Tootfinder

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

US military has adopted an aggressive push to embrace AI; the top US Army commander in South Korea says "Chat and I" have become "really close lately" (Business Insider)
https://www.businessinsider.com/even-top-generals-are…

Even top generals are looking to AI chatbots for answers
Some military leaders are turning to AI chatbots for help with decision-making, seeing this tech as a way to get the advantage.

For all of its efforts to drive a domestic manufacturing boom in key industries,
the United States remains heavily reliant on Asian expertise to build batteries -- the powerful technologies that underpin drones, electric vehicles, and much more. 
It’s a reality that was laid bare last week when U.S. immigration officials raided an EV battery plant construction site in Georgia
and detained around 475 workers,
most of whom were South Korean nationals.
The plant i…

Trump’s Hyundai Raid Drains U.S. Battery Brains
The United States can’t build the powerful technologies on its own.

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

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

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

WBD announces a multi-year partnership with the South Korean media company CJ ENM with the primary goal of creating a K-drama pipeline for HBO Max (Loree Seitz/The Wrap)
https://www.thewrap.com/warner-bros-discovery-partnership-cj-enm-k-drama-pipeli…

Warner Bros. Discovery Partners With Korea's CJ ENM to Produce HBO Max K-Dramas
Warner Bros. Discovery has inked a partnership with Korean media company CJ ENM with the primary goal of creating a K-drama pipeline for HBO Max.

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…

ICE arrested South Koreans in raid at Hyundai plant near Savannah.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj6xe5d6103o

Most of the returnees declined to talk to reporters as they were whisked away by their families.
A handful answered questions, providing the first accounts of what had happened from the perspective of those who had been detained.
Two of them described hearing about the raid before it happened.
Some said they had gone to the United States on a visa waiver program or had traveled on a business visa,
and expressed confusion about why they had been detained.
The …

Freed South Korean Workers Return From the U.S. to Tearful Cheers
The workers, whose detention in a workplace immigration sweep set off outrage in South Korea, expressed both relief and anger.

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

Unpacking Discourses on Childbirth and Parenthood in Popular Social Media Platforms Across China, Japan, and South Korea
Zheng Wei, Yunqi Li, Yucheng He, Yuelu Li, Xian Xu, Huamin Qu, Pan Hui, Muzhi Zhou
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.06788

Unpacking Discourses on Childbirth and Parenthood in Popular Social Media Platforms Across China, Japan, and South Korea
Social media use has been shown to be associated with low fertility desires. However, we know little about the discourses surrounding childbirth and parenthood that people consume online. We analyze 219,127 comments on 668 short videos related to reproduction and parenthood from Douyin and Tiktok in China, South Korea, and Japan, a region famous for its extremely low fertility level, to examine the topics and sentiment expressed online. BERTopic model is used to assist thematic analysis, and a …

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 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.

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

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)…

You have entered the Ice Agt
The largest-ever single-site immigration raid in U.S. history unfolded Thursday
when federal agents arrested nearly 500 workers at a Hyundai facility in Georgia.
Most workers were Korean nationals who were building an electric vehicle battery plant.
Hyundai is investing over $12 billion in a record-setting economic development deal with the state,
and the South Korean government recently agreed to invest hundreds of billions more in t…

ICE Conducts Largest-Ever Raid at Georgia Hyundai Plant: 475 Arrested, Mostly Korean
We get an update on the largest-ever single-site immigration raid in U.S. history that unfolded Thursday when federal agents arrested nearly 500 workers at a Hyundai facility in Georgia. Most workers were Korean nationals who were building an electric vehicle battery plant. Hyundai is investing over $12 billion in a record-setting economic development deal with the state, and the South Korean government recently agreed to invest hundreds of billions more in the U.S. in exchange for lower tariff…

"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."

Second ransomware attack in two months disrupts South Korean ticketing giant https://therecord.media/yes24-second-ransomware-attack-kpop-ticketing-affected

At least 475 workers detained in major Ice raid at US Hyundai factory
South Korea alarmed after hundreds of nationals arrested at Georgia work site making batteries for Hyundai and Kia cars

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

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.

"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.

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

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…

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

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

U.S. Frees Hundreds of South Koreans Without Handcuffs After Immigration Raid (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/south-koreans-are-freed-in-georgia-after-hyundai-immigration-raid-6da45736
http://www.memeorandum.com/250911/p59#a250911p59

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.

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

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

South Korea says it has no written pact on US trade deal (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-korea-says-it-has-no-written-pact-us-trade-deal-2025-08-01/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250801/p17#a250801p17

Trump was set to officially begin levying higher import taxes on dozens of countries Thursday,
-- just as the economic fallout of his monthslong tariff threats has begun to create visible damage for the U.S. economy.
The White House said that starting just after midnight that goods from more than 60 countries and the European Union would face tariff rates of 10% or higher.
Products from the European Union, Japan and South Korea will be taxed at 15%, while imports from Taiw…

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.

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

Disproportionate Voices: Participation Inequality and Hostile Engagement in News Comments
Sangbeom Kim, Seonhye Noh
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.16040 https://

Disproportionate Voices: Participation Inequality and Hostile Engagement in News Comments
Digital platforms were expected to foster broad participation in public discourse, yet online engagement remains highly unequal and underexplored. This study examines the digital participation divide and its link to hostile engagement in news comment sections. Analyzing 260 million comments from 6.2 million users over 13 years on Naver News, South Korea's largest news aggregation platform, we quantify participation inequality using the Gini and Palma indexes and estimate hostility levels with a…

North Korea says South Korea's overtures 'great miscalculation' (Jack Kim/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/north-korea-says-south-koreas-overtures-great-miscalculation-2025-07-28/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250728/p3#a250728p3

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.

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

Purdue student detained by ICE and taken to troubled Louisiana holding facility (Mike Potter/WALV-TV)
https://www.wthr.com/article/news/politics/national-politics/purdue-student-detained-by-ice-and-taken-to-louisiana-holding-facility-yeonsoo-go-immigration-south-korea-pharmacy-episcopal-customs-enforecment-visa/531-87482652-6ea4-4ff9-9d7a-d60c34869820
http://www.memeorandum.com/250804/p114#a250804p114

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

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

Microsoft delays Xbox Game Pass Ultimate price hikes for existing subscribers in Germany, Ireland, South Korea, India, and others, after announcing a 50% hike (Tom Warren/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/news/794032/microsoft-xbox-game-pass-u…

Microsoft delays Xbox Game Pass Ultimate price hikes for some subscribers
Microsoft is reversing its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate price hike for some subscribers. It comes less than a week after the 50 percent price increase.

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

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.

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…

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

"How Switzerland’s Solar Train Tracks Could Reshape Renewable Energy"
#Switzerland #Trains #SolarPower #Energy

How Switzerland’s Solar Train Tracks Could Reshape Renewable Energy | Happy Eco News
Switzerland is testing solar train tracks to generate clean energy using unused rail space. These removable panels could power 300,000 homes, create jobs, and reduce land use. Countries like South Korea and Japan are watching closely. If successful, the system could offer a new way to meet global energy demands.Switzerland is testing solar train tracks to generate clean energy using unused rail space. These removable panels could power 300,000 homes, create jobs, and reduce land use. Countries …

Sources: the Trump admin is pressuring South Korea, Brazil, the EU, and others to drop plans for new taxes on US tech firms as a part of broader trade talks (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-trade-talks-tech-industry-e1061e53

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-…