Dongwon Industries, Korea’s leading seafood conglomerate, has deployed a state-of-the-art 2,000-ton fishing vessel equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) and aerial drones to track tuna schools and enhance crew safety in the South Pacific. The company held a launch ceremony for the Danuri at Dadae Port in Busan Thursday afternoon, with about 200 people attending, including Oceans and Fisheries Minister Hwang Jong-woo, Dongwon Group Chairman Kim Nam-jung and Dongwon Industries CEO Park Sang-jin. Built with an investment of more than 50 billion won ($35 million), the vessel brings advanced technology to nearly every stage of tuna fishing, from locating schools to preserving the catch. Danuri carries two drones designed specifically for fish detection, capable of taking off and landing automatically while the vessel is moving and flying at speeds of up to 120 kilometers per hour. Footage captured by the drones is analyzed in real time by AI systems in the vessel's control room, while three-dimensional sonar and radar help crews identify fish schools and improve fishing efficiency. The

Korea’s four largest financial groups — KB, Shinhan, Hana and Woori — have shown strong earnings for the third quarter of this year, posting a combined 5.76 trillion won ($4.31 billion) in net profit. But a recent wave of cyberattacks and data breaches, as well as tougher regulatory scrutiny of corporate governance, are adding to the challenges they face, industry officials said Thursday. According to market data, KB Financial Group led the pack with a third-quarter net profit of 1.91 trillion won, up 13.1 percent from a year earlier. Its cumulative profit for the first nine months reached a record 5.79 trillion won. Shinhan followed with 1.58 trillion won, an 11.3 percent increase from the same period last year. Its nine-month net profit also hit a record, at 5.03 trillion won. Hana logged a net profit of 1.22 trillion won, its highest quarterly figure since the 2015 merger of Hana Bank and Korea Exchange Bank. Woori was the only one of the four to post a decline, with net profit falling 15.7 percent to 1.04 trillion won. Even so, it recorded a quarterly profit of over 1 trillion

Hyosung Group Chairman Cho Hyun-joon called for a fundamental overhaul of work practices and a more resilient corporate culture, Thursday, urging employees to remain steadfast in pursuing their goals as the group marked its 60th anniversary. Speaking at a ceremony at Hyosung’s headquarters in Seoul, Cho said mounting government debt, fiscal deficits, prolonged overseas wars and spreading protectionism in global trade were worsening the business environment. “Our company is by no means immune to these crises,” Cho said. “What we need to overcome them and achieve a new leap forward is an intense commitment to our goals.” He outlined persistence, meticulousness and reliability as key values. “These are not simply slogans,” he said. “They are the attitudes and principles we must put into practice to survive, outperform our competitors and embark on our next 100 years.” Cho also highlighted the meaning of Hyosung’s name, “morning star,” urging employees to remain hopeful through adversity and forge a new future through diligence and perseverance. The ceremony also recogn

Korean defense firm Hanwha Aerospace said Thursday it swung to a net loss in the third quarter, weighed down by delayed weapons deliveries and one-off costs. The company posted a net loss of 36.7 billion won ($27.5 million) for the July-September period, reversing a profit of 699 billion won a year earlier, according to a regulatory filing. Operating profit fell 46.2 percent on-year to 452 billion won, while revenue declined 6 percent to 6.09 trillion won. Hanwha Aerospace attributed the weaker performance partly to the postponement of K9 self-propelled howitzer deliveries to Poland until the fourth quarter. Some weapons deliveries had also been completed ahead of schedule in the second quarter. The company's ground defense division reported revenue of 1.24 trillion won and operating profit of 21.7 billion won. Its order backlog stood at 35 trillion won as of the end of September. The aerospace division posted revenue of 659.9 billion won and an operating loss of 2.4 billion won, as increased deliveries of geared turbofan (GTF) engines to its client led to higher losses under its risk- an

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) announced Thursday that it had ended negotiations with a consortium of Daewoo E&C and Doosan Enerbility over a construction contract for a 26 trillion won ($19.4 billion) nuclear power project in the Czech Republic, after the two sides failed to reach an agreement on key terms. KHNP said it would begin terminating its cooperation agreement with the consortium and prepare a competitive bidding process to select a new contractor, seeking to minimize disruption to construction of the two Korean-designed APR1000 reactors at the country’s Dukovany site. “KHNP and the construction consortium had worked to reach an amicable agreement through working-level negotiations, a dispute mediation committee and management-level talks, but failed to reach a final agreement,” the state-run nuclear operator said. The breakdown follows about 15 months of negotiations after KHNP signed the main contract with Elektrarna Dukovany II, the Czech state-run company in charge of the project, in June 2025. KHNP said the two sides had already been at odds over key contract ter

Fines and stricter regulations are no panacea for a growing wave of suspected artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted cyberattacks targeting Korea's financial sector, a cybersecurity expert said Thursday, calling for a government task force to overhaul the country’s cybersecurity defenses. "Humans simply cannot keep up with AI agents' hacking threats. The entire paradigm of cybersecurity has changed, requiring both the government and the private sector to rethink how they defend against cyberattacks," Lim Jong-in, chair of the AI committee at Soongsil University, said in a phone interview with The Korea Times. Lim, a former presidential special adviser on cybersecurity, called for the launch of a presidential office-led task force to coordinate responses to AI-driven threats, warning that such attacks will become more sophisticated. His warning comes as suspected AI-assisted cyberattacks ripple through Korea's financial sector, spreading from commercial banks to brokerages and cryptocurrency exchanges. Brokerage firm Daishin Securities, cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb and asset manager M