Tootfinder

South Korea begins removing border propaganda speakers in conciliatory gesture toward North | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/north-korea-south-korea-pyongyang-kim-jong-un-lee-jae-myung-b2801303.html

SK Hynix and ASML say they assembled the industry's first Twinscan NXE:5200B High-NA EUV lithography system at SK's M16 fab, initially to test next-gen tech (Anton Shilov/Tom's Hardware)
https://www.tomshard…

ASML and SK hynix assemble industry-first 'commercial' High-NA EUV system at fab in South Korea
Initially for R&D use, until later this decade where it will transition to production

Kim promises to help Russia with 'everything' as Putin thanks North Korea for war aid (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/kim-promises-help-russia-with-everything-putin-thanks-north-korea-war-aid-2025-09-03/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250903/p2#a250903p2

⚡ POWs from North Korea ask KYIV not to send them back home #shorts: https://benborges.xyz/2025/11/02/pows-from-north-korea-ask.html

Wow, it's a big cybersecurity news day, so don't miss Metacurity for the critical infosec developments you should know, including,
--China-aligned hackers hijack servers to game Google rankings,
--Salt Typhoon may have stolen data from nearly every American,
--N. Korea has crypto workers under siege,
--House panel approves measure to renew cornerstone cyber law,
--Stealerium malware takes screenshots of users watching porn,
--M&S hackers claim Ja…

China-aligned hackers hijack servers to game Google rankings
Salt Typhoon may have stolen data from nearly every American, N. Korea has crypto workers under siege, House panel approves measure to renew cornerstone cyber law, Stealerium malware takes screenshots of users watching porn, M&S hackers claim Jaguar attack, much more

Trump's lack of any sort of diplomacy's driven America's enemies to assemble the fucking Legion of Doom.
☑️ Leaders of China, Russia, North Korea and Iran gather in Beijing for huge military parade in challenge to the West | CNN
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/02/ch…

Leaders of China, Russia, North Korea and Iran gather in Beijing as ‘axis of upheaval’ emerges in challenge to the West
For the last three days, Xi Jinping has played host in one of China’s busiest port cities, welcoming leaders from across Asia and the Middle East for a carefully choreographed summit designed to showcase his vision of a new world order.

Ett eldupphör som det i Korea på 1950-talet behövs för att ”frysa” kriget i Ukraina. Sedan kan ett nytt angrepp avskräckas med en internationell truppnärvaro.
Så resoneras det just nu i en del regeringspalats i Europa. https://www.dn.se/varlden/erik-de-la-reguera…

Erik de la Reguera: Macrons plan har ett problem – Ryssland
Erik de la Reguera: Macrons plan med soldater i Ukraina har ett problem – Ryssland

"Guryong Village (Korean: 구룡마을) is a shanty town in Seoul, South Korea. It is just across a six-lane motorway from Dogok-dong of the affluent Gangnam District. The area it is on has been inhabited since October 1925, although it only turned into a shantytown beginning in 1988. This was due to the city's rapid development prior to the 1988 Olympic Games, in which people in low-income areas were evicted from their houses and became squatters at the site."

Researchers at security giant CrowdStrike say they have seen hundreds of cases where
North Koreans posing as remote IT workers have infiltrated companies to generate money for the regime,
marking a sharp increase over previous years.
Per CrowdStrike’s latest threat-hunting report,
the company has identified more than 320 incidents over the past 12 months,
up by 220% from the year earlier,
in which North Koreans gained fraudulent employment at Western compa…

North Korean spies posing as remote workers have infiltrated hundreds of companies, says CrowdStrike | TechCrunch
North Korean IT workers are increasingly using generative AI to draft resumes and "deepfake" their appearances to make money for North Korea's sanctioned nuclear weapons program.

