Personal information belonging to about 10,000 Yonsei University students and graduates has been leaked in a hacking of the university's portal service, the university said Thursday. Yonsei University's information and communications office said it has confirmed unauthorized access to the portal by an external party, resulting in the exposure of personal information of some members of the university community. It apologized for the concern and inconvenience caused by the breach. The exposed data includes student ID numbers, mobile phone numbers and email addresses of current students and graduates, as well as certain system management information, the university said. However, sensitive personal information, such as resident registration numbers, was not compromised, it said. After discovering the hack, the university took steps to block the point of intrusion and requested a police investigation. The university said details of the breach, including the specific types of personal information exposed for each affected individual, will be available on its website from 1 p.m. Thursday.

BUSAN — Bukang-i the shark, which was guided out of a canal in South Korea's southeastern city of Busan after more than a month there, has returned to the waterway. The shark was seen swimming Thursday morning in a narrow space between a flat floating platform installed near the canal's exit to prevent it from coming back and a net set up as a second backstop, a day after it was successfully guided out of the canal. Observers say the fish could have swum its way into the canal under the floating platform, known as a pontoon. The shark -- named Bukang-i after Bukhang, Korean for North Port -- was first spotted in the canal Sept. 18. Since then, the canal park, located about 330 kilometers southeast of Seoul, has turned into a major attraction, drawing over 1.6 million visitors as of Sunday. After two previous attempts to guide the fish to the open sea failed, officials had waited for it to exit the canal on its own. But after it didn't, the officials made a third attempt over concern it could die if water temperatures fell further. On Wednesday, a joint team involving municipal and Coast

Veterans Minister Kwon Oh-eul will visit the graves of two former presidents, including controversial former dictator Park Chung-hee, the veterans ministry said Thursday, following through on his pledge to honor past leaders regardless of political differences. Kwon was set to attend a memorial ceremony later in the day marking the 20th anniversary of the death of Choi Kyu-hah, the 10th president, from December 1979 to August 1980, at the Daejeon National Cemetery and pay his respects, according to the ministry. Choi assumed office following the assassination of Park in October 1979 and resigned under pressure from then Army Gen. Chun Doo-hwan, who took power through a military coup. Choi is the shortest-serving president in post-Korean War history. Kwon plans to visit the Seoul National Cemetery on Monday and pay tribute to Park, the ministry said. Kwon's moves are considered rare, as paying respects to controversial past leaders like Park has often drawn criticism, especially from the liberal bloc. Kwon, a Cabinet member in the liberal Lee Jae Myung government, has expressed a commitmen

Chinese President Xi Jinping has reaffirmed Beijing's commitment to strengthening ties with North Korea, saying the two countries have long supported each other across generations, the North's state media reported Thursday. Xi made the remarks in a reply sent to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Tuesday, responding to Kim's Oct. 1 congratulatory message marking the 77th anniversary of the founding of China, in which Kim pledged to further develop their traditional friendship and safeguard shared interests. Xi said the two countries are geographically connected and that their friendship and shared destiny have long been defining features of bilateral relations, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Xi also highlighted the outcome of his state visit to North Korea in June, saying the two leaders reached important common understandings on deepening bilateral ties and further strengthening strategic guidance for their development. "China is ready to work with North Korea to carry forward the traditional friendship between the two nations, consolidate mutual political trust, ex

Merck opened a new production facility for key materials used in semiconductor deposition in Eumseong County, North Chungcheong Province, Thursday, underscoring its commitment to expanding its presence in Korea's chip industry and strengthening a local-for-local supply chain. According to the company, the new facility produces molybdenum precursor solutions used in semiconductor manufacturing. New Merck Electronics CEO Benjamin Hein, Head of Thin Films Business Bing Han and other company executives attended the opening ceremony, while North Chungcheong Province Gov. Shin Yong-han delivered a congratulatory video message. This marks Hein's first visit to Korea since his appointment as Merck's Electronics CEO in May. During a press conference a day before the opening ceremony, Hein said customers increasingly want integrated solutions backed by local support, requiring closer cooperation between Merck's materials business and its delivery systems and services business. "What customers expect is that you provide an integrated solution. They don't just want to buy the precursor. They don't

