U.K.ABROAD To Offer Value-Added British Passport Renewal Service for Clients Inside the USA

Coupang’s ongoing confrontation with Korean regulators is exposing a structural risk for U.S. investors, as the Nasdaq-listed e-commerce giant remains overwhelmingly reliant on the Korean market, where it is facing mounting regulatory pressure. Coupang makes more than 90 percent of its total sales in Korea, resulting in an unusually high dependence on Korea for a Nasdaq-listed company. That concentration has become particularly significant since a massive data breach disclosed in November 2025 triggered a cascade of government investigations, penalties and legal disputes. Coupang shares closed at $13.88 (18,800 won) on Friday, down 50.7 percent from $28.16 on Nov. 28 last year, the last trading day before the company publicly disclosed the breach. The decline cannot be attributed entirely to the data breach that affected more than 33 million customer accounts, or the subsequent regulatory actions. Coupang swung to a $266 million net loss in the first quarter of 2026 as compensation vouchers and weaker customer demand hurt its results, while its second-quarter earnings also fell short o

Korea will begin production of its first satellite for the Korean Positioning System (KPS) ahead of a planned launch in September 2029, the space agency said Monday. The Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) said it will hold a critical design review with related ministries and research institutions for the KPS No. 1 satellite, marking the final review before production of the flight model begins. The KPS is Korea's planned satellite navigation system designed to provide high-precision positioning, navigation and timing services over the Korean Peninsula and surrounding areas. The government plans to invest 3.72 trillion won ($2.73 billion) in the project over 14 years from 2022. Despite the delay, KASA plans to maintain its goal of deploying all eight KPS satellites by 2035.

The Bank of Korea (BOK) is facing scrutiny over its cybersecurity after the personal information of 186 employees was leaked in a hacking incident earlier this year, according to central bank's data submitted to Rep. Lee Jong-wook of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), Monday. The breach occurred between May and June after hackers gained access to a GitHub system used by a contractor for the BOK's online training program. The leaked information included employees' names, email addresses, phone numbers, positions, duties and passwords. "We were notified by the contractor of the breach on June 11 and informed the affected employees the following day. We also reported the incident to the Personal Information Protection Commission," a BOK official said. The PPP lawmaker said the central bank should not take the leak of employees' personal information or repeated disruptions to its websites lightly. "As the central bank, the BOK should thoroughly assess the causes of the repeated incidents, review its overall security system and establish measures to prevent them from happening again

Hanwha Ocean said Monday it has won a 680 billion-won ($499.6 million) order to build two liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers. The Korean shipbuilder said in a regulatory filing that it will deliver the vessels to an unidentified African shipowner by November 2029. With the latest contract, Hanwha Ocean has secured orders worth a combined $7.71 billion for 41 vessels so far this year, including 18 very large crude carriers, eight LNG carriers and six container ships.

KT is joining the ninth meeting of the NATO Wireless Communications Standardization Project (NWCSP), becoming the first Korean telecom company to take part as a 5G and 6G standardization expert. The meeting, hosted by Korea’s Ministry of National Defense and the Telecommunications Technology Association, kicked off its four-day run on Monday, drawing about 100 officials from defense and government agencies, as well as telecom and standards experts from Korea and abroad. Participants will discuss the use of 5G and 6G technologies in defense applications and the development of standards for next-generation military communications. NWCSP is a civil-military cooperation project involving government officials and private sector experts from NATO member and partner countries to discuss the military use and standardization of next-generation mobile communications technologies. The project holds three in-person meetings a year, with its previous edition held in San Diego in May. Throughout the meeting, KT will share its experience deploying commercial 5G technology for defense applications and