This is positively insane. They want us to be North Korea.
( I almost posted something that would have correctly had me in trouble with my instance. This will have to do instead. )
https://mastodon.social/@jwz/114971895683076504

The Saddest Little Dictator (Jonathan V. Last/The Bulwark)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-reacts-chinas-military-parade-with-russia-and-north-korea
http://www.memeorandum.com/250903/p85#a250903p85

I like just checking to see what football is happening on my illegal streaming sites
sure let's watch North Korea in the U17 World Cup why not
#fedifc

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/02/world/asia/xi-jinping-china-south-korea-spying.html
“You can check if there’s a backdoor.” What a knee slapper.
That Time When China’s Leader Joked About Espionage

That Time Xi Jinping Joked About Espionage
Xi Jinping gave two cellphones to South Korea’s president, who asked how secure they were. “You can check if there’s a backdoor,” he said with a laugh.

"UK, Japan, South Korea endure hottest summer on record"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #SouthKora #Japan

Japan, South Korea endure hottest summer on record
Japan and South Korea sweltered this year through the hottest summers since records began, their weather agencies said Monday.

🫁 A new crystal that 'breathes' oxygen expands possibilities for clean energy and electronics
https://phys.org/news/2025-08-crystal-oxygen-possibilities-energy-electronics.html

A new crystal that 'breathes' oxygen expands possibilities for clean energy and electronics
A team of scientists from Korea and Japan has discovered a new type of crystal that can "breathe"—releasing and absorbing oxygen repeatedly at relatively low temperatures. This unique ability could transform the way we develop clean energy technologies, including fuel cells, energy-saving windows, and smart thermal devices.

Meta expands its facial recognition tools to combat Facebook accounts impersonating public figures in Europe and South Korea, and plans an Instagram expansion (Andre Revilla/Engadget)
https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/meta-is-

Meta is bringing new facial recognition tools to the UK, EU and South Korea
Meta is rolling out more uses for facial recognition on its platforms in the EU, UK and South Korea.

North Korea IT worker scheme expanding to more industries, countries outside of US tech sector https://therecord.media/north-korea-it-worker-scheme-expands-outisde-us-tech

Heute vor 8 Jahren: Am 3. September 2017 erklärte #Nordkorea, erfolgreich eine #Wasserstoffbombe getestet zu haben. Die Detonation löste ein Beben der Stärke 6,3 aus und war ca. 10-mal stärker als frühere Tests. Die Bombe hatte schätzungsweise 250 Kilotonnen.

South Korea raises cyber threat level after huge data centre fire sparks hacking fears
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/30/south-korea-raises-cyber-threat-level-after-huge-data-centre-fire-sparks-ha…

Trump scores golden gifts as U.S., S. Korea advance trade talks
The United States and South Korea advanced trade talks Wednesday,
addressing details of $350 billion that would be invested in the American economy,
after negotiations and ceremonies that included the presentation of a gold medal and crown to President Trump.
Both were gifts from the country’s president, Lee Jae Myung, who dialed up the flattery while Washington and Seoul worked to nail down financial pr…

Promoting arm movement practice with a novel wheelchair armrest early after stroke: A randomized controlled trial
Sangjoon J. Kim (Bionics Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA), Vicky Chan (Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA), Niko Fullmer (Casa Colina Research Institute, Casa Colina Hospital and Ce…

Promoting arm movement practice with a novel wheelchair armrest early after stroke: A randomized controlled trial
Chronic upper extremity (UE) impairment is common after stroke. This study evaluated Boost, a novel wheelchair-mounted rehabilitation device designed to assist individuals in UE motor recovery during inpatient rehabilitation. Thirty-five stroke inpatients were randomized to perform additional UE exercises alongside standard therapy, using either Boost or a therapist-customized booklet for self-practice. Outcomes included the UE Fugl-Meyer (UEFM) Exam, Box and Block Test, Motor Activity Log, Mod…

Russia–North Korea Partnership Boosted by New Bridge: https://benborges.xyz/2025/10/29/russianorth-korea-partnership-boosted-by.html

Xi Jinping joked about security backdoors when presenting South Korean President Lee Jae Myung with Xiaomi smartphones at APEC, amid US concerns about Huawei (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-03/xi-…

Meta plans to start using users' AI chatbot conversations to help personalize ads and content, starting December 16, but not in the UK, South Korea, and the EU (Meghan Bobrowsky/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta-will-begi

What North Korea Learned From the Battlefields of Kursk: https://benborges.xyz/2025/08/27/what-north-korea-learned-from.html

😲 North Korea IT worker scheme expanding to more industries, countries outside of US tech sector
https://therecord.media/north-korea-it-worker-scheme-expands-outisde-us-tech

North Korea IT worker scheme expanding to more industries, countries outside of US tech sector
Okta said their new research into the scheme revealed that North Korea has honed its skills on U.S.-based companies and has expanded into dozens of different countries and industries.

