KOSPI closes up 3.29% Park Sung-jae sentenced to 9 years on appeal

At the National Assembly Political Affairs Committee comprehensive parliamentary audit on the 21st, Minister of Patriots and Veterans Affairs Kwon Oh-eul, Director of the Office for Government Policy Coordination Im Gi-geun, and Chair of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission Jeong Il-yeon answered questions. Newspim and Asia Today reported this in photo stories.

The Seoul High Court's First Criminal Division sentenced former Justice Minister Park Sung-jae to 9 years on the 21st on charges including serving in a key role in an insurrection. This is 16 years less than the 25-year first-instance sentence. Some acts and the charge of obstructing rights through abuse of authority were overturned and found not guilty.

Exports for October 1-20 totaled $61.6 billion, up 105.4%. The trade balance was a $14.5 billion surplus. The article said this is the highest ever for the same October period.

The 3-year government bond yield closed at 3.822% on the 21st, down 1.8bp from the previous day. The 2-year closed at 3.782%, the 5-year at 3.965%, and the 10-year at 4.160%. The article said this was one day before the Monetary Policy Board meeting.

The Bank of Korea's preliminary September producer price index was 129.78, up 0.2% from August and up 7.7% year on year. Napa cabbage (+42.9%) and residential electricity (+13.4%) were cited as the main factors.

On the 21st, KOSPI's intraday high was 5816.43 (+4.75%). Foreign investors net bought about 660 billion won, while individual investors net sold about 1.13 trillion won. SK Hynix rose 5.81% and Samsung Electronics rose 5.67%.

On the 21st, the USD/KRW rate closed at 1325.2 won on the daytime session, down 2.9 won (0.21%) from the previous trading day. The article said this is the lowest level since October 2024.

KOSDAQ closed up 10.79 points (1.38%) at 792.76 on the 21st. Institutions net bought about 100 billion won and individuals about 50 billion won, while foreign investors net sold about 170 billion won.

AT&T's Q3 2026 revenue was $32.3 billion, up 5.3% year on year. Adjusted EPS was $0.65 (vs. $0.54 a year earlier), and diluted EPS from continuing operations was $0.13, reflecting items such as a Mexico wireless impairment charge.

NationA completed a Series A round of 8.5 billion won, bringing cumulative funding to 11.7 billion won. Hana Securities made a follow-on investment, while KDB Industrial Bank, Hyundai Investment Partners and Ilsin Venture Capital joined as new investors.

On-device AI startup TraceWeave raised about 3 billion won in its seed round at a valuation of about 30 billion won. The round was led by Mirae Asset Capital, and Naver D2SF made a new investment.

According to an Anthropic IPO draft obtained by WSJ, first-half 2026 revenue was $16.3 billion and net loss was $80.7 billion. Of the net loss, $72 billion is non-cash accounting adjustments. Cloud contracts over the next 10 years are about $450 billion.

Prompted by a critical PHP security flaw that Wiz found using its own tools along with Gemini 4 Argon and GPT-5.6 Sol, European agencies including the Netherlands' NCSC and France's Interior Ministry took their sites offline. The article said a considerable number of the measures were preemptive.

According to Newspim, before New York market open on the 21st Super Micro Computer raised its revenue outlook for the fiscal quarter ending in late September to $18.5-19.5 billion, sending shares up more than 12%. Nvidia rose nearly 2%.

SBI said on Oct 16 it had received notice of possible exposure from a threat intelligence firm and others. About 375,000 customer records were exposed on the dark web, and preliminary analysis found that 3,897 records contained personally identifiable information.

Between 6:45 p.m. on Oct 18 and 12:50 a.m. on Oct 19, an unauthorized outside party accessed the management system and looked up member information for the Discovery of Play kids platform. Nicknames, phone numbers and emails were leaked, and the case was referred to Seocho Police Station for investigation.

According to Ministry of Education data, at least 2,976,034 personal records were leaked from universities between 2021 and 2026. 140 hacking incidents were reported during this period, with the most in 2023 at 47.

