KOSPI Plunges 3.65% North Korea Fires Ballistic Missiles

KT held the Modu AI Connect Summit 2026 in Gwanghwamun, Seoul on October 12. 17 companies, including Daum, Upstage and Rebellions, are taking part. The service will connect search, education, finance, content and real estate, with a full launch planned for December.

Naver Cloud signed an MOU with Vietnamese IT company FPT to expand its AI infrastructure business. The companies will jointly explore AI factory and GPUaaS opportunities across Asia-Pacific, including Korea, Japan and Vietnam, Naver Cloud said on the 12th.

Mangoboost started charging for Mango Inference at a briefing on the 12th. Pricing is based on token usage, and five open-weight models are supported, including DeepSeek, GLM and MiniMax. The company is building a 1 MW AI data center in Gangnam.

KOSPI closed on the 12th at 6,384.24, down 241.69 points (3.65%) from the previous session. The same page headline showed KOSDAQ down 43.08 points (4.83%) at 849.19.

The won-dollar exchange rate opened at 1,339.3 on the 12th and traded at 1,335.10 around 3:30 p.m. The article reported that the rate was at its lowest level in about two years and did not specify the cause of the move.

KOSPI closed down 241.69 points at 6,384.24. It marked a fourth straight day of decline and fell below 6,400 for the first time since August 11. Foreigners net-sold 2.0186 trillion won, while individuals net-bought 1.4674 trillion won.

KOSDAQ closed down 43.08 points at 849.19, marking a third straight day of decline. The drop was the largest since July 29 (-6.12%). Foreigners net-sold 248.8 billion won, while institutions net-bought 222.8 billion won.

HD Hyundai Marine Solution agreed to acquire 100% of Goltens New York and 41.07% of Goltens Oslo, both engine maintenance companies, for $247.53 million (331.5 billion won). The deal equals 40.19% of its equity and will be funded with IPO proceeds.

Dongbu E&C signed a contract with Amkor Technology Korea for expansion work on Building D at its Gwangju site, worth 274.3 billion won. The contract equals 15.60% of recent annual revenue and runs through June 23, 2028.

SK Eternix disclosed plans to transfer 252 solar power generation assets, including Goribung, to Solarnix 6 for 320.3 billion won. The assets equal 24.32% of total assets, and SK Eternix will lend 56 billion won to Solarnix 6 at 6.50% a year.

Izvestia reported that the EU approved its 22nd sanctions package against Russia. About 1,600 individuals and entities were added to the sanctions list, most linked to the defense industry. Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, said it was the largest expansion since 2022.

Russian President Putin signed a decree allowing Vietnamese citizens to visit Russia visa-free for up to 30 days. Tourism, visits, business, academic, cultural and sports events, and transit are covered. The decree applies from October 15, 2026 to October 15, 2027.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected North Korean ballistic missiles fired from the Pyongyang area toward the East Sea around 9:20 a.m. on the 12th. Some flew more than 900 km, and the exact specifications are being analyzed by South Korea and the US.

A University of Warwick research team reanalyzed 1999 Hubble observations using an updated chemical database and identified niobium. Niobium has not previously been reported in analyzed white dwarfs, and the article says the star may host a second-generation planet.

The Large Binocular Telescope project observed interstellar gas regions in metal-poor galaxies and obtained a primordial helium value of 24.58% of early-universe matter. The article says this agrees well with the Planck cosmic microwave background estimate of 24.67%.

In an experiment on the NS-29 capsule in February 2025, a centrifugal acceleration close to lunar gravity was created for about two minutes, and water and glycerol solutions were observed. The water meniscus was rounder than at Earth gravity, and the measured surface tension was lower than textbook values.

On the 12th, the Public Administration and Security Committee audited the National Police Agency, the Strategy and Finance Committee audited the Bank of Korea, and the Legislation and Judiciary Committee audited the Board of Audit and Inspection. Hong Seok-gi, head of the National Investigation Headquarters, Shin Hyun-song, Bank of Korea governor, and Kim Ho-cheol, chair of the Board of Audit and Inspection, answered lawmakers' questions.