Governments, tech companies meet in Tokyo to share tips on fighting North Korea IT worker scheme https://therecord.media/japan-us-south-korea-forum-north-korea-it-worker-scheme

South Korea fines SK Telecom US$97M over data breach
https://www.telecomstechnews.com/news/south-korea-fines-sk-telecom-us-97m-over-data-breach/

South Korea fines SK Telecom US$97M over data breach
South Korea’s regulator fined SK Telecom US$97M over a data breach affecting 23.2M users, citing weak safeguards dating back to 2021.

Understanding Digital Gifting Through Messengers Across Cultures: A Comparative Study of University Students in South Korea, China, and Japan
YeEun Lee, Dakyeom Ahn, JungYu Kwon, SeungJi Lee, Hajin Lim
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.16932

Understanding Digital Gifting Through Messengers Across Cultures: A Comparative Study of University Students in South Korea, China, and Japan
Digital gift-giving has become a key means of maintaining social relationships, but most existing research has focused on gifting within global e-commerce or social media platforms. The emergence of messenger-based gifting in East Asia, where Korea, Japan, and China each have distinct and deeply rooted gifting traditions, remains underexplored. This study examines how in-app gifting services on the most widely used messaging platforms in South Korea (KakaoTalk), Japan (LINE), and China (WeChat)…

KRED: Korea Research Economic Database for Macroeconomic Research
Changryong Baek, Seunghyun Moon, Seunghyeon Lee
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.16115 https://…

KRED: Korea Research Economic Database for Macroeconomic Research
We introduce KRED (Korea Research Economic Database), a new FRED MD style macroeconomic dataset for South Korea. KRED is constructed by aggregating 88 key monthly time series from multiple official sources (e.g., Bank of Korea ECOS, Statistics Korea KOSIS) into a unified, publicly available database. The dataset is aligned with the FRED MD format, enabling standardized transformations and direct comparability; an Appendix maps each Korean series to its FRED MD counterpart. Using a balanced pane…

N. Korea cracks down on ‘I love you’ as decadent expression
https://www.dailynk.com/english/n-korea-cracks-down-on-i-love-you-as-decadent-expression/

How ChatGPT-powered companionship dolls from Hyodol are helping ease loneliness among older adults in South Korea, as the company aims for a US debut in 2026 (Michelle Kim/Rest of World)
https://restofworld.org/2025/korea-ai-robot-senior-care-hyodol/

AI robots are helping South Korea’s seniors feel less alone
A ChatGPT-powered robotic companion called Hyodol is taking over some work from overburdened caregivers, much to the delight of seniors who treat them like grandchildren.

At 1:09 a.m. EDT on November 2,
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, carrying Haven Demo and 17 other satellites,
including ones that will be operated by South Korea's Agency for Defense Development (ADD),
the Berlin-based company Exolaunch,
Turkey's Fergani Space,
and U.S. weather-forecasting outfit Tomorrow Companies,
and Starcloud, which carried an NVIDIA H100 AI chip to see if it’s possible to build an artificial intelligence-…

Elon Musk Launches Satellite To Test Systems For Private Space Station
SpaceX launched 18 satellites, including Haven Demo, a key test for the world's first private space station.

“If you ask people who study the topic, they will tell you that a modern famine is a man-made disaster. Natural disasters can play a part. For example, flooding and drought can destroy crops, but relief agencies and wealthy governments can now get aid where it needs to go. So it is ultimately war and political will that keeps enough food from being grown or delivered in places like Ethiopia and Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, Haiti and North Korea and, of course, now in Gaza.”

