Korea JoongAng Daily - Daily News from Korea

This article is by Park Young-woo and read by an artificial voice.

Samsung Electronics revealed its new mobile application processor, the Exynos 2600, on its official website on Friday.

The Exynos 2600 is expected to power the upcoming Galaxy S26 series, slated for release early next year. It is a mobile system-on-chip (SoC) built using a two-nanometer gate-all-around (GAA) process.

The chip was designed by the System LSI Business under Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions division and will be manufactured by Samsung Foundry using its GAA-based two-nanometer node.

Application processors (AP) serve as the "brain" of smartphones, handling core computational tasks. The Exynos 2600 is the first mobile AP in the industry to apply a two-nanometer GAA process - a move seen as a glimpse into the company's next-generation semiconductor strategy in the race for ultra-fine process leadership, according to Samsung Electronics.

Industry analysts say the Exynos 2600 is highly likely to be featured in the Galaxy S26 series.

The chip integrates a central processing unit (CPU), a neural processing unit (NPU) and a graphics processing unit (GPU) into a single chip. It adopts a 10-core configuration based on the latest architecture from British chip design firm Arm.

Samsung Electronics says this delivers up to 39 percent better CPU performance compared to the previous Exynos 2500. NPU capabilities have also been enhanced, with generative artificial intelligence processing performance improved by up to 113 percent.

Thermal management has also been upgraded. Samsung Electronics said it applied a heat path block structure - a first for its mobile SoCs - which reduces thermal resistance by up to 16 percent, helping maintain stable internal temperatures even during high-load tasks or prolonged use.

Camera and multimedia functions have also been improved. The Exynos 2600 supports image sensors up to 320 million pixels and features an AI-based visual perception system and Samsung's proprietary APV codec, which enhances both recognition accuracy and image quality.

Samsung is scheduled to unveil the Galaxy S26 series at its Galaxy Unpacked 2026 event in the United States at the end of February next year.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

This article is by Ahn Hyo-seong, Yoon Sung-min, Yoon Ji-won and read by an artificial voice.

Amid heightened concerns over the weak Korean won - which hovers around 1,480 won to the dollar - Kim Yong-beom, presidential director of national policy, summoned chief financial officers (CFOs) from the country's top seven exporters on Thursday and urged their cooperation.

"Don't try to make small profits from the weak won," Kim told the companies.

The meeting, dubbed the "Exporters' Foreign Exchange Market Meeting," took place at the Korea Federation of Banks headquarters in Jung District, central Seoul.

CFOs from Samsung Electronics, SK, Hyundai Motor, LG, Lotte, Hanwha Ocean and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries attended, along with First Vice Minister of Trade, Industry and Resources Moon Shin-hak and Yoon Sung-hyuk, industrial policy secretary at the presidential office.

Kim expressed concern that year-end conditions - when markets are typically thin - could lead to significant shocks from small transactions. He warned that exchange rate fluctuations could widen as overseas foreign exchange markets close for the holidays.

He also pointed to foreign investors in Hong Kong and Singapore betting on a prolonged weakness in the won.

"I don't believe that Korean companies would do such a thing," Kim told the CFOs. "If companies hoard dollars overseas without making significant investments, it could lead to misunderstandings that they are trying to profit later from foreign exchange gains. Please avoid such misunderstandings."

"Do not chase small gains - focus on your core business," Kim reiterated.

Ahead of the meeting, the presidential office asked the companies to submit plans for currency exchanges for the remainder of the year and through February 2026. They were also asked to report on this year's export volume, overseas investment plans for next year, how they intend to finance those investments, and their foreign exchange hedging strategies.

The government made the request to better assess potential exchange rate volatility driven by corporate foreign exchange activities at the end of the year and the beginning of the next.

Separately, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Financial Services Commission (FSS), the Bank of Korea and the Financial Supervisory Service announced a joint plan to "flexibly adjust foreign exchange soundness regulations," to encourage banks and exporters to release more dollars into the market.

As part of this plan, restrictions on dollar-denominated loans to exporters will be eased. Currently, companies can only borrow foreign currency for facility investment; under the new policy, they will be allowed to use such loans for working capital, including payroll.

