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Lee Gyu-lee

Korea Times Business Reporter

Lee Gyu-lee is a business writer at The Korea Times, focusing primarily on IT & telecommunications, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KOTRA. Prior to this, she has covered a wide range of cultural news, from film, television and K-pop to lifestyle and fashion.

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Companies

Samjin Amook brings new store concept to Busan's Gwangalli

Samjin Foods’ fish cake brand Samjin Amook opened a pop-up space in Gwangalli area, a popular beach area in Busan, on Saturday, testing a new store concept through local brand partnerships and limited-edition products. The pop-up, THE WAVE Gwangan, is designed as a new brand-experience venue where customers can try the brand’s products, take photographs and participate in lifestyle programs with seasonal content and activity-based events, the company said. Samjin Foods said the location is intended to make greater use of Gwangalli’s tourist traffic and local lifestyle culture, while providing a setting where customers can encounter the brand outside its conventional retail format. “THE WAVE Gwangan is a place where Samjin Amook, which began in Busan in 1953, can create new moments of enjoyment with customers by Gwangalli Beach,” the company’s CEO Park Yong-jun said. “We will continue to introduce brand collaborations and lifestyle content that distinguish the space from our existing stores and show visitors to Gwangalli a new side of Samjin Amook.” The venue features a ter

7h agoBy Lee Gyu-lee
Samjin Amook brings new store concept to Busan's Gwangalli
Tech & Science

AI agents take on bigger share of work at Korean firms: OpenAI

OpenAI said artificial intelligence (AI) agents are taking on more complex work at companies in Korea as use of its workplace and coding tools surges and businesses deploy AI across research, coding and other workplace tasks rather than limiting its use to chatbots. OpenAI Korea General Manager Kim Kyoung-hoon shared that the number of users at local companies and institutions using its ChatGPT Enterprise has increased about 28-fold over the past year. “Previously, even when we assigned work to AI, there was a lot of human intervention or human review, but I think we are now entering an era in which we can trust AI more and entrust it with more difficult tasks,” Kim said during a press conference Wednesday to mark the first anniversary of the AI company’s Korean office in Seoul. He said the weekly active users of ChatGPT Work and the coding agent Codex increased about 14 times in the six months since this March. In August, Work and Codex accounted for 64 percent of output tokens generated by Korean users across ChatGPT’s products, despite having a smaller user base than the stan

8h agoBy Lee Gyu-lee
AI agents take on bigger share of work at Korean firms: OpenAI
Companies

POSCO union warns of 1st strike as wage talks falter

POSCO faces its first strike in its 58-year history as wage talks with its union remain deadlocked, with the latter threatening a 48-hour partial walkout on Wednesday if the steelmaker fails to present a revised wage offer. The union said on Tuesday it would launch the strike on Wednesday if wage talks fail to reach a deal by midnight. It plans to halt all production lines at the pickling plant at the company’s Gwangyang steelworks in Jeonnam-Gwangju Special Metropolitcan City and a 3ZRM cold rolling mill at its electrical steel plant in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province for 48 hours. The union said it would escalate the action with a second partial strike lasting 120 hours on Sept. 16 if the company fails to offer better terms. "Unless the company changes its attitude, we will go on strike as scheduled," Kim Seong-ho, head of the union, said at Tuesday's rally outside POSCO’s office in Seoul. The union is seeking a 7.1 percent increase in base wages, incentives equivalent to 600 percent of base pay, 50 shares through an employee stock ownership plan and holiday bonuses worth 200 perc

1d agoBy Lee Gyu-lee
POSCO union warns of 1st strike as wage talks falter
Companies

Hyosung eyes US AI power market with next-gen solid-state transformer

Hyosung Heavy Industries is stepping up efforts to tap the rapidly growing U.S. power infrastructure market, driven by surging electricity demand from artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and the need to replace aging grid facilities. The company, led by Hyosung Group Chairman Cho Hyun-joon, is seeking to strengthen its position in the U.S. market by combining next-generation power grid technologies with expanded local manufacturing capacity and its existing portfolio of high-voltage power equipment. The company said Friday that it developed the world's first 22.9-kilovolt (kV), 1.05-megavolt-ampere-class solid-state transformer (SST) in 2022, enabling direct connection to urban distribution networks. "SST is a next-generation technology that can precisely control voltage and current using power semiconductors while retaining the insulation functions of conventional transformers," the company said. Hyosung Heavy Industries said the technology could play an important role in meeting the power demands of AI and data centers, where stable and efficient electricity supplies are increasi

1d agoBy Lee Gyu-lee
Hyosung eyes US AI power market with next-gen solid-state transformer
Companies

AI hype bubbles as companies fall short of full adoption

Against a backdrop of soaring investment in artificial intelligence (AI), companies are still largely experimenting with the technology rather than overhauling their businesses, advertising veteran Martin Sorrell said, as a lack of economic pressure slows the shift toward widespread adoption. Sorrell, executive chairman of S4 Capital and former CEO of WPP, said companies have been slower to adopt AI at scale than the market’s enthusiasm might suggest, with businesses reluctant to fundamentally change operations that are still performing well. “The sad reality is that people only change when there's an existential threat,” he said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. “People don’t change voluntarily at this scale.” Despite heavy investment in AI infrastructure, Sorrell said spending on the technology should not be mistaken for a fundamental shift in how companies operate. Most businesses remain focused on experimenting with AI rather than committing to large-scale transformation. “My view is that you will not get huge implementation transformation until there's econom