South Korea Gifts Trump Replica Gold Crown During APEC Visit (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-29/south-korea-plans-to-gift-trump-replica-gold-crown-during-visit
http://www.memeorandum.com/251029/p28#a251029p28

"...U.S. intelligence agencies revealed ... a newly developed electronic device that could intercept ... communications ... The catch was that someone had to sneak in and plant it." Guess my plot in "Humans, Practicing" wasn't as far off as I thought

How a Top Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission Into North Korea Fell Apart
The 2019 operation, greenlit by President Trump, sought a strategic edge. It left unarmed North Koreans dead.

Weather tracker: Heat records fall as Japan and South Korea swelter https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/04/weather-tracker-record-heat-japan-and-south-korea

What a story.....
"How a Top Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission Into North Korea Fell Apart.The 2019 operation, greenlit by President Trump, sought a strategic edge. It left unarmed North Koreans dead."
https://www.nytimes.c…

How a Top Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission Into North Korea Fell Apart
The 2019 operation, greenlit by President Trump, sought a strategic edge. It left unarmed North Koreans dead.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, theme song, by Korea #Harmonica Leaders Incorporated Association. https://youtu.be/ZshhVhBv4ps?si=5xqHKHdzyh1IWB30

Ampd: South Korea's premium VOD revenue hit $1.1B in H1 2025, with paid subscriptions up 1.5M to 24.5M; Netflix has 8.2M subscribers and ~50% of the market (Naman Ramachandran/Variety)
https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/squid-game-netflix-korea-prem…

'Squid Game' 3 Drives Korea's $1.1 Billion VOD Market, Netflix Leads
Squid Game' Season 3 helps Netflix maintain dominance as Korea's premium streaming market reaches $1.1 billion with 24.5 million subscribers.

If you love Marshal Kim Jong Un, the so-called "beloved" dictator of North Korea, where people are forced to bow down not out of respect but because the regime literally outlaws standing upright for more than three seconds to prevent neck strain then I see you as enforcers of authoritarian misery not my comrade.
Real solidarity means rejecting all hierarchies and authoritarian rule, dismantling the capitalist states that oppress workers under the pretense of loyalty, and buil…

South Korea confirms that a fire at National Information Resources Service's data center, housing 647 government IT systems, directly damaged 96 of them (Lee Jung-joo/The Korea Herald)
https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10585032

Govt. races to restore services after data center blaze; 96 systems confirmed damaged - The Korea Herald
The Ministry of Interior and Safety said Sunday that recovery work is currently in progress at the government-run National Information Resources Service in Daej

Manche der von der Google-KI auf die Frage nach Literaturhinweisen gegebenen Antworten schaffen es, mich zu verblüffen, weil es sich eben nicht um "Halluzinationen" handelt; zB existiert der auf die Frage "Gibt es Publikationen zur Bedeutung des Suseok im Film Parasite?" angegebene Artikel mit dem Titel "Using Parasite’s Scholar’s Stone (水石) in a Critical Race Decoding of Racism and Class" tatsächlich.

US Army major general who has been director of operations of UN Command, ROK/US Combined Forces Command & US Forces Korea since July 2024 uses ChatGPT to make command decisions. 🤦‍♂️
A threat to the safety of South Korea and the US.
https://

Top US Army general says he’s using ChatGPT to help make key command decisions
Maj. Gen. William “Hank” Taylor told reporters that he’s been using ChatGPT to refine how he makes choices affecting thousands of troops.

Trump Has Likened Himself to a King. South Korea Gave Him a Crown. (Yan Zhuang/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/world/asia/trump-south-korea-crown-gyeongju.html?unlocked_article_code=1.xE8.vpk9.96ISF250kBHC&smid=url-share
http://www.memeorandum.com/251029/p39#a251029p39

Oxford Economics: the AI boom is lifting global trade, with ~60% of US data center capex spent on imported IT gear, mainly from Taiwan, South Korea, and Vietnam (Akash Sriram/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/great-ai-buildou…

🔦 South Korea's loot box law shows strong results, but players still left in the dark
#korea

South Korea's loot box law shows strong results, but players still left in the dark
A new study in Acta Psychologica finds that South Korea's new law requiring mobile games to disclose loot box probabilities is more effective than industry self-regulation.