The government also plans to reduce the regulatory burden that requires commercial banks to maintain dollar reserves - or "emergency dollar holdings" - to prepare for crises.

Banks are obligated to hold a certain amount of foreign currency and report plans to boost reserves to regulators. This requirement will be suspended through the end of June 2026.

"There are idle dollars held unnecessarily by banks, which are not being circulated in the market," said Jeong Yeo-jin, director of the Foreign Exchange Policy Division at the Finance Ministry. "Easing this requirement will help release that liquidity into the market."

The ceiling on forward position holdings by foreign bank branches in Korea will also be relaxed - from 75 percent to 200 percent of equity - allowing them to bring in more dollars from their overseas headquarters for domestic circulation.

Authorities also plan to expand the use of omnibus accounts, allowing foreign individual investors to trade Korean stocks directly through their local brokers without opening a separate account with a Korean brokerage.

The FSS also held a meeting with local brokerages on Friday to urge a halt to aggressive overseas investment marketing, including promotions with zero fees.

"You are prioritizing ...

This article is by Shim Seo-hyun and read by an artificial voice.

As artificial intelligence (AI) data centers spring up nationwide, expectations are rising for new business opportunities among startups, traditional midsize firms and conglomerate affiliates alike.

With the Lee Jae Myung administration's AI transformation initiative gaining momentum, local governments outside the Seoul metropolitan area - including Busan, North Jeolla and South Jeolla - are also moving faster, aware of data centers' potential to attract companies and young talent.

Domestic AI startup Moreh signed an investment agreement with North Jeolla on Tuesday for a "physical AI data center project." Moreh plans to invest 20.6 billion won ($13.9 million) to establish an AI data center and research hub in Jeonju, while also directly hiring research personnel.

Physical AI refers to AI systems that understand physical space and time, such as humanoid robots. The technology is considered crucial to realizing "smart manufacturing," enabling collaboration between humans and robots, as well as among robots themselves, on factory floors.

The first step to a bigger picture

North Jeolla's 1 trillion-won project to build a "collaborative intelligence physical AI industrial ecosystem" received a preliminary feasibility exemption in August. The finance minister is required to conduct a preliminary feasibility study in advance when drafting a budget for large-scale projects, including new projects involving construction works with a total project cost of at least 50 billion won and government fiscal support of 30 billion won or more.

However, Paragraph 2 of the same article stipulates that projects falling under any of the following categories shall be excluded from preliminary feasibility studies in accordance with procedures prescribed by presidential decree. In this case, this allows the provincial government to link Moreh's AI infrastructure to the project and use it as a shared platform for robotics, drone and smart city initiatives.

Founded in 2020, Moreh has drawn attention as a software developer that could help Korea escape Nvidia's dominance, and has attracted investment from both AMD and KT. Unlike Nvidia's CUDA, a computing platform exclusive to Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs), Moreh's software allows AI models to be developed and deployed regardless of the underlying semiconductor.

The AI data center being built will likewise avoid reliance solely on Nvidia GPUs, instead using AI chips from AMD and Tenstorrent. By combining AMD and Tenstorrent chips with Moreh's software, the center will provide cloud services to nearby companies and research institutes.

The facility will be North Jeolla's first AI data center and is expected to ease what had been an "AI computing blind spot."

"There were many difficulties for companies and institutions that wanted to conduct AI research because there was no data center equipped with GPUs in the province," a North Jeolla official said. "Defense companies and other local firms have already expressed interest in using it."

The more the merrier

Similar moves are seen in other regions. Autech Carrier said Wednesday it has begun supplying cooling equipment to a newly built AI data center in the Mieum Industrial Complex in Gangseo District, Busan. The data center is being developed by Hong Kong-based cloud network operator OneAsia, which is investing more than 1 trillion won in the 100-megawatt facility.

Carrier, best known for residential and commercial air conditioners, is stepping up its push into environmentally friendly, high-efficiency chillers for data centers. Effective heat management is directly tied to performance at AI data centers, which house large numbers of power-hungry GPUs.

"We are currently bidding on 17 domestic data center projects, with Carrier products already incorporated into the designs of seven sites," said the company.

Busan, which has an advantage in power supply thanks to the presence of...

This article is by Lee Jian and read by an artificial voice.