AIA Life Korea has tapped Leo Ng as its next chief executive, the insurer said Monday. Ng joins from AIA China, where he has served as chief financial officer since 2016. He brings over 30 years of experience in the life insurance industry, including 12 years with AIA. The Hong Kong-headquartered life insurer operates across 18 markets in the Asia-Pacific region, including Seoul. Ng holds a Bachelor of Mathematics degree from the University of Waterloo in Canada, specializing in actuarial science and statistics, and is a fellow of the Society of Actuaries. “My immediate priority will be to listen and learn by spending time with our people, customers and partners to develop a deeper understanding of the Korean market and the significant opportunities ahead,” he said. Fisher Zhang, regional chief executive and chairman of the board of AIA Life Korea, regarded Ng as a “highly experienced AIA leader with a strong track record across strategy, transformation and financial leadership.” “Korea is an important market for AIA, and I am confident that Leo will work closely with the AIA Ko

Labor disputes at major steel and shipbuilding companies are set to resume after a brief recess over the Chuseok holiday, as unions push for higher wages and greater performance-based rewards amid strong earnings and order backlogs. POSCO, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hanwha Ocean entered the holiday with wage talks stalled or unresolved, after their unions staged or threatened labor action over their demands. The disputes raise the risk of further disruptions, particularly at shipyards working through multi-year order backlogs. At POSCO, the union is set to resume wage negotiations after electing new leadership on Oct. 2. Experiencing its first strike since its establishment, POSCO saw the union stage a 48-hour partial strike earlier this month, followed by a second 120-hour partial strike that ended on Sept. 21. The two sides are at odds over the size and structure of the pay package, with the union seeking a 7.1 percent increase in base pay, bonuses equivalent to 600 percent of base pay, 50 shares under an employee stock ownership plan and a 200 percent holiday bonus. The company,

Korea's bank branches will open 30 minutes later starting in April next year, reducing customer service hours under a tentative labor-management agreement reached Monday. Under the agreement, branches will open at 9:30 a.m., instead of the current 9 a.m., while closing hours will remain unchanged at 4 p.m. The tentative deal between the Korean Financial Industry Union, which represents workers at major commercial and policy banks, and the Korea Financial Industry Employers Association also calls for a 3 percent increase in total wages. The two sides began negotiations in April and reached the tentative deal after about five months of talks. The union said it would call off a planned strike scheduled for Wednesday following the agreement. The deal also includes a flexible work schedule allowing employees to delay their start time by up to one hour per week, with a maximum of 30 minutes per day. It also introduces a system for compensatory leave and changes to employee performance evaluations. It also calls for improvements to the mystery shopping system, which is currently used to assess c

Samsung Electro-Mechanics said Monday it will invest 4.27 trillion won ($3.14 billion) to expand its semiconductor substrate production capacity at its plant in Sejong, marking the largest amount of capital expenditure on a single product in the company’s history. According to its regulatory filing, the company will expand its production capacity for flip chip ball grid array (FC-BGA) substrates at the Sejong plant to meet growing demand from artificial intelligence (AI) servers. The investment will run from September 2026 through May 2028, with mass production on the new lines scheduled to begin in September 2028. This is part of the company’s commitment announced in July that it will invest 8 trillion won in the nation's central Chungcheong region, which includes Sejong, and 15 trillion won in the Busan area by 2040. FC-BGA is a highly integrated semiconductor substrate that connects high-performance chips — such as AI accelerators, graphics processing units and central processing units — to mainboards, transmitting electrical signals and supplying power. Demand for FC-BGA subst

President Trump and his family’s sprawling empire of cryptocurrency businesses cast a long shadow over efforts this year to negotiate a bill regulating the industry. They arguably weighed down bipartisan talks in the end, which ultimately disintegrated ahead of a Senate vote last week on the Clarity Act that failed to advance the bill. Senate...

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) is aiming to kill a bill sponsored by Republican Sen. Jon Husted (Ohio) to protect taxpayers from additional costs posed by AI-driven data centers, but his Democratic caucus isn’t fully on board after House Democrats overwhelmingly voted for the proposal. The looming Senate floor fight over artificial intelligence and...

Nvidia unveiled a new platform Monday to put guardrails on AI agents at both the software and hardware level, as major AI firms continue to discover new instances in which their agents have gone rogue. The chipmaker’s system consists of two parts — OpenShell and Sentry. OpenShell is open-source software that places limits on what...