Korea’s Rural Development Administration (RDA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Agriculture on Monday to support sustainable agricultural development and expand bilateral cooperation. The RDA, an agency under the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said the agreement was signed ahead of the Korea-Central Asia Summit in Seoul on Wednesday. The MOU aims to help Uzbekistan train agricultural specialists by drawing on Korea’s farming technologies and the RDA’s experience in structured training programs. Under the agreement, the two countries will cooperate to improve agricultural productivity through advanced technologies and sustainable farming practices. They will also expand knowledge-sharing, technical guidance and consulting, professional training and exchanges among agricultural institutions and experts. The RDA will help develop customized training programs that reflect Uzbekistan’s farming conditions and needs. It also plans to strengthen the capabilities of researchers, agricultural workers and farmers through exchanges

Mars Korea is integrating Kellogg’s cereals and Pringles into its domestic lineup, establishing a consolidated consumer goods powerhouse spanning snacks, breakfast foods and pet care. The integration follows Mars’ acquisition of Kellanova, the parent company of Nongshim Kellogg, in December 2025, Mars Korea said Wednesday. Mars Korea held its first all-employee town hall Tuesday, marking the first official gathering since its Korea operations and organizations began operating under a unified structure. Lee said the change marked a milestone as Mars moved into a new phase in Korea and urged employees to build on the strengths of each business and brand to create greater synergies. The expanded portfolio adds Kellogg and Pringles to Mars Korea’s existing brands, which include Snickers and Twix in chocolate, Eclipse in gum and mints, and Cesar, Whiskas and Greenies in pet care. The combined business now spans chocolate, gum and mints, cereal, snacks and pet care, broadening Mars Korea’s presence across consumer categories. Mars said the integration is intended to create a unified oper

BGF Retail has opened what it calls Korea’s largest logistics center for the convenience-store industry, placing a 260 billion won ($187 million) investment at the center of its effort to remake regional distribution and support overseas expansion. The company held a completion ceremony Wednesday at its new facility in Gurang-dong, Gangseo District, Busan, with BGF Group Chairman Hong Seok-jo, BGF Retail Vice Chairman Hong Jung-kook and Busan Mayor Jeon Jae-soo among those attending. Built on a 47,186.8-square-meter site, the center has 128,072.65 square meters of floor space, making it BGF Retail’s largest logistics investment to date. BGF Retail began planning the facility after signing an investment agreement with Busan in 2021 and started construction in 2024, completing the project on July 14 after roughly two years of construction. The center is designed to reorganize deliveries across Busan and the Yeongnam region while serving as a major distribution point for CU stores. Its location near Busan New Port will also allow BGF Retail to handle import and export logistics as it exp

For GS, building AI data centers is becoming less about finding more power and more about finding what comes next, gathering seven startups Tuesday to pitch technologies spanning electricity, memory, cooling and computing. GS Ventures held its 2026 Tech Day at GS Tower in Gangnam, Seoul, bringing together six companies in its investment portfolio and one additional startup focused on artificial intelligence (AI) data center technologies. Executives from GS Energy, GS Caltex, GS E&C, GS E&R and GS Global attended, along with representatives of participating startups. The companies presented technologies covering much of the infrastructure needed to keep AI data centers running, from stable power supplies to graphics processing unit (GPU) cloud operations. Synergy introduced a hydrogen fuel cell solution for data centers, drawing on technology developed for ships and maritime transportation, while Exina presented intelligent memory based on Compute Express Link, or CXL, designed to ease data-processing bottlenecks. CoolMicro and SDT presented liquid-cooling systems, with one using direct-to

SK Telecom said it signed a partnership with global security company F5 to expand cooperation on artificial intelligence (AI) cloud security, aimed at strengthening the carrier's ability to defend against web and API attacks as well as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) and bot attacks. Under the deal, SK Telecom will act as both a value-added reseller, which resells F5 products with added services or technology, and a managed service provider, which uses F5 products to deliver managed IT services to customers — making it F5's first domestic managed service partner for its software-as-a-service security platform. F5, headquartered in Seattle, is a global leader in multicloud application and API security, providing solutions to more than 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies. Its software-as-a-service-based security platform, F5 Distributed Cloud, helps companies protect applications and APIs across multicloud environments as part of their digital transformation. SK Telecom said the partnership responds to the rapidly growing AI market and tightening security regulations. The market fo

