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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.
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Korea's producer inflation cools as chip prices retreat
SEOUL, Oct. 21 (AJP) — South Korea’s producer inflation plateaued in September as weaker chip prices and a stronger won offset holiday food demand and higher utility charges. The producer price index rose 0.2 percent from August to 129.78, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK), while the annual increase slowed to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent.
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Korea's rice farmers struggle to keep a staple—and a livelihood—alive
SEOUL, October 20 (AJP) - Rice farming is a labor as old as Korea’s 5,000-year history, its harvest a staple of daily meals and an essential ingredient in the country’s cuisine. Yet the farmers sustaining that legacy face a difficult squeeze: aging hands, costly machinery and a changing appetite for the grain they grow. In Icheon, a city in Gyeonggi Province famed for its premium rice, autumn b
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World Bank unveils first digital strategy at Seoul summit
SEOUL, October 20 (AJP) - The World Bank Group aims to expand digital opportunities to 1 billion people worldwide by 2030 through its first digital strategy, harnessing artificial intelligence to create jobs and accelerate economic growth.
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Korea pulls diplomats from Kyiv as POW dispute deepens
SEOUL, October 20 (AJP) - The South Korean government will withdraw part of its embassy staff from Ukraine, the foreign ministry said Tuesday. The move deepens a monthlong dispute with Kyiv over Ukraine's public disclosure that two captured North Korean soldiers had been sent to South Korea.
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In Mongolia, school can mean leaving home at six: UNICEF representative
SEOUL, October 20 (AJP) - Few children like going to school, but for a six-year-old girl in rural Mongolia the reason can be more straightforward as going to one costs her time with her family for much of the year. For rural herders, sending children to school often means sending them away. More than 36,000 children in Mongolia live apart from their families for up to nine months of the school year, according to UNICEF. "The price they are paying for good education is a very high pric
by Lee Jung-woo
Indonesia's rout revives Asia's crisis ghosts, but risks diverge
SEOUL, October 19 (AJP) — Indonesia’s stock market rout has reawakened the spectre of Asia’s 1997 financial crisis, but the diverging fortunes of neighboring markets suggest the turmoil has yet to become contagious. Indonesia is confronting a crisis of market credibility. South Korea is reckoning with the price of its AI boom. Both face the pull of higher U.S. bond yields, but economists caution against mistaking simultaneous market stress for a repeat of the financial contagi
Lee Soo-man puts a new label on a familiar K-pop playbook
SEOUL, October 20 (AJP) - Lee Soo-man, the septuagenarian pioneer of K-pop, did not retire from the idol business when he sold his stake in SM Entertainment in 2023. Three years after leaving the company he founded, he is back with two new groups, a familiar production formula and a fresh pitch for taking it global. The market has given him an early hearing. A2O LITE, a nine-member girl group introduced alongside the 15-member boy group A2O SOUL, topped Melon’s Top 100 chart with its de
Korea's own children, still waiting to belong
SEOUL, October 19 (AJP) - High school senior Kim Min-jeong is like many other university applicants in South Korea — hopeful about what comes next and anxious about getting there. For relief, she turns to her favorite K-pop group, ATEEZ. Her face lights up as she talks about the band and shows off its dance moves to their latest hit "BAD." Her family history is something she has been taught to share less freely. “My mother always tells me, ‘Never tell other people
Celltrion taps French pharmacies to extend record run
Retail investors fight a losing battle as outflows from Seoul deepen