1d agoBy Lee Gyu-lee
AI hype bubbles as companies fall short of full adoption
Companies

HD Hyundai, Philippines to deepen cooperation on naval modernization

HD Hyundai is seeking to expand cooperation with the Philippine government on efforts to modernize the Philippine Navy and strengthen the country's shipbuilding and defense industries. The company’s Chairman Chung Ki-sun met Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. in Seoul to discuss expanding cooperation in shipbuilding and defense, as the shipbuilder seeks to deepen its role in the Philippines' naval modernization and shipbuilding industry. The company said Chung and Teodoro met Monday to assess the progress made through their decade-long defense partnership and explore ways to expand cooperation. "With the consistent policies and cooperation of the Philippine government and Navy, we were able to make a significant contribution to strengthening the capabilities of the Philippine Navy while also ensuring the stable operation of HD Hyundai's business," Chung said. "Building on the experience of achieving business success and expansion over the past decade based on mutual trust, we will seek opportunities for long-term industrial cooperation in a broader range of areas beyond

1d agoBy Lee Gyu-lee
HD Hyundai, Philippines to deepen cooperation on naval modernization
Tech & Science

SNU professor finds key to improving stability of LMR EV batteries

Seoul National University professor Lim Jong-woo, in collaboration with LG Energy Solution, has identified a key factor behind gas generation and capacity loss in lithium-manganese-rich (LMR) batteries, advancing efforts to apply the next-generation battery technology to large-format cells for electric vehicles (EVs). The chemistry professor’s research team and the battery maker found that controlling oxygen reversibility during charging and discharging could improve the stability of large-format LMR battery cells. LMR is a promising next-generation cathode material that uses abundant, low-cost manganese and can deliver high energy density through oxygen redox alongside transition-metal redox. However, the oxygen inside the cathode can fail to fully return to its original chemical state as the battery is repeatedly charged and discharged. This can damage the battery’s internal structure and cause gas to build up, creating a particular challenge for large-format EV cells, which have less room to accommodate the resulting pressure. The research team analyzed oxygen redox behavior under

2d agoBy Lee Gyu-lee
SNU professor finds key to improving stability of LMR EV batteries
Tech & Science

Naver winds down services to bolster AI, commerce businesses

Naver is stepping up efforts to streamline its business portfolio by shutting down underperforming or slow-growing services and reallocating resources to artificial intelligence (AI), commerce and other higher-growth digital infrastructure. The internet giant recently announced that it will shut down its music streaming platform VIBE on Dec. 31, about eight years after its launch in June 2018, with new subscriptions and payments to be suspended from Nov. 27. The decision comes as VIBE struggled to gain traction in an increasingly competitive domestic music streaming market. According to the market tracker Wiseapp Retail, the platform’s monthly active users fell to 460,000 in June from around 1.5 million in 2023, putting it far behind YouTube Music, Spotify and Melon. Naver has already shifted toward partnerships with established platforms, adding Spotify’s premium plan to its Naver Plus Membership benefits. The latest decision follows the company’s broader effort to streamline its service portfolio. The company is also shutting down its video streaming platform, Naver TV, on Sept.

2d agoBy Lee Gyu-lee
Naver winds down services to bolster AI, commerce businesses
Tech & Science

US, Japan emerge as Korean chipmakers' production bases amid AI boom

The United States and Japan are emerging as the next key production bases for Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, as the chipmakers accelerate capacity expansion to meet surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors. Both countries offer advantages, with the U.S. allowing greater proximity to major customers including Nvidia and Tesla, as well as incentives that could help offset investment costs and potentially reduce exposure to semiconductor tariffs from the Donald Trump administration. Japan has a well-established ecosystem of chip equipment and materials suppliers, reliable power and water supplies in some regions and substantial government subsidies for semiconductor investments. For chipmakers, the choice of location extends beyond customer proximity, with reliable supplies of electricity and water and government incentives becoming increasingly important as companies commit billions of dollars to new fabs. “Companies look closely at incentives, including infrastructure and subsidies,” an industry official said. “They first need to assess whether water and ele

Sep 6, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee
US, Japan emerge as Korean chipmakers' production bases amid AI boom
Companies

Korean defense big 4 make global Top 100, led by Hanwha at No. 16

Four major defense companies have secured spots among the world’s top 100 defense companies, with Hanwha climbing six spots to No. 16 on sharply higher defense revenue. According to this year’s Top 100 ranking released by U.S. magazine Defense News on Monday (local time), Hanwha, LIG Defense & Aerospace (D&A), formerly known as LIG Nex1, Hyundai Rotem and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) were all ranked on the list for a second consecutive year. The annual ranking is based on defense revenue generated in the previous year. Hanwha Group ranked 16th, with about $10.44 billion in defense revenue in 2025, up from $6.82 billion a year earlier, according to Defense News. Its defense revenue rose about 53 percent year-on-year, marking the largest increase among the four Korean companies in the ranking. The company moved up from 22nd in last year’s ranking, with defense revenue accounting for 20 percent of its total revenue of $52.60 billion in 2025. Hanwha Group has been expanding its presence beyond its established markets in Europe, while seeking a broader foothold in the United States.

Sep 1, 2026By Lee Gyu-lee
Korean defense big 4 make global Top 100, led by Hanwha at No. 16
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