In late 2024, actor Park Jeong-min announced he would be taking a yearlong "break."

Yet the 38-year-old has spent what is arguably the most publicly visible year of his career - just not on movie or television sets.

He has worked a nine-to-six job as CEO of his indie publishing house, hosting book talks, giving interviews and running a booth at the Seoul International Book Fair in June, where he drew one of the longest queues of the event. In October, he appeared as K-pop star Hwasa's nostalgic ex-boyfriend in a music video, and last month joined her for a live performance that went on to become one of the year's most viral clips.

Now, Park has returned to the live stage for the first time in eight years, starring as Pi in the touring play "Life of Pi," confronting - and gradually overcoming - a long-admitted fear of live performances.

"I wasn't just scared," Park told reporters on Thursday in Gangnam District, southern Seoul. "I honestly thought this was something I wasn't very good at."

It was his agency that strongly recommended "Life of Pi." Park said he hesitated at first, but everything changed after watching a video clip of the London production.

"I was sold," he said. If something like this could be recreated in Korea, he wanted to be part of it.

The production, which opened Dec. 2, adapts Yann Martel's Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name, featuring life-size animal puppets operated in full view of the audience. The story follows a 16-year-old boy named Pi from India, who survives a shipwreck and is stranded at sea with a Bengal tiger. The play premiered in Sheffield, Britain, in 2019 before transferring to the West End and Broadway.

The Seoul production marks the first time the show is being staged in another language, with an entirely Korean cast and puppetry team. Park - known for his film work in "Bleak Night" (2011), "Dongju: The Portrait of a Poet" (2016) and "Deliver Us from Evil" (2020) - alternates in the spiritually curious, tenacious lead with musical theater actor Park Kang-hyun.

"The real me is nothing like Pi," Park said, describing himself as far less emotionally expressive than the character. Still, inhabiting the role pushed him into unfamiliar emotional territory.

"Playing Pi forced me to lean into emotions I don't usually access," he said. "It made me understand them on a deeper level."

The character's spiritual journey was also foreign to Park. He described himself as someone who had long been indifferent to religion, but said the play reshaped his view of faith.

"Religion was never really part of my life - it was an area I felt completely detached from," Park said. "But through rehearsing and performing this work, I've come to understand why religion exists: People want to live well, and to do that, they need something to believe in. For some, that belief becomes religion."

The role is as physically demanding as it is emotionally taxing. Pi remains on stage for nearly the entire performance, carrying the narrative for over two hours.

"I have a mountain of energy jellies in my dressing room," Park said. "But I really rely heavily on the cast, and on my alternate, Park Kang-hyun. We're like family - sometimes just exchanging a look onstage gives me courage," though a live audience still makes him nervous.

"Sometimes I can see the audience's faces," he said. "When I lock eyes with someone whose expression I can't quite read, it suddenly pulls me out of the moment. I have to pull myself back in - and I think that's proof I'm still a beginner. The fact that small things can shake my focus is scary."

Park does not believe his acting technique has dramatically improved since his last time onstage eight years ago. What has changed, he said, is his mindset.

"I don't think my skills suddenly skyrocketed," he said. "But time changes how you carry yourself. After eight or nine more years as an actor - going through frustration, resolv...

This article is by Woo Ji-won and read by an artificial voice.

Each winter, bakeries, cafes and hotels across the country roll out innovative, never-before-seen cakes, testing just how far a single holiday theme can be reimagined.

Many businesses begin announcing their Christmas confection lineups in late November for reservation, and trend-chasers eager to secure the most Instagram-ready cakes book weeks in advance. At some cafes, Christmas week orders are already closed.

The practice of serving cake at Christmas - originally a Western ritual - took root in Korea during the 20th century and gradually cemented itself as a key way to celebrate the holiday.

Today, the classically served simple round cake topped with white icing has been replaced by confections in a wide range of shapes, colors and even textures. From sweater-shaped cakes that look fresh out of the closet to playful Santa characters and evermore luxurious creations made with premium ingredients, creativity spans the spectrum - all the while strawberries continue to flourish in their own way.

Texture takes center stage

This year, creativity has moved beyond color and shape to something more tactile: texture.