Remember said that on the 12th, some business card data registered during a specific time window briefly appeared in other users' card books. The company said it was an internal system error rather than a hack. The Personal Information Protection Commission is investigating the cause and scope.

Australia's eSafety Commissioner and Communications Minister announced on Oct 20 that they are preparing federal court civil penalty lawsuits against Meta, TikTok, Snap and YouTube over non-compliance with the under-16 social media ban. The lawsuits have not yet been formally filed.

AFP cited diplomatic sources in reporting that the United States ordered embassy staff and their families in Saudi Arabia to leave. It also reported that departure orders for families had been issued in the UAE, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain.

Citing US officials, Channel 12 reported that dozens of Israeli fighter jets and tankers flew over Syria and Iraq toward the Iran border before turning back. Israel said it was a deterrence drill against Iran and that it had notified Washington in advance.

China's Foreign Ministry said Wang Yi will deliver the keynote at the Global Governance Forum opening ceremony on October 23. It opposed judicial pressure on Cuba and described export controls targeting Japan as measures taken in accordance with law.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said mines installed by its own navy exploded in the southern Strait of Hormuz and brought three tankers to a halt. According to a Sepah News statement, two of them caught fire. The article contains no information on crew casualties.

Ukraine's Air Force Command said on Facebook that it shot down or disabled 150 drones in an attack that included 186 Shahed-type drones. The tally was preliminary as of 08:30, and reports also said Iskander-K cruise missiles were used.

In a model study by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the end-of-century sea-level rise contribution of West Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier was up to twice current projections in some simulations. The study was published in Nature Communications on October 12.

13 dialysis patients and 1 staff member at a hemodialysis unit at A Hospital in Changwon were infected with hepatitis C. Of 75 people subject to full testing, 14 were confirmed, and most of those infected show no symptoms. Gyeongsangnam-do and KDCA are conducting an epidemiological investigation.

Under KDCA sentinel surveillance, influenza-like illness cases per 1,000 outpatients in week 40 of 2026 fell to 23.6, while the detection rate rose to 28.0%. Hospitalized COVID-19 patients at hospital level rose to 283.

The State Council Information Office held a press conference at 10 a.m. on the 21st. Vice Minister Li Gao of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment introduced China's climate response and its participation in global climate governance, and answered reporters' questions.

Second Vice Minister Lee Ho-hyeon of the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment attended the opening ceremony of the 2026 Korea ESG Eco-Friendly Expo at COEX in Seoul on the 21st and gave a welcome address, according to Newspim.

WTI December futures closed at $97.15 per barrel on the 21st, down 0.68%, and Brent December futures closed at $108.82, up 0.03%. The article cited instability in the Strait of Hormuz and Houthi rebel airstrikes on Saudi oil facilities as causes.

Citing Kpler data in an FT report, Gulf oil exports excluding Iran reached 24.6 million barrels per day in the week of October 18, above the pre-war average of 23.3 million. Direct crude shipments through Hormuz remain more than one-third below pre-war levels.

According to Mining.com, which republished a Reuters article, Chile plans to add five lithium tenders next year after five private projects awaiting approval are approved. The goal is to raise annual output from about 300,000 tons to 700,000 tons within 5 to 10 years.

According to Soompi, Jihyo announced on the 21st in a handwritten Instagram letter that she had completed her 21-year exclusive contract with JYP Entertainment. She said she had personally founded a company called EMITHAUS.

According to Soompi, the 20th broadcast of Between Steps recorded a Nielsen Korea national average rating of 2.447%, its highest to date. Episode 2 of tvN's Love in Disguise rated 4.7%, ranking first among cable shows in its time slot.

According to JoongAng Daily, Kim Do-yeong's record-tying 145m grand slam led KIA to a 13-1 win over LG in Game 3 of the first round of the KBO postseason at Jamsil on the 20th. KIA advanced to the second round.