Former President Yoon Suk-yeol will be summoned by South Korea's special counsel on Dec. 6 to face questioning on insurrection leadership charges tied to his Dec. 3 martial law declaration.
People Power Party candidate Yoo Eui-dong signaled openness to candidate unification with Hwang Kyo-ahn of the Liberty and Innovation Party in the Pyeongtaek-B parliamentary by-election.
Suwon FC Women lost 2-1 to North Korea's Naegohyang in the AWCL semifinal, with goalpost misfortune and a missed Ji So-yun penalty ending their Asian title bid.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a summit in Beijing five days after Trump's visit, signing 20 cooperation agreements and showcasing close ties.
US Vice President JD Vance said Iran has two options regarding its nuclear program: abandon nuclear weapons through a deal or face renewed military action by the United States.
Gyeonggi gubernatorial candidates Choo Mi-ae, Yang Hyang-ja, and Cho Eung-chun launch official campaigns May 21 ahead of Korea's June 3 local elections, each with distinct first-day strategies.
President Lee Jae-myung said Tuesday that "sharing operating profit before taxes is something even investors cannot do," adding that "some unions have crossed the appropriate line." After the final post-mediation talks between Samsung Electronics' (005930.KS) management and union collapsed, the president publicly delivered a sharply worded message criticizing union demands surrounding performance bonuses. Samsung Electronics' management and union resumed wage negotiations the same day, presided over by Minister of Employment and Labor Kim Young-hoon. Presiding over a Cabinet meeting at the Blue House, President Lee said, "It is fine for some unions to exercise the right to organize and the right to collective action through collective bargaining to push their interests, but isn't there an appropriate line even for that?" Regarding labor's three rights, he stressed, "They were not granted as a force to push something through collectively solely for the benefit of a few individuals." "Even the government contributes to the growth and development of specific companies," President Lee said. "It can be considered a common share belonging to the public, but taking a fixed percentage of operating profit before even paying taxes through an institutionalized arrangement is something even investors cannot do." His remarks pointed to the Samsung Electronics union's demand to institutionalize 15 percent of operating profit as the source for performance bonuses as crossing the line. Samsung Electronics' management and union held consecutive negotiation sessions from the 18th through Tuesday morning but ultimately failed to reach an agreement. The union has stated it will proceed with a general strike starting Wednesday as planned. In response, Minister Kim personally presided over wage negotiations at the Gyeonggi Regional Employment and Labor Office in Suwon at 4 p.m., four and a half hours after the talks broke down. The negotiations were conducted as "voluntary talks" between labor and management, rather than through the formal mediation procedure of the National Labor Relations Commission. Management and the union remain on parallel tracks over performance bonus distribution criteria. The union demands that when performance bonuses are divided into "common distribution across the entire Device Solutions (DS) division" and "distribution linked to each business unit's performance," a 7-to-3 ratio should apply, while the company maintains that such demands are excessive. The company believes that if the share of common distribution is excessively expanded, employees in loss-making business units would receive performance bonuses at levels similar to those in profitable units, potentially undermining the performance-based management system....
This article was published on May 20, 2026, at 4:18 p.m. on Signal, the capital markets compass. Korean pension funds and mutual aid associations, including the National Pension Service (NPS), have sold more than 5.7 trillion won worth of domestic stocks this year, data showed. The selling is attributed to the funds exceeding their preset equity allocation limits as the KOSPI surged more than 70% this year. Critics say the mechanical rebalancing has eliminated pension funds' role as a market backstop during sharp downturns. According to the Korea Exchange (KRX) on Tuesday, domestic pension funds posted net sales of 5.738 trillion won so far this year. As the KOSPI continued its sharp rally since last year, valuation gains swelled, leaving no room for additional purchases under their asset allocation plans, and the funds ended up trimming equity holdings in a rising market. Typically, pension funds and institutional investors buy stocks in rising markets to maximize returns and sell in falling markets to minimize losses — the opposite of their current behavior. Even after unwinding more than 5 trillion won worth of holdings, the funds remain above their limits. "There is currently no capacity for additional buying, and we are considering gradually reducing the stocks we hold," an official at a mutual aid association said. As a result, pension funds' role as a "closer" — buying blue-chip stocks during sharp market declines to reduce volatility and stabilize the market — has effectively disappeared. According to the Korea Exchange, the KOSPI fell as low as 7,053.84 points during intraday trading on Tuesday and closed at 7,208.95, down 62.71 points, or 0.86%, from the previous session. Pension funds were net sellers of 151.7 billion won. Since the 8th of this month, pension funds have sold on seven trading days through Tuesday, with the only exception being the 18th. During this period, the KOSPI touched 8,000 intraday before its 7,000 line came under threat....