How a SEAL team operation in North Korea under Trump in 2019 failed.
#Trump #NorthKorea #SEAL

How a Top Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission Into North Korea Fell Apart
The 2019 operation, greenlit by President Trump, sought a strategic edge. It left unarmed North Koreans dead.

Yeah, that’ll spur foreign investment.
https://newrepublic.com/post/200114/trump-south-korea-foreign-companies-hyundai-ice-raid

South Korean lawmakers pass a bill to ban using mobile phones and other smart devices during classes at elementary and middle schools nationwide, starting 2026 (Choe Sang-Hun/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/world/asia/south-korea-school…

South Korea Outlaws Use of Smartphones During Class
It becomes the latest country to restrict phone use in schools, with a law that will go into effect in 2026.

There's a simple way for instance operators to comply: trust your users. Demand that they positively assert that they do not live in North Korea, Iran, Mississippi, etc. as a condition of joining. This creates a legitimate good faith belief that users are not legally barred from the system.
ALSO: No one should ever take advice from me as grounded in legality. I have no legal education beyond what life has forced upon me without my consent, and I am ill-suited to teach.

South Korea arrests suspected Chinese hacker accused of targeting BTS singer and other celebrities https://therecord.media/south-korea-arrests-hacker-accused-of-targeting-celebrities-bts

Civility & common sense has truly gone to hell: Obnoxious audacity has become the norm worldwide.
And you can thank all the societal leeches that live by the philosophy of, "If you don't ask, you don't get".
☑️ Starbucks asks customers in South Korea to stop bringing printers and desktop computers into stores as workers transform cafes into remote offices | Fortune

Starbucks asks customers in South Korea to stop bringing printers and desktop computers into stores as workers transform cafés into remote offices
“You can just go and have a cup of coffee, work there—but people are taking it a little bit to the extreme nowadays,” one Korean studies professor said.

Hegseth refuses to meet American troops with beards during South Korea trip: report (Joe Sommerlad/The Independent)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/pete-hegseth-bearded-troops-south-korea-b2853601.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/251028/p39#a251028p39

Russia tries to recreate N.Korea in Ukraine: https://benborges.xyz/2025/09/30/russia-tries-to-recreate-nkorea.html

Trump tried to convince deported South Korean workers to stay and train Americans. South Korea chooses to bring ‘exhausted and in-shock’ workers home after plant raid. 😆
Also this detail,
"After a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Cho said they had agreed the workers would not be shackled during the transport to the Hartsfield-Jackson airport in Atlanta." So friendly... 😂

Trump tried to convince deported South Korean workers to stay and train Americans
South Korea chooses to bring ‘exhausted and in-shock’ workers home after plant raid

A fire at South Korea's National Information Resources Service's data center shut down 647 government IT systems, disrupting services such as postal banking (Lee Jung-joo/The Korea Herald)
https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10584785

Fire at government data center halts 647 systems, disrupts services - The Korea Herald
A fire at the National Information Resources Service’s data center in Daejeon late Friday temporarily shut down 647 government IT systems, according to the Mini

Dang, it's another blockbuster day in cybersecurity news, so don't miss today's Metacurity for our original analysis and smart round-up of the developments you should know, including
--Korea is an Asian hotspot for cyberattacks,
--The Secret Service seized equipment capable of shutting down cell service in the NY region
--ENISA confirms the attack on the airlines' check-in provider was ransomware,
--UK manufacturing sector slumps as JLR shutdown drags o…

Korea is an Asian hotspot for cyberattacks
The Secret Service seized equipment capable of shutting down cell service in the NY region, ENISA confirms the attack on airlines' check-in provider was ransomware, UK manufacturing sector slumps as JLR shutdown drags on, Pro-Kirk app leaked user personal data, much more

South Korea probes credit card company data breach affecting 3 million customers https://therecord.media/south-korea-probes-credit-card-data-breach

Hegseth won’t meet troops with beards during South Korea trip
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/military-hegseth-beards-troops/

Just before heading to his meetings with the leader of China,
the president of the United States issued some comments about nuclear weapons, or “nuclear,” as he tends to call them.
He wants to resume nuclear-bomb tests, something no nuclear state except North Korea has done since the last century.
But his reasoning is a bit confused:
In the space of one short announcement, he managed to get a lot wrong, which is worrisome,
because he’s the only person in Ameri…

Trump Is Very Confused About Nuclear Weapons
The president says he wants to resume nuclear testing but doesn’t seem to know why.