Recognizing the visual appeal, the same technique is applied to sweater-themed cakes. This mimics wool and gives the cakes a cozy, wintry feel.

At Cakeling, a cake shop in Hongdae, western Seoul, texture claims the spotlight, with much of its Christmas collection built around a soft, pillowy aesthetic. One of its Christmas cakes looks as if thick, plush threads in green, white, red and black have been carefully piled onto the surface.

Cakes with a sense of humor

While elegance still has its place, some cakes this year are leaning into humor, targeting the younger generation.

Even characters and themes not expected of Christmas are featured.

Pixel, a cake shop in Mangwon, western Seoul, incorporates a print technique into its Christmas creations. A realistic, grandfatherly Santa face is printed onto the cake, and whipped cream is used to sculpt his iconic flowing beard. A candle is placed where his mouth should be, creating the image of Santa puffing a cigarette.

Creativity with a cost

The themes and designs of Christmas cakes are always sure to turn heads, but another attention-grabbing aspect of this holiday tradition is the jaw-dropping price tags, especially at luxury hotels.

Walkerhill Hotel and Resort released a 380,000 won Lumiere Blanche cake featuring a white chocolate design inspired by a snowy village. Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas is offering Merry-Go-Round Melodie cakes priced at 350,000 won, which boast a chocolate-made merry-go-round, while Four Seasons Hotel Seoul is introducing Diamond Four Seasons Leaf cake, priced at 300,000 won, which resembles a polished block of luxury chocolate.

What stands out across these offerings is chocolate's role as the star ingredient. To enhance both visual appeal and flavor, hotels are turning to high-quality chocolate. Fairmont Ambassador Seoul also uses house-made cacao chocolate in its Ange Blanc cake (128,000 won) and Choco Cake (98,000 won).

Steady seller: Strawberry

Despite all the experimentation, the classic strawberry cake remains a Christmas staple.

As winter's signature fruit, strawberries have always been a feature of holiday cakes. A whipped cream sponge layered with fresh, juicy strawberries offers a balance that is hard to beat.

For Christmas, Sungsimdang - the famed affordable bakery in Daejeon - released a new strawberry cake at its boutique. The 43,000-won cake features generous amounts of strawberries layered between sheets of chocolate, filled with trendy matcha cream and finished with an additional topping of fresh strawberries coated in syrup.

Even strawberries, however, are being reimagined. Some cakes are shaped like Christmas trees with strawberries lining the sides like ornaments. DDNB cafe in Goyang, Gyeonggi, released its Strawberry Waterfall Cake, which features stra...

This article is by Woo Ji-won and read by an artificial voice.

This year's Christmas cake collection at Four Seasons Hotel Seoul isn't playing by the holiday rule book - no trees, no gingerbread houses and not even a hint of the classic red and green color scheme.

Instead, one cake resembles a dome of strawberry ice cream, another takes the shape of an elegant bowl with delicate lines and the third resembles a polished block of luxury chocolate.

"When management hired me, they asked me to create something different from the market," the 31-year-old executive pastry chef said. "You won't find similar designs or flavors elsewhere. They are uniquely Four Seasons."

For the Christmas season, the hotel unveiled three cakes: Crystal Vanilla, made with slow-cooked smoked vanilla, layered with crunchy cacao nibs and finished with oabika for a smoky, sweet and subtly bitter note; Montblanc, a chestnut cake topped with delicate chestnut cream and cassis compote; and Diamond Four Seasons Leaf, a dark-chocolate mousse cake with black-truffle cream and crunchy cacao layers, finished with a crystal glaze.

For the Diamond Four Seasons Leaf, the most intricate of the three, development began eight months ago.

Hotel Christmas cakes, however, have in recent years drawn increasing attention - and criticism - for their high price tags, with one hotel releasing a 500,000 won ($370) cake this year. Four Seasons' Diamond Four Seasons Leaf is priced at 300,000 won.

Jin says the price reflects more than branding. "Premium ingredients, intricate craftsmanship and the growing demand for unique, experiential desserts all contribute to this shift." For the Diamond Four Seasons Leaf, he said it "goes far beyond traditional pastry."