South Korea's prosecution service is grappling with such a severe manpower shortage that even branch chiefs are being deployed to handle backlogged cases. With special counsel secondments, leaves of absence, and resignations piling up, senior prosecutors who normally approve cases and direct investigations are now personally taking on casework. According to legal sources on Friday, Lee Jung-bae, chief of the Cheonan Branch of the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office, is personally handling pending cases. Senior prosecutors at the level of chief prosecutor or higher typically approve frontline prosecutors' cases and direct investigations. The fact that a branch chief is directly taking on casework is seen as evidence of just how serious the prosecution's manpower crisis has become. The Cheonan Branch is the same office that Deputy Chief Prosecutor Ahn Mi-hyun referred to as the "bankrupt branch" in March on social media, when she lamented investigation delays caused by the manpower shortage. At the time, Ahn said, "Each investigating prosecutor has more than 500 pending cases," adding that "investigations have already exceeded our capacity to process them." In fact, one junior prosecutor in the Cheonan Branch's Criminal Division 3 was assigned 840 cases in the first quarter alone and processed 640 of them, earning recognition as an exemplary case at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in March. By simple calculation, the prosecutor handled dozens of cases per day. Legal observers point out that "at this volume, it is difficult to conduct proper record reviews and make thorough investigative judgments." The Cheonan Branch's staffing gap has worsened sharply over the past year. Until last year, 27 prosecutors were actually assigned out of an authorized headcount of 35. Since then, 10 have been pulled away through special counsel secondments and leaves, leaving only 17 actively working. Then in March, two rookie prosecutors resigned and one took leave, dropping the working headcount to 14. The Ministry of Justice and the prosecution service subsequently dispatched three additional prosecutors as an emergency measure, but the case backlog was so severe that even senior prosecutors, including the branch chief, have been pulled into casework. "Branch Chief Lee has even made it onto the internally circulated list of top performers in handling pending cases," a prosecution official said. "A branch chief personally processing pending cases means the situation on the front lines has been pushed to its limit." The staffing gap is not limited to a single branch. The actual number of working prosecutors at the country's 10 secondary branch offices, excluding those on secondment or leave, is said to fall well short of authorized levels. The number of prosecutors who took leave in the first quarter of this year reached 57, equivalent to 43% of last year's full-year total. At some branches with severe manpower shortages, chief prosecutors are also personally handling cases. The outflow of personnel is likely to accelerate. The number of applicants for career judgeships from the prosecution this year has reportedly reached 70 to 80, an all-time high. Compared with seven in 2018, the figure has risen roughly tenfold, and it is also a substantial increase from 48 last year. On top of this, if the "fabricated indictment special counsel act" proposed by the Democratic Party of Korea passes, additional prosecutors could be drawn out. The bill provides for the secondment of up to 30 prosecutors. Delays in case processing by the prosecution inevitably translate into harm for the public. According to the National Court Administration, 39,500 criminal cases were indicted in courts in the first quarter of this year, down 16% from 47,000 in the same period last year. The longer the delay in processing the criminal cases that ordinary citizens encounter, the more difficult it becomes to secure evidence and maintain the credibility of testimony. Disruptions to victim protection and the remedy of rights are also unavoidable. "As mid-career prosecutors leave one after another, their workload is increasingly shifting to junior prosecutors," one senior prosecutor said. "A vicious cycle is unfolding in which rookie and junior prosecutors quit again because of the excessive workload."...