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) has won the Technology Transfer Award (TTA) from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), a U.S.-based nonprofit power research consortium, for its technological achievements in the wind power sector. The award recognizes the results of a wind power performance improvement project jointly conducted by KHNP and EPRI. As part of the project, KHNP developed an advanced engineering technology that uses machine learning to detect abnormal turbine behavior, identify the causes of performance degradation and develop measures to improve efficiency. KHNP applied the technology to wind farms operating in the United States, using it to identify underperforming turbines, analyze the causes of their performance declines and develop plans to improve efficiency. KHNP plans to integrate the software developed through the project into its operations and further develop it as an in-house technology. The move is expected to reduce the company's reliance on external engineering services and maintenance costs while improving the performance and efficiency of its overse

Standard Chartered (SC) Bank Korea is offering first-time customers an interest rate premium of up to 4 percent on its Hi Account, as part of a promotional campaign running through the end of the year, the lender said Wednesday. The product is available for sign-up through Dec. 31, while the special rate offer — 3.4 percentage points regardless of balance — will remain in effect through Jan. 31, 2027, meaning those who join earlier will benefit from the higher rate for a longer period. The offer is open to customers who have been newly registered with SC Bank Korea for 31 days or less, as well as existing customers who have not held won- or foreign-currency demand deposit, savings or installment savings accounts with the bank during the previous year. The Hi Account has a base rate of 0.1 percent a year. Outside the promotional offer, customers can also qualify for additional rate incentives, including 0.1 percentage point for opening the account through a partner channel, 0.2 percentage points for consenting to marketing communications and 0.2 percentage points for Priority Banking

A high-level delegation from the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ADCCI) is visiting Korea from Sept. 15-17, as part of the emirate's continuing effort to strengthen ties with major trading partners and economies. The visit builds on the special strategic partnership between Korea and the United Arab Emirates established in 2018, with the delegation set to explore expanded cooperation in artificial intelligence (AI), advanced manufacturing, energy, water resources, health care, education, space and agricultural technology. More than 88 public and private organizations are represented in the delegation, including the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED), Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), Abu Dhabi Customs, Hub71, Abu Dhabi Police, Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City, Khalifa Economic Zones Abu Dhabi, Emirates Global Aluminium, Etihad Airways, Masdar City, Core42 and financial services and investment banking platform Al Liwan. Shamis Ali Khalfan Al Dhaheri, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Community Development and second v

Korea "cannot afford" to slow down its artificial intelligence (AI) progress, the country's science minister said Wednesday, but noted the emphasis should be put on responsible development rather than the speed of advancement itself. "It is an entirely different matter for a country already ahead to adjust its pace, than for a nation that is catching up while simultaneously having to create new markets to slow down," Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon wrote in a social media post. "We cannot afford to slow down the pace of AI development," he stressed. The minister said the gap between countries that have secured AI frontier models approaching the level of human intelligence and those who have not could eventually extend beyond merely a technological gap and into other areas, such as the country's industrial competitiveness, national security and even its future growth. But Bae expressed a cautionary approach to unconditional acceleration, stressing efforts to ensure safety and trust should also come in tandem with the pace of technological development. The science minister's comments come a

China is bracing for a potential massive sell-off of a high-profile artificial intelligence chip stock on Thursday, when a lock-up period affecting 14 million shares in MetaX Integrated Circuits is set to expire. Analysts expect MetaX to face “significant selling pressure” when the restricted shares are released for trading, after the expiry of a similar lock-up period for shares in fellow AI chip firm Moore Threads last week sparked an avalanche of sales that wiped nearly 49 billion yuan...