Born in China, Jin's decade-long career has spanned France, Hong Kong and Macau, where he has served at restaurants totaling 13 Michelin stars. He's also earned a silver medal at the French Dessert Championship. He said the hotel's scale - coupled with the respect he had for the brand and the potential he saw in Korea - drew him to Seoul.

"[Four Seasons Hotel Seoul] sets an incredibly high standard for quality and creativity. Everything is designed to deliver a world-class guest experience," he said, adding, "Korea itself is a dream for a pastry chef."

"The respect for seasonality, the availability of exceptional local ingredients and the cultural appreciation for aesthetics create an environment where creativity can truly flourish."

"I can say it's the biggest place I've ever worked. It's a great experience, but it's not easy," he added.

Jin has introduced several new items to the hotel's menu in the past seven months: seasonal cake degustations such as its strawberry basil tart, afternoon tea selections and the hotel's famous summer bingsu (shaved ice) series featuring Korean fruit. Seasonality and locality remain core values in his approach.

His signature pastry style, however, is the use of salt, herbs and spices. "Salt is a booster," he said. "It pushes ingredients to reveal their true character. Whether in pastry or savory dishes, salt enhances the natural taste of each component. Spices and herbs, on the other hand, add aromatic complexity and layers of flavor."

To better meet Korean tastes - which he realized tend toward less-sweet desserts - the hotel also uses minimal sugar. "[Koreans] prefer more natural flavors and seasonal, fresh fruits," he said. "A great fruit doesn't need excessive sugar, which is why most of our recipes contain less than 5 percent added sugar, and sometimes we use only honey as a natural sweetener."

Looking ahead to 2026, Jin plans to pursue "accessible luxury," offering cakes across three price tiers - entry, middle and luxury - to welcome a wider range of guests. Ultimately, his hope, he said, is "people line up for our cake." Starting in January, the hotel will also shift its seasonal ingredients to Jeju mandarin, Jeju organic honey and Korean white strawberries.

Christmas cakes are av...

This article is by Seo Ji-eun and read by an artificial voice.

[EXPLAINER]

South Korea's first follow-up talks with the United States on implementing a joint leaders' fact sheet should have been an opportunity to follow up on the leaders' summits. Instead, it has exposed unresolved chasms in Seoul over how North Korea policy should be coordinated with Washington - and which government agency should take the lead.

The ROK-U.S. Consultation on Joint Fact Sheet Implementation, held in Seoul on Tuesday, was part of ongoing efforts to strengthen bilateral coordination on North Korea policy at a time when talks with Pyongyang are at an impasse despite the Lee Jae Myung administration's hopes for North-U.S. talks to make headway next year. The ROK stands for the Republic of Korea, the South's official name.

The ministry said both sides agreed that close coordination would remain essential in pursuing future Korea Peninsula policy, and pledged to maintain communication at various levels going forward.

Missing from the talks were any representatives from the Unification Ministry, which has indicated it intends to play a more proactive and leading role in inter-Korean dialogue and cooperation. This quickly turned what was meant to be a fruitful technical consultation into a broader political debate.

Just days after, President Lee Jae Myung, during a policy briefing with the Unification Ministry and Foreign Ministry on Friday, warned that inter-Korean relations were "starting to resemble those between real enemies" and explicitly pointed to the Unification Ministry as the primary actor responsible for improving ties with the North.

U.S. experts said the controversy over alliance coordination reflects domestic political and bureaucratic tensions in Seoul, and warned that North Korea's longstanding strategy has been to exploit precisely such divisions.

What were the talks about, and what was the root of the controversy?

Tuesday's meeting brought together officials from the foreign affairs and defense ministries on the South Korean side and representatives from the U.S. State and Defense departments, led by Jeong Yeon-doo, the vice minister for diplomatic strategy and intelligence at the Foreign Ministry, and by Kevin Kim, the acting U.S. Ambassador to Seoul.

The discussions covered a broad range of Korean Peninsula-related issues outlined in the joint fact sheet released after President Lee's meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump in August and October. Those commitments include reaffirming the allies' shared goal of the complete denuclearization of North Korea, cooperation to implement the 2018 Singapore joint statement, close coordination on North Korea policy and efforts to encourage Pyongyang's return to dialogue and compliance with international obligations, according to South Korea's Foreign Ministry.