President Lee Jae-myung said Tuesday that "sharing operating profit before taxes is something even investors cannot do," adding that "some unions have crossed the appropriate line." After the final post-mediation talks between Samsung Electronics' (005930.KS) management and union collapsed, the president publicly delivered a sharply worded message criticizing union demands surrounding performance bonuses. Samsung Electronics' management and union resumed wage negotiations the same day, presided over by Minister of Employment and Labor Kim Young-hoon. Presiding over a Cabinet meeting at the Blue House, President Lee said, "It is fine for some unions to exercise the right to organize and the right to collective action through collective bargaining to push their interests, but isn't there an appropriate line even for that?" Regarding labor's three rights, he stressed, "They were not granted as a force to push something through collectively solely for the benefit of a few individuals." "Even the government contributes to the growth and development of specific companies," President Lee said. "It can be considered a common share belonging to the public, but taking a fixed percentage of operating profit before even paying taxes through an institutionalized arrangement is something even investors cannot do." His remarks pointed to the Samsung Electronics union's demand to institutionalize 15 percent of operating profit as the source for performance bonuses as crossing the line. Samsung Electronics' management and union held consecutive negotiation sessions from the 18th through Tuesday morning but ultimately failed to reach an agreement. The union has stated it will proceed with a general strike starting Wednesday as planned. In response, Minister Kim personally presided over wage negotiations at the Gyeonggi Regional Employment and Labor Office in Suwon at 4 p.m., four and a half hours after the talks broke down. The negotiations were conducted as "voluntary talks" between labor and management, rather than through the formal mediation procedure of the National Labor Relations Commission. Management and the union remain on parallel tracks over performance bonus distribution criteria. The union demands that when performance bonuses are divided into "common distribution across the entire Device Solutions (DS) division" and "distribution linked to each business unit's performance," a 7-to-3 ratio should apply, while the company maintains that such demands are excessive. The company believes that if the share of common distribution is excessively expanded, employees in loss-making business units would receive performance bonuses at levels similar to those in profitable units, potentially undermining the performance-based management system....
This article was published on May 20, 2026, at 4:18 p.m. on Signal, the capital markets compass. Korean pension funds and mutual aid associations, including the National Pension Service (NPS), have sold more than 5.7 trillion won worth of domestic stocks this year, data showed. The selling is attributed to the funds exceeding their preset equity allocation limits as the KOSPI surged more than 70% this year. Critics say the mechanical rebalancing has eliminated pension funds' role as a market backstop during sharp downturns. According to the Korea Exchange (KRX) on Tuesday, domestic pension funds posted net sales of 5.738 trillion won so far this year. As the KOSPI continued its sharp rally since last year, valuation gains swelled, leaving no room for additional purchases under their asset allocation plans, and the funds ended up trimming equity holdings in a rising market. Typically, pension funds and institutional investors buy stocks in rising markets to maximize returns and sell in falling markets to minimize losses — the opposite of their current behavior. Even after unwinding more than 5 trillion won worth of holdings, the funds remain above their limits. "There is currently no capacity for additional buying, and we are considering gradually reducing the stocks we hold," an official at a mutual aid association said. As a result, pension funds' role as a "closer" — buying blue-chip stocks during sharp market declines to reduce volatility and stabilize the market — has effectively disappeared. According to the Korea Exchange, the KOSPI fell as low as 7,053.84 points during intraday trading on Tuesday and closed at 7,208.95, down 62.71 points, or 0.86%, from the previous session. Pension funds were net sellers of 151.7 billion won. Since the 8th of this month, pension funds have sold on seven trading days through Tuesday, with the only exception being the 18th. During this period, the KOSPI touched 8,000 intraday before its 7,000 line came under threat....
