US patent firm alleges LCD patent infringement by LG Electronics

SEOUL, September 04 (AJP) - A U.S. intellectual property management company has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission, accusing LG Electronics and several other television manufacturers of infringing patents covering liquid crystal display (LCD) technology. BH Innovations LLC named South Korea’s LG, China’s Hisense and TCL, and U.S.-based Vizio as respondents in the case, according to data released Thursday by the patent information platform RP

September 4, 2025

Nongshim taps Netflix hit 'KPop Demon Hunters' to rival Samyang

SEOUL, September 4 (AJP) - Nongshim, South Korea’s largest instant noodle maker, has teamed up with the hit Netflix animation "KPop Demon Hunters" in a bid to challenge Samyang Foods, whose fiery Buldak noodles have become a global social media sensation. The collaboration places characters from the series on packaging for Nongshim’s flagship Shin Ramyun and Shrimp Crackers. The show, which has been streamed more than 260 million times worldwide, prominently

September 4, 2025

From Beijing startup to global powerhouse: China's ByteDance rewrites rules of social media

Editor's Note: This article is the 34th installment in our series on Asia's top 100 companies, exploring the strategies, challenges, and innovations driving the region's most influential corporations. SEOUL, September 04 (AJP) - When Zhang Yiming founded ByteDance in a modest Beijing apartment in 2012, his goal was deceptively simple: build software that could serve people the information they didn’t know they wanted. A decade later, his company has become th

September 4, 2025

Marriages with foreigners rise in South Korea, even as overall unions decline

SEOUL, September 03 (AJP) - South Korea is seeing a growing share of marriages involving foreign nationals, even as overall marriage rates have nearly halved over the past three decades, according to new government data released Wednesday. Statistics Korea said that marriages with foreign spouses rose 54 percent from 13,500 in 1995 to 20,800 in 2024. Such unions accounted for 9.3 percent of all marriages last year, up from 3.4 percent three decades earlier. Both Korean men marr

September 3, 2025

Samsung's processor shows big leap, closing in on Qualcomm

SEOUL, September 03 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics’ next-generation Exynos processor has posted benchmark scores close to those of Qualcomm’s top chip, raising expectations that the company’s in-house silicon could return to its flagship smartphones next year. According to results released Wednesday by Geekbench and industry reports, the Exynos 2600 recorded a single-core score of 3,309 and a multi-core score of 11,256. Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite sec

September 3, 2025

South Korea signals fresh push to join Asia-Pacific trade bloc

SEOUL, September 3 (AJP) - The South Korean government said on Wednesday that it would consider joining a sweeping Asia-Pacific trade pact, reviving long-dormant discussions as the country looks to diversify export markets amid heightened uncertainty over U.S. trade policy. The announcement came during an economic ministers’ meeting led by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Koo Yoon-cheol, where officials also outlined support measures for exporters hit by recent tarif

September 3, 2025

LG Energy Solution lands major battery deal with Mercedes-Benz

SEOUL, September 03 (AJP) - LG Energy Solution said Wednesday that it had signed a major supply agreement with Mercedes-Benz to provide electric vehicle batteries for the German automaker’s European and U.S. operations. The deal, disclosed in a regulatory filing, covers two contracts. In Europe, LG Energy Solution will deliver 32 gigawatt-hours of batteries from August 2028 through late 2035. In the United States, it will supply 75 gigawatt-hours beginning in July 2029 and c

September 3, 2025

Hyundai, Kia power Korean EV market to strong rebound

SEOUL, September 03 (AJP) - South Korea’s electric vehicle market is showing signs of revival this year, fueled by a wave of new models from Hyundai and Kia after several years of declining sales. From January through July, registrations of new electric vehicles reached 118,047, according to data released Wednesday by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The figure represents a 46.7 percent increase from the same period a year earlier and pushed cumulative

September 3, 2025

South Korea's economy rebounds on strong exports, consumer spending

SEOUL, September 3 (AJP) - South Korea’s economy returned to growth in the second quarter, lifted by a revival in consumer spending and a surge in exports, the central bank said Wednesday. Gross domestic product expanded 0.7 percent from the previous quarter, according to revised figures from the Bank of Korea. That was slightly higher than the 0.6 percent preliminary estimate issued in July and a reversal from the 0.2 percent contraction recorded in the first three months of

September 3, 2025

Gold prices soar on US rate cut expectations, geopolitical strains

SEOUL, September 03 (AJP) - Gold prices surged to fresh records on Tuesday (local time), fueled by mounting expectations of U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate cuts and heightened geopolitical uncertainty. Spot gold climbed to $3,530 an ounce on Sept. 2, topping the previous peak of $3,500 set in April. Futures contracts on the Commodity Exchange rose even higher, touching about $3,600 an ounce during the session. The rally comes as investors increasingly bet that the Fed will l

September 3, 2025