South Korea

South Korea’s ₩351 Billion Data Center Disaster: Audit Uncovers Illegal Subcontracting, Missed Safety Checks and Critical Failures

SEOUL, South Korea — What initially appeared to be a catastrophic equipment failure at a South Korean government data center has now been traced to a far broader chain of human and institutional failures. A government audit has found that unlicensed companies were brought into a battery replacement project at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) in Daejeon, where a fire in September 2025 crippled hundreds of government information systems and triggered one of South Korea’s worst di

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Entertainment

Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ Rules Korea’s Box Office for Fifth Straight Week—Crosses 10 Million Admissions

SEOUL, South Korea — Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey is showing no signs of surrendering its throne. The Hollywood epic has dominated South Korea's weekend box office for a fifth consecutive week, adding nearly 700,000 admissions over the latest weekend and pushing its cumulative audience beyond the extraordinary 10 million mark. According to Korean Film Council data cited by Yonhap, The Odyssey drew 698,395 admissions from Friday through Sunday, taking its total to 10,027,997 as of Sunday. T

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South Korea

Korea-U.S. Alliance Faces a Defining Test: Is Washington Asking Too Much—or Is Seoul Doing Too Little?

SEOUL, South Korea — The Korea-U.S. alliance has survived war, political upheaval, economic crises and generations of changing leaders. But today, one of America's most important partnerships in Asia is facing a different kind of test. It is no longer simply about whether Washington will defend South Korea or whether Seoul will stand behind the United States. The harder question is becoming how much each side should be expected to contribute—and how those disagreements should be handled witho

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South Korea

KOSPI Surges 3.3% as Samsung, SK hynix Lead Seoul Tech Rally Despite Middle East Crisis

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean stocks opened sharply higher Monday as semiconductor shares sparked a powerful rebound, pushing the KOSPI up more than 3% even as military tensions between the United States and Iran intensified in the Middle East. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) jumped 223.57 points, or 3.34%, to 6,910.78 at the opening bell, according to Yonhap. By 9:15 a.m., the index was still up 3.33% at 6,909.61. The surge placed South Korea's technology-heavy mar

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Business

Lee Jae Myung Arrives in France as Macron Summit Draws Focus on Security, AI and Hormuz

NICE, France — South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has arrived in France for a four-day state visit that could produce major developments in security, advanced technology, economic cooperation and cultural diplomacy, with a bilateral summit with French President Emmanuel Macron scheduled for Tuesday in Paris. Lee arrived in Nice on Sunday, September 6, beginning a September 6–9 visit that comes just months after Macron's state visit to South Korea in April. The two countries are also marking 1

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Business

Naver Shuts Down Services as South Korea’s Tech Giant Bets Big on AI and Commerce

SEOUL, South Korea — Naver is shutting down several standalone services as South Korea’s internet giant makes a major strategic shift toward artificial intelligence, AI-powered commerce and digital infrastructure. The latest move will see Naver’s music-streaming platform VIBE shut down on December 31, 2026, while Naver TV will cease operations on September 30. The company has also already retired its standalone AI services Clova X and Cue:, folding their technology into newer AI-powered feature

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Lifestyle

100,000 Pack Taipei Streets as Giant Mechanical Elephants Take Over Shilin — And the Crowd Was So Huge, Officials Had to Step In

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Three enormous mechanical elephants transformed the streets of Taipei into a spectacular open-air theater Saturday night, drawing more than 100,000 people to Shilin for the opening of the 2026 Taipei Arts Festival. The free street performance, “Trois Éléphants Passent…” (“Three Elephants Pass…”), was staged by French street-theater company Compagnie Oposito in collaboration with Taiwanese performers. The spectacle featured three giant mechanical elephants moving through Shilin

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South Korea

Civic Groups Renew Push for UNESCO Listing of Comfort Women Records as Survivors Dwindle

SEOUL, South Korea — A coalition of civic groups is once again pressing UNESCO to move forward with a long-delayed effort to place historical records documenting Japan's wartime sexual slavery system on the Memory of the World Register. The renewed campaign comes as the number of surviving victims continues to fall, adding urgency to efforts to preserve their testimonies and related historical records. At a press conference in Seoul on Sept. 6, the groups called on UNESCO to accelerate conside

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Entertainment

Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ Surpasses 10 Million Admissions in Korea — And Its Record-Breaking Run Isn’t Over Yet

SEOUL, South Korea — Christopher Nolan's epic blockbuster “The Odyssey” has officially crossed the 10-million-admission mark in South Korea, becoming the second film released in the country this year to reach the prestigious milestone — and the first foreign movie of 2026 to do so. The achievement cements The Odyssey as one of South Korea's biggest box-office success stories of the year and marks a remarkable comeback for the country's movie theaters, which have struggled in recent years agains

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South Korea

Family Waited 10 Days for the Worst — Then a Chinese Worker Was Found Alive Inside a Nepal Tunnel

KATHMANDU, Nepal — After 10 agonizing days of uncertainty, a family in China finally received the news they had been desperately hoping for: Lu Haitao was alive. The Chinese worker had been trapped inside a hydropower tunnel in Nepal after catastrophic floods devastated communities near the Nepal-China border, killing more than 1,300 people and leaving thousands more missing. For Lu's family, who had spent days fearing the worst and searching for information about his fate, the rescue was noth

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