😲 US sanctions fraud network used by North Korean ‘remote IT workers’ to seek jobs and steal money
https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/27/us-sanctions-fraud-network-used-by-north-korea-to-seek-jobs-and-steal-money/

US sanctions fraud network used by North Korean 'remote IT workers' to seek jobs and steal money | TechCrunch
Treasury officials say the North Korea government used the fraud network to generate money for the regime's nuclear weapons program.

Trump Says He Wants to Meet North Korea's Kim Jong Un This Year (Soo-Hyang Choi/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-26/trump-says-he-wants-to-meet-north-korea-s-kim-jong-un-this-year
http://www.memeorandum.com/250825/p152#a250825p152

South Korea Targets Cambodia’s Scam Industry After Kidnaps, Torture and a Death
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/world/asia/cambodia-south-korea-scams.html#:~:text=About 200…

South Korea Targets Cambodia’s Scam Industry After Kidnaps, Torture and a Death
South Korea’s efforts are part of a widening international crackdown on criminal groups running online fraud schemes from Southeast Asia.

Meta plans to start using users' AI chatbot conversations to help personalize ads and content, starting December 16, but not in the UK, South Korea, and the EU (Meghan Bobrowsky/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/te…

Russia likely helping North Korea with submarine development, Seoul says: https://benborges.xyz/2025/10/13/russia-likely-helping-north-korea.html

Nvidia says it will supply 260K of its most advanced AI chips to the South Korean government and major companies, including Samsung, Naver, and SK Group (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/nvidia-s…

🔓 A breach every month raises doubts about South Korea’s digital defenses
https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/30/a-breach-every-month-raises-doubts-about-south-koreas-digital-defenses/

A breach every month raises doubts about South Korea's digital defenses | TechCrunch
Known for its blazing fast internet and home to some of the world’s biggest tech giants, South Korea has also faced a string of data breaches and cybersecurity lapses that has struggled to match the pace of its digital ambitions.

Kim Jong Un says his ‘heart aches’ over North Korean soldiers killed fighting for Russia, in rare admission of losses | CNN
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/08/21/asia/kim-jong-un-north-korea-soldiers-russia-ukraine-intl-hnk

North Korea displays new ICBM during parade with Russia's Medvedev in attendance: https://benborges.xyz/2025/10/11/north-korea-displays-new-icbm.html

Chinese National Sentenced for Acting at North Korea's Direction to Export Firearms, Ammo, Tech to N. Korea (US Department of Justice)
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/chinese-national-sentenced-acting-north-koreas-direction-export-firearms-ammo-tech-n-korea
http://www.memeorandum.com/250819/p65#a250819p65

Inside Pangyo Techno Valley, South Korea's "Silicon Valley" that is home to 1,800 startups, R&D centers, and global tech firms, as it strives for global impact (Kate Park/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/24/sout

South Korea's 'Silicon Valley' struggles to live up to its global ambitions | TechCrunch
South Korea’s Pangyo continues to anchor the nation’s tech economy, though accessibility and competition test its edge.

A look at visual-effects studio Mofac, which is part of a wider rush in South Korea's film industry to integrate AI as it struggles with weak box office returns (Sohee Kim/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Exasperation with the United States has been building in Vietnam.
Blow by blow, it has risen with the elimination of American aid for clean energy and H.I.V. prevention,
up-and-down tariffs,
indifference to requests for a leader-to-leader meeting,
a Trump family golf development near Hanoi that has enraged local residents,
and surprises like the new tax on U.S. imports of furniture
— one of Vietnam’s priority industries for growth.
It has been 50 ye…

Is the U.S. Losing in Vietnam? Russia, North Korea and China Are Gaining.
U.S. allies worry that American volatility and Russian outreach and arms sales, in particular, are driving Vietnam into a new phase.