On the 12th, the Trade, Industry, SMEs and Startups Committee held an audit at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, covering KOTRA and the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-SURE). Jang Young-jin, president of K-SURE, answered lawmakers' questions.

FTC Chair Ju Byung-ki said at the audit on the 12th that cartel fines are not excessive. Rep. Park Dae-chul said fines reached 1.3 billion dollars through September this year. The FTC said it is pursuing a system to revoke registration or suspend operations of businesses that repeatedly engage in cartels.

Rep. Seo Il-jun said fines imposed through the end of July exceeded 1.3 trillion won. Rep. Jeon Hyun-hee said six of ten former staff re-hired by large law firms came from the case-handling departments, and Chair Ju said he would accept a request for a full survey.

The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) gave preliminary notice of fines in October 2023, but no final decision has been issued. When Song Ki-heon, chair of the Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, pointed out the delay, KCC Chair Kim Jong-cheol said the matter is in its final review stage.

Incheon cut about 1.219 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2025 against a target of 1.555 million tons. Reductions in 2024 were 999,000 tons. The buildings and waste sectors reached 120% of their targets, while the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector fell short.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency is running a healthcare-associated infection prevention week from October 12 to 16. It has designated the third week of October every year since 2023.

The National Health Insurance Service said on the 12th that it will provide information on hospitals offering integrated nursing and care services through Naver Map and Kakao Map. According to the article, 837 hospitals nationwide can be used this year.

Based on the integrated cinema ticketing network, Chiikawa the Movie: Secret of the Mermaid Island ranked first on October 11 with 119,961 daily admissions and 1,281,485 cumulative. Assassin(s) ranked second with 108,047 daily admissions and 2,992,544 cumulative.

In NLCS Game 1 on the 12th, Milwaukee beat the Dodgers 2-1. Dodgers starter Skubal allowed two runs over five innings and took the loss. Milwaukee tied the game with a solo homer by Turang in the fourth, then took the lead on a Lara RBI single in the fifth.

KIA beat LG 4-2 in the final regular-season game in Gwangju on the 12th. Kim Do-young's two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth was the winning hit. KIA finished 79 wins, 63 losses and 2 ties to secure third place in the league and a direct berth in the Semi-Playoff.

Ahold Delhaize said it had taken some systems offline due to a security issue within its network. It said stores remain open but did not answer questions, including whether devices are encrypted.

GitLab warned that CVE-2026-97229 (integer overflow) could allow arbitrary code execution by unauthenticated users. It was fixed in versions 19.2.8, 19.3.4 and 19.4.2, and no known exploitation has been reported.

Busan-based action fantasy webtoon studio Monsterriot received about 700 million won from Union Investment Partners. It is the first investment in its ongoing Series A, and the final size has not been disclosed. The company targets 100 cumulative original IPs within three years.

Twenty companies among participants in the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' Modu Startup program raised about 2.9 billion won in private investment. They filed 458 patent applications and 192 business registrations. First-stage applicants numbered 62,944, and 500 advanced to the second stage.

About 57.54% of Gulf of Mexico daily crude output, roughly 1.17 million barrels per day, remains shut in after the hurricane. That is lower than the 62.89% announced on Thursday.

According to a commentary in Russian media, OPEC+ agreed to keep its November crude production quotas unchanged. The same article wrote that the US Department of Energy will release up to 4 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Rep. Kim Seon-min said CI leaks have been confirmed at seven sites in the past year, including 13.24 million records from Tving. Chair Kim Jong-cheol said the commission is considering an expiry system that would change CI every one to three years.

According to Asia Economy, the Board of Audit and Inspection concluded that the former KCC and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy improperly intervened in the sale of YTN stakes held by KEPCO KDN and Korea Racing Authority. It found that they infringed on the two agencies' autonomous decision-making and restricted who could bid.

Rep. Lee Ju-hee said Zeta's monthly usage time is about 110 million hours, more than twice that of ChatGPT, and nearly nine in ten of its users are in their 10s and 20s. Chair Kim Jong-cheol said the commission will implement measures through inter-agency coordination.