South Korea's prosecution service is grappling with such a severe manpower shortage that even branch chiefs are being deployed to handle backlogged cases. With special counsel secondments, leaves of absence, and resignations piling up, senior prosecutors who normally approve cases and direct investigations are now personally taking on casework. According to legal sources on Friday, Lee Jung-bae, chief of the Cheonan Branch of the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office, is personally handling pending cases. Senior prosecutors at the level of chief prosecutor or higher typically approve frontline prosecutors' cases and direct investigations. The fact that a branch chief is directly taking on casework is seen as evidence of just how serious the prosecution's manpower crisis has become. The Cheonan Branch is the same office that Deputy Chief Prosecutor Ahn Mi-hyun referred to as the "bankrupt branch" in March on social media, when she lamented investigation delays caused by the manpower shortage. At the time, Ahn said, "Each investigating prosecutor has more than 500 pending cases," adding that "investigations have already exceeded our capacity to process them." In fact, one junior prosecutor in the Cheonan Branch's Criminal Division 3 was assigned 840 cases in the first quarter alone and processed 640 of them, earning recognition as an exemplary case at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in March. By simple calculation, the prosecutor handled dozens of cases per day. Legal observers point out that "at this volume, it is difficult to conduct proper record reviews and make thorough investigative judgments." The Cheonan Branch's staffing gap has worsened sharply over the past year. Until last year, 27 prosecutors were actually assigned out of an authorized headcount of 35. Since then, 10 have been pulled away through special counsel secondments and leaves, leaving only 17 actively working. Then in March, two rookie prosecutors resigned and one took leave, dropping the working headcount to 14. The Ministry of Justice and the prosecution service subsequently dispatched three additional prosecutors as an emergency measure, but the case backlog was so severe that even senior prosecutors, including the branch chief, have been pulled into casework. "Branch Chief Lee has even made it onto the internally circulated list of top performers in handling pending cases," a prosecution official said. "A branch chief personally processing pending cases means the situation on the front lines has been pushed to its limit." The staffing gap is not limited to a single branch. The actual number of working prosecutors at the country's 10 secondary branch offices, excluding those on secondment or leave, is said to fall well short of authorized levels. The number of prosecutors who took leave in the first quarter of this year reached 57, equivalent to 43% of last year's full-year total. At some branches with severe manpower shortages, chief prosecutors are also personally handling cases. The outflow of personnel is likely to accelerate. The number of applicants for career judgeships from the prosecution this year has reportedly reached 70 to 80, an all-time high. Compared with seven in 2018, the figure has risen roughly tenfold, and it is also a substantial increase from 48 last year. On top of this, if the "fabricated indictment special counsel act" proposed by the Democratic Party of Korea passes, additional prosecutors could be drawn out. The bill provides for the secondment of up to 30 prosecutors. Delays in case processing by the prosecution inevitably translate into harm for the public. According to the National Court Administration, 39,500 criminal cases were indicted in courts in the first quarter of this year, down 16% from 47,000 in the same period last year. The longer the delay in processing the criminal cases that ordinary citizens encounter, the more difficult it becomes to secure evidence and maintain the credibility of testimony. Disruptions to victim protection and the remedy of rights are also unavoidable. "As mid-career prosecutors leave one after another, their workload is increasingly shifting to junior prosecutors," one senior prosecutor said. "A vicious cycle is unfolding in which rookie and junior prosecutors quit again because of the excessive workload."...
Three Korean industrial companies are building the physical layer of the AI era in three different countries. Hyundai Motor Group is constructing a humanoid robot actuator factory in the US for 350,000 units per year. SK Innovation just broke ground on a 2.3-billion-dollar LNG power cluster in Vietnam designed to anchor an AI data center. And LG Energy Solution is partnering with Honda and Hanoi city to build battery-swap stations for Vietnam's 80-million scooter fleet.In today's AI PRISM: Industry Daily, we trace the common thread — Korean industrial firms moving upstream in AI and energy infrastructure across Southeast Asia and the US — and what it means for global supply chains.Sources:• Hyundai Motor Group Plans Robot Parts Factory in US Alongside 30,000-Unit Atlas Production — Seoul Economic Daily, May 19, 2026• SK Innovation Breaks Ground on 2.3 Billion Dollar LNG Cluster in Vietnam — Seoul Economic Daily, May 19, 2026• LG Energy Solution Partners with Honda and Hanoi for Vietnam Electric Scooter Battery Swap — Seoul Economic Daily, May 19, 2026About AI PRISM:AI PRISM is Seoul Economic Daily's WAN-IFRA award-winning newsroom AI series, delivering Korean economic news adapted for global audiences. Episodes are produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor.Tags:#HyundaiMotor #BostonDynamics #Atlas #SKInnovation #LGEnergySolution #Honda #Vietnam #KoreaIndustry #Humanoid #BatterySwap #AIPRISM #SeoulEconomicDaily #WANIFRA
Non-resident single-home owners with jeonse contracts expiring after July 11 are unable to benefit from the government's expanded actual residence exemption due to the renewal right's two-month notice requirement.
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Korean banks, insurers, and card companies are accelerating AI transformation (AX), with Woori Bank's AI agent project led by Samsung SDS signaling broader industry shift toward AI-driven workflows.
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Kim Ji-young in Milan
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Suwon FC Women lost 2-1 to North Korea's Naegohyang in the AWCL semifinal, with goalpost misfortune and a missed Ji So-yun penalty ending their Asian title bid.
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