South Korea's AI textbook program, meant to personalize learning, was rolled back after just four months after complaints about inaccuracies and extra workload (Junhyup Kwon/Rest of World)
https://restofworld.org/2025/south-korea-ai-textbook/

AI-powered textbooks fail to make the grade in South Korea
South Korea’s AI learning program was rolled back after just four months following a backlash from teachers, students, and parents, underlining the challenges in embedding the technology in education.

Check out today's Metacurty for the most crucial infosec developments you should know, including
--Scattered LAPSUS$ Hunters claims dossiers on US officials including NSA employees
--EU cops bust up illegal SIM-box service,
--Russia's COLDRIVER uses two new backdoors,
--Korea preps financial consumer data protection bill,
--76K WatchGuard Firebox network security appliances are exposed on the web,
--Attackers target OpenVSX and Microsoft Visual Studi…

Scattered LAPSUS$ Hunters claims dossiers on US officials including NSA employees
EU cops bust up illegal SIM-box service, Russia's COLDRIVER uses two new backdoors, Korea preps financial consumer data protection bill, 76K WatchGuard Firebox network security appliances are exposed on the web, Attackers target OpenVSX and Microsoft Visual Studio with GlassWorm malware, much more

An Emboldened Kim Nudges Trump for a Sitdown (Soo-Hyang Choi/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-10-23/north-korea-s-kim-jong-un-uses-missiles-to-prod-trump-for-a-meeting
http://www.memeorandum.com/251023/p8#a251023p8

North Korean operation uses ChatGPT to forge military IDs as part of cyberattack https://therecord.media/north-korea-kimsuky-hackers-phishing-fake-military-ids-chatgpt

When it comes to international conflict, Donald Trump learns everything the hard way.
On issue after issue
—North Korea, Venezuela, Ukraine, Gaza, and more
—Trump begins by bucking conventional wisdom and insisting that a bold new approach will yield breakthroughs.
Implied, and often said outright, is that past officials who worked on the matter were feeble, inept, and craven.
Trump insists that his determination and powers of persuasion will force seismic change—…

Ahead of His U.N. Speech, Remember That Trump Is Learning Geopolitics in Real Time
A guide to pushing the U.S. president more quickly up his learning curve.

SEMI: US chip fab investment to outpace China, Taiwan, and South Korea from 2027, driven by AI demand and US policies, rising from $21B in 2025 to $43B in 2028 (Nikkei Asia)
https://asia.nikkei.com/business/tech/…

US chip plant investment to outpace China, Taiwan and South Korea from 2027
Global chipmakers expected to spend nearly $400bn on advanced equipment

About Trump's Foreign Investment Funds (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-foreign-investment-funds-japan-south-korea-tariffs-trade-f3f1e04f?st=8rHxJB&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
http://www.memeorandum.com/251022/p9#a251022p9

Don't miss today's jam-packed Metacurity for the most crucial infosec developments you should know, including
--US seizes $15 billion, sanctions Huione group, and indicts Cambodian scam ringleader,
--S. Korea seeks return of disappeared workers from Cambodia,
--First Wap has built a phone-tracking empire,
--Microsoft plugs 172 security holes,
--Windows 10 reaches end-of-support,
--ICO fines Capita $19m for 2023 data breach protection fails,
--…

US seizes $15 billion, sanctions Huione group, and indicts Cambodian scam ringleader
S. Korea seeks return of disappeared workers from Cambodia, First Wap has built a phone-tracking empire, Microsoft plugs 172 security holes, Windows 10 reaches end-of-support, ICO fines Capita $19m for 2023 data breach protection fails, PowerSchool hacker sentenced to 4 years, much more

Deportation Blowback in South Korea (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/south-korea-deportation-georgia-hyundai-plant-lee-jae-myung-donald-trump-32818ea0
http://www.memeorandum.com/250913/p10#a250913p10

Shares of SoftBank plunged as much as 9.17% on Wednesday, as tech stocks in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong fall after US tech stocks dropped overnight (Amala Balakrishner/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/20/softbank-gr…