The meeting, however, triggered heated political reactions, invoking memories of the controversial Korea-U.S. working group launched in late 2018 during a brief thaw in inter-Korean relations following the PyeongChang Winter Olympics held in the South.

Though designed to ensure that expanding inter-Korean dialogue and cooperation did not violate United Nations Security Council sanctions on North Korea, the working group was criticized by some in then-President Moon Jae-in's administration for blocking progress in inter-Korean relations by prioritizing sanctions coordination.

One frequently cited example was an effort by the Moon administration to send influenza medication to North Korea on humanitarian grounds in 2019, which was delayed amid questions over whether transporting the aid by truck would breach sanctions.

North Korea's Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong-un, later accused Seoul of allowing what she called "pro-U.S. subservience hanging around [the South's] neck" as the reason the "excellent" inter-Korean agreements have not seen a single step forward. The meeting ended in 2020.

A diplomatic source i...

The author is a music critic and the director of the classical music brand Poongwoldang.

The episode known as the Christmas Truce took place on Christmas Eve in 1914, in the early months of World War I. Along one stretch of the Western Front, German soldiers in the trenches began to sing. "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht, alles schläft, einsam wacht." Hearing the melody drift across no man's land, British troops soon joined in from the opposite side. "Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright."

The song spread quickly. In two different languages, the same carol filled the battlefield.

The hymn was "Silent Night" (1818), written by Austrian composer Franz Gruber. From the British perspective, it was a song in the enemy's language. Yet it stirred no hostility among the soldiers who heard it. Sung in both German and English, the familiar melody instead summoned thoughts of loved ones left behind at home. For a brief moment, those who sang it found themselves in the same condition. On either side of the trenches were men who could not return home for Christmas.

The song seemed to take flight through the open winter sky, stripping away their uniforms. It revealed the humanity hidden beneath full battle gear. This is a distinctive power of music: the ability to erase differences and bring forward what is shared.

For a short time, there were no longer German soldiers or British soldiers. There were only men who wanted to go home. They ventured out of their trenches, set a football on the frozen ground and began to play. According to accounts passed down, the Germans won the match 3-2. But the score hardly matters. Life divides people by countless measures, yet song has a way of stitching together those who are otherwise separated.

As the year draws to a close, people often find themselves gathered again after long intervals. When someone quietly begins to sing, "When the stormy sea grows calm, will you come today, across the distant water," the awkwardness in the room can quickly dissolve. The line comes from "Yeonga," a Korean song adapted from the New Zealand folk song "Pokarekare Ana." How the melody first reached Korea is not certain, though it is often loosely linked to contacts around the time of the Korean War. What is clear is that the song later became familiar through a domestic album release and was widely sung by young people from the 1970s through the 1990s.

It is easy to forget, but the quiet magic of song remains very much alive.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

The author is a visiting professor at Yonsei University and chair of Technology Innovation Research Group of the Korea Peninsula Advancement Foundation.

Europe's economy appears to be buckling under the weight of accumulated risks. German companies have shuttered factories and carried out large-scale layoffs to survive. France has seen its sovereign credit rating downgraded as public debt continues to snowball. Although the European Union has recognized the seriousness of these problems for years and has attempted reforms, little has fundamentally changed.

At the root of Europe's decline lies stagnant productivity. Since the 2008 global financial crisis, the United States has pursued repeated waves of disruptive innovation led by Big Tech companies. Europe, by contrast, has largely settled into complacency. Despite lacking globally competitive artificial intelligence companies, European governments have argued that the "AI revolution must be human-centered," placing regulation ahead of industrial promotion. While U.S. firms sharply boosted productivity through bold restructuring and automation, European companies remained constrained by employment protection systems and focused on preserving jobs. Europe is now paying a heavy price for resisting change and building walls of regulation.

The real concern, however, is Korea. Influenced in part by Jeremy Rifkin's book "The European Dream" (2004), Korea has uncritically admired and imitated a European model that prioritizes quality of life and stability. Despite being an energy-poor country, it pushed ahead with a nuclear phaseout. Despite an economic structure heavily dependent on manufacturing and software, it imposed stricter regulations on chemicals and AI than many competing countries. As a result, Korea has fallen into an even more severe "regulatory Galápagos" than Europe itself. Even the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea has openly said it cannot understand Korea's regulatory environment.

