednesday for a “fortified allied supply chain” combining American military capabilities with South Korean manufacturing strength to preserve the alliance’s regional advantage amid mounting security threats. “Our mission remains immovable: to defend the Republic of Korea,” Brunson said at a special luncheon hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea at the Mondri October 21, 2026
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  Korea's profit recovery mostly led by big corporate names: BOK ◆ SEOUL, October 21 (AJP) — South Korea's corporate profitability improved in 2025 mostly for large companies and chip- and shipbuilding-related industries, widening gap with smaller firms. The operating margin of nonfinancial for-profit corporations rose to 5.2 percent from 4.6 percent a year earlier, the highest since 2021, according to annual data released Wednesday by the Bank of Korea (BOK). Sales growth, meanwhile, slowed to 2.4 percent from 3.7 percent, highlighti October 21, 2026
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  Korea's mid-October exports double at fresh high SEOUL, October 21 (AJP) — South Korea's chip-led export boom remained firmly intact through the first 20 days of October, with monthly outbound shipments more than doubling from a year earlier to a record $61.6 billion. Exports jumped 105.4 percent from a year earlier, while imports rose 42.8 percent to $47.1 billion, leaving a trade surplus of $14.5 billion, according to preliminary data from the Korea Customs Service (KCS). The headline increase was amplified by gre October 21, 2026