SoftBank Group shares plunge over 9% as Asian tech stocks decline
Losses were also seen in other technology stocks in South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Metacurity is pleased to offer our free and premium subscribers a weekly digest of the best long-form (and longish) infosec-related pieces we couldn't properly fit into our daily news crush.
This week's selection covers
--North Korea's fake IT worker program is a goldmine,
--The Com group called Purgatory is creating swatting nightmares,
--How age verification laws change user behavior,
--What happens when the internet shuts down,
--AI is not ye…

Best infosec-related long reads for the week of 10/4/25
North Korea's fake IT worker program is a goldmine, The Com group called Purgatory is creating swatting nightmares, How age verification laws change user behavior, What happens when the internet shuts down, AI is not yet our overlord, Some chatbots may have independent thought

South Korea to fly detained workers back as US vows more raids on employers (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-korea-fly-detained-workers-back-us-vows-more-raids-employers-2025-09-07/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250907/p74#a250907p74

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says Trump and Xi will "consummate" a TikTok deal on Thursday in South Korea, confirming a final US-China agreement on the sale (Anthony Ha/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/26/trum

Trump and Xi will ‘consummate’ TikTok deal on Thursday, treasury secretary says | TechCrunch
The United States and China are ready to move forward on a TikTok deal, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

US Migrant Raid Jolts South Korea, Stirs Investor Anxiety (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-07/us-migrant-raid-jolts-south-korea-stirs-investor-anxiety
http://www.memeorandum.com/250907/p79#a250907p79

South Korea's top trade envoy Yeo Han-koo says Samsung and SK Hynix will not be subject to 100% tariffs on US chip imports, citing the US-South Korea trade deal (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific

On Aug. 19, Phrack reported a slew of Korean government agencies had been successfully hacked.
https://phrack.org/issues/72/7_md#article
Today, the Korean government admitted it was true.

Trump, South Korea's Lee signal openness to Kim Jong Un (Alex Gangitano/The Hill)
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5469146-trump-lee-korean-peace-talks/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250825/p101#a250825p101

Trump administration in damage-control mode after Hyundai immigration raid sparks investment concerns (Dylan Butts/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/16/trump-damage-control-following-hyundai-ice-raids-south-korea-investment-immigrantion-workers.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/250916/p43#a250916p43

The New Acronym Driving South Korea's Summit With Trump: MASGA (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/the-new-acronym-driving-south-koreas-summit-with-trump-masga-aed1aad9
http://www.memeorandum.com/250824/p37#a250824p37

South Korea's Upstage, which offers AI document intelligence tools, raised a $45M Series B bridge led by the KDB, Amazon, and AMD, after a $72M Series B in 2024 (Mike Wheatley/SiliconANGLE)
https://siliconangle.com/2025/08/20/upstage-…

Lee heads to Washington for key summit with Trump (Son Ji-hyoung/The Korea Herald)
https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10560466
http://www.memeorandum.com/250824/p4#a250824p4

South Korean workers return home after days in detention following US immigration raid (Associated Press)
https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-hyundai-georgia-immigration-raid-dd97210ffb6126bdf763228dc03918e0
http://www.memeorandum.com/250912/p53#a250912p53

South Korea restricts travel to Cambodia over online scam center kidnappings; the UK and US sanction Cambodia's Prince Group for allegedly running scam centers (Christian Davies/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/aa354f02-8e11-42d3-9f64-41b81a4f27df

Google says North Korea hackers are using "EtherHiding" to embed malware on blockchains, the first time it has seen a nation-state threat actor using the method (Bill Toulas/BleepingComputer)
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/secu

Shares of ISU Petasys, a South Korea-based multi-layer PCB supplier for AI servers used by Alphabet, Nvidia, Microsoft, and others, are up 215% so far this year (John Kang/Forbes)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkang/2025

AI Chip Boom Propels Chairman Of Korean Circuit Board Maker Into The Billionaire Ranks
The surging demand for computer chips and related components to fuel the AI boom has boosted shares of ISU Petasys by 215% so far this year.