Seoul

A Blue House official says Donald Trump asked his chief of staff to arrange golf diplomacy with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung during the G20 summit in Miami. The reported move points to an informal attempt at building rapport between the two leaders, with golf long a favored tool of Trump's personal diplomacy. The claim has drawn attention in both Korean and international media as observers weigh what it signals for Seoul-Washington ties.

South Korea has traditionally avoided any suggestion it could be drawn into a conflict over Taiwan, keeping its security planning focused on the Korean Peninsula. But analysts now argue that discretion is becoming harder to maintain, as regional tensions and alliance pressures push Seoul closer to the Taiwan question. Commentators are weighing how long Seoul can stay on the sidelines if a cross-strait crisis were to break out.

South Korea has expressed regret after Ukraine denied the existence of an agreement concerning North Korean prisoners of war, according to Yonhap. The dispute centres on whether Kyiv and Seoul had a pact over the handling of North Korean soldiers captured while fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine. The disagreement risks straining coordination between the two countries on a sensitive issue involving Pyongyang.

Attention is turning to whether South Korea could avoid being drawn into a military conflict over Taiwan. The question reflects growing concern that a cross-strait clash would entangle US allies in the region, given South Korea's alliance commitments and proximity to the flashpoint. Debate focuses on Seoul's options for staying out of a war that many analysts fear could erupt with little warning.

South Korea is pursuing a broad national strategy to make artificial intelligence widely accessible across its economy and society. The Financial Times reports on the country's push to scale AI adoption beyond big companies, positioning it as a key driver of future growth. The plan reflects Seoul's ambition to remain competitive as AI reshapes global industries.

Seoul's top education official is proposing that international learning become part of everyday classroom instruction in the city's schools, rather than a niche programme. The push signals an effort to give ordinary students broader global exposure through the regular curriculum. Details on funding, timeline and how schools would implement the changes have not yet been laid out publicly.

Seoul's housing market is diverging sharply, with redevelopment prices in the upscale Gangnam district falling while apartments on the city's outskirts hit record highs. The split suggests buyers are shifting away from premium reconstruction projects toward more affordable outer districts, reversing the usual pattern in which Gangnam leads the market.

New data reported by The Korea Times shows that nearly 40% of South Korea's industrial technology leak cases involve semiconductor technologies. The figure highlights how heavily the country's flagship chip industry is targeted for industrial espionage, reinforcing concerns in Seoul about protecting critical technologies amid intense global competition over semiconductors.

New data from South Korea shows that nearly four out of ten reported leaks of industrial technology involve semiconductor-related know-how. The figures underline growing concern in Seoul over the theft of critical chip technology, a sector central to the country's economy and to intensifying global competition over semiconductor supply chains.