Chemical regulation offers a representative example. In its 2025 White Paper, the chamber criticized overlapping rules, noting that the Act on the Registration and Evaluation of Chemicals enforced by the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment and the Occupational Safety and Health Act overseen by the Ministry of Employment and Labor apply different standards to the same substances. This overlap, however, is only a surface-level problem. The more serious issue lies in poorly designed regulations and their broader economic consequences.

The government has repeatedly rolled out regulations by copying Europe's outward form without possessing the scientific assessment capacity to justify them. As a result, Korean companies are barred from using essential chemicals that overseas competitors use without difficulty. There has been no meaningful public debate explaining why such restrictions are necessary, nor have evaluation results been transparently disclosed. Foreign companies can simply rely on operations abroad, but Korean manufacturers, which have nowhere else to go, face potentially fatal constraints. A realistic solution would be to consolidate regulatory functions across ministries and ease restrictions to a level comparable to Japan's.

From the standpoint of already-struggling companies, the so-called Yellow Envelope Bill scheduled to take effect next March amounts to pouring oil on a fire. The European chamber has voiced concern about the expanded definition of "employer," which would allow subcontractors to demand collective bargaining with prime contractors. The true flash point, however, lies in the expansion of the scope of labor disputes. For foreign companies that conduct only part of their operations in Korea, the impact may be limited. For Korean firms whose management decisions are made entirely at home, the issue is a matter of survival. The legislation should be halted.

Rather than granting broad immunity, Korea could instead open a serious debate on adopting a...

The ruling party and the Ministry of Unification are pressing legislation that would allow the Korean government to approve nonmilitary access to the demilitarized zone (DMZ), drawing a sharp response from the United Nations (UN) Command, which oversees the armistice regime on the Korean Peninsula.

In a statement issued on Dec. 17, the UN Command said authority over DMZ access is exclusively vested in the command under the Korean War Armistice Agreement. Citing Article I, Paragraph 10, it added that even civil administration and relief activities within the DMZ fall under the UN commander's authority. The unusually direct statement followed claims by ruling party lawmakers that the command's regulation of nonmilitary civilian access was excessive.

The command had earlier conveyed its opposition to the Ministry of Government Legislation. When Unification Minister Chung Dong-young framed DMZ access as an issue of territorial sovereignty and publicly backed the bill, the command escalated by going public.

Since the armistice was signed in 1953, access to the southern DMZ has been fully controlled by the UN Command. During the Moon Jae-in administration, tensions surfaced when humanitarian aid to North Korea stalled as the command reviewed potential sanctions issues. The government accused the command of obstruction. Controversy also followed when Seoul bypassed the command during the forced repatriation of North Korean fishermen.

Similar strains appear to be reemerging under the Lee Jae Myung administration. The Unification Ministry's recent boycott of follow-up consultations to a Korea-U.S. joint fact sheet, dismissing them as a "second Korea-U.S. working group," fits this pattern. So does the Defense Ministry's guidance to "closely assess the situation" before warning shots are fired in response to North Korean troops crossing the military demarcation line.

The legislative push raises constitutional concerns. Article 6 of the Constitution provides that treaties and generally recognized international law carry the same force as domestic law. The Armistice Agreement clearly falls under this provision. The UN Command also remains a critical security channel, able to mobilize immediate support from 18 member states in a contingency.

More troubling is the risk to Korea-U.S. coordination on North Korea policy, a principle reaffirmed through recent summits. By convention, the UN commander has always been a U.S. general. At the 57th Korea-U.S. Security Consultative Meeting in November, the two defense chiefs reaffirmed the command's role and pledged close coordination to uphold and enforce the armistice. Unilateral attempts to alter that role run counter to those commitments.

Some within the ruling camp now argue Korea should act as a "peace maker," not merely a "pace maker," after a planned meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un failed to materialize during Trump's October visit. Those calls grew after Washington announced new unilateral sanctions last month.

North Korea, however, continues to reject dialogue with Seoul outright. Rather than acting out of impatience, the ruling party and government should reaffirm close Korea-U.S. coordination as the foundation of North Korea policy.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.