Korea's antitrust watchdog said Thursday it has begun collecting public opinion on draft guidelines against advertisements exaggerating products' use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, a practice known as "AI washing." The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said it plans to gather opinions through Nov. 11 amid a growing number of products advertising AI features, with some allegedly providing misleading or deceptive information to consumers. "The term AI is used to describe products' advanced technology, accuracy and objectivity, leading consumers to perceive their performance and reliability as relatively superior or to be willing to pay extra," the FTC said. Amid the trend, the watchdog said consumers need to be aware of products advertised as having AI features even though they do not actually use such technologies. The guidelines cover four major categories of potential violations of the Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising and include a self-assessment checklist and frequently asked questions. The FTC cited examples including electric hot-water heating mats, cat litter boxes, pil

The presidential office on Thursday refuted media criticism that the chief of the new investigative body attending Cabinet meetings could compromise impartiality and independence in investigations. The response came amid growing media criticism after Kim Ji-yong, chief of the Serious Crime Investigation Agency (SCIA), attended Tuesday's Cabinet meeting for the first time since taking office, despite the long-held practice of investigation chiefs not attending such meetings. In a social media post the previous day, President Lee Jae Myung said chiefs of all government institutions under his command could attend Cabinet meetings, but many media outlets pointed out that such a move could compromise the investigation chief's independence and impartiality in conducting investigations. "The government is strenuously working toward maintaining fairness and political neutrality in investigations and independence in indictments. This principle will remain unwavering going forward," Lee's senior secretary for the press, Seong Ghi-hong, told reporters. The official also made clear that no individua

A joint research team from Soongsil University and Chung-Ang University has developed a technology to disrupt lip synchronization in deepfake videos that use artificial intelligence (AI) to make a person's lip movements match an audio track. Soongsil University said Tuesday that the team, led by professor Choi Dae-sun of its AI Security Center and professor Kwon Jun-seok of Chung-Ang University, developed the technology, dubbed MUTE. According to the team, MUTE is the first technology to disrupt lip synchronization in deepfake videos using audio protection alone. The paper, titled “MUTE: Multi-Level Alignment Uncoupling Against Talking-Head Exploitation for Voice Protection,” was accepted for presentation at the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) 2026, one of the world’s leading AI conferences. The study was conducted as part of a research and development project supported by the Personal Information Protection Commission and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA). The research team included doctoral student Kim Dong-hyun, master’s student Kim Seung

Seoul has secured third place overall — and claimed the top spot worldwide in artificial intelligence (AI) adoption and implementation — in the newly released 2026 AI Cities Index compiled by Britain’s The Observer, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said Thursday. The benchmark evaluation, built on Tortoise Media’s established Global AI Index, assessed 57 major metropolitan centers across 36 countries using 50 indicators split into three core pillars: investment, innovation and implementation. San Francisco and New York claimed the top two global spots, while Seoul finished third, outranking major international hubs including Beijing, Paris and London, which filled out the fourth through sixth positions. The Observer, founded in 1791 as the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, introduced city-level rankings for the first time this year, capturing a fundamental shift as AI power increasingly concentrates in urban centers. Seoul’s standout performance came in the implementation category, where it ranked first globally ahead of Tokyo (third) and Singapore (fifth). This metric measu

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS) held a two-day training program Oct. 19-20 to help newly hired employees at local semiconductor materials, parts and equipment companies develop practical skills. The university said Wednesday that its G-Anchor Project Group organized the program in cooperation with Yongin City, Gyeonggi Province. The G-Anchor Project is a provincial initiative designed to support universities in promoting regional innovation. Twenty-five newly hired employees from six semiconductor-related companies in Yongin — including Rorze Systems, BMI Tech, GnG InTech, SurplusGlobal, Justem and Appletree — participated in the training. They worked in a range of fields, including manufacturing, design, sales, research and development, and quality control. The training program aimed to deepen participants’ understanding of the semiconductor industry and develop the practical skills and workplace adaptability needed to perform their jobs effectively. Lim Ju-won, a professor in HUFS’ Division of Semiconductor and Electronics Engineering, oversaw the program. Faculty me