South Korea

Intelligence for Better Decision Making

South Korea’s Fourth Nuri Rocket Launch Marks Shift Toward Commercial Space Operations
Nov. 28, 2025 | Technology & Innovation

South Korea conducted the fourth launch of its domestically developed Nuri rocket, advancing its launch technology, industrial partnerships, and infrastructure capacity.

**The Nuri (KSLV-II) lifted off from the Naro Space Center in Goheung at 1:13 a.m. on November 27, 2025, after teams addressed an abnormal signal from an umbilical retrieval pressure sensor, which had delayed the countdown by 18 minutes.**
This first nighttime launch and fourth overall mission lasted 18 minutes and 25 seconds. The first stage separated at about two minutes, the second stage at four minutes and 30 seconds, and the vehicle achieved a sun-synchronous orbit at roughly 600 km before deploying its payload.

**Standing 47.2 meters tall and weighing 200 tons at liftoff, the rocket carried nearly 960 kg of payload.**
The primary payload, Next-Generation Medium-Sized Satellite No 3 (CAS500-3), weighed approximately 500 kg and carries ROKITS instruments for aurora and airglow observation, IAMMAP sensors for ionospheric plasma and magnetic field measurement, and a Bio Cabinet for microgravity cell-printing experiments. Twelve CubeSats developed by universities, research institutes, and startups will conduct missions spanning space debris disposal, 6G communication tests, bio-production, Earth observation, and semiconductor component verification.

**Under a technology transfer agreement with the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), Hanwha Aerospace served as system integrator for the first time, overseeing end-to-end vehicle production, assembly, and supply-chain management.**
Hanwha has produced 46 liquid engines to date—four 75-ton engines for the first stage, one 75-ton engine for the second stage, and a 7-ton engine for the third—slashing production time from six months to three through proprietary manufacturing adjustments. The company will also conduct launch operations for the fifth and sixth Nuri missions, slated for 2026 and 2027.

**Ground stations tracked engine burns, fairing separation, and payload deployment via telemetry.**
CAS500-3 made its first contact with the King Sejong Antarctic Station shortly after separation, and the CubeSats established sequential links with stations in Daejeon, Palau, Norway, and Antarctica. The Space and Aviation Agency and KARI will analyze mission data to verify precise orbit insertion and satellite performance against established success criteria.

**Naro Space Center’s No 2 launch pad system, designed, manufactured, and managed by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, provided all mechanical and propellant ground support equipment and launch control facilities.**
The pad covers 6,000 m2 across three basement levels, has supported all four Nuri missions, and represents South Korea’s fully domestic launch infrastructure.

**This fourth mission reflects South Korea’s shift from a government-led space program toward a private sector–driven model.**
The upcoming fifth and sixth launches will validate repeatable production and scalable operations, after which Hanwha Aerospace will assume full commercial launch responsibility. From the seventh mission in 2028 onward, Nuri is expected to fly at least once a year and introduce payload fee structures for private sector customers beyond the sixth state-focused flights.

**Amid global launch capacity constraints caused by delays and restrictions at Japanese, European, and Russian providers, South Korea aims to position Nuri as a competitive medium-class launch vehicle.**
With over 300 domestic suppliers, a complete in-country launch infrastructure, and a roadmap to commercial operations, the program seeks to secure a foothold in the expanding global satellite launch market.
Omnimodal AI Agent Race Accelerates as Naver and Kakao Advance Multimodal Platforms
Nov. 27, 2025 | Technology & Innovation

Recent advancements in AI agent platforms focus on integrating text, images, voice, intonation, and emotional cues into a single model to enable more natural, contextually aware interactions.

**Naver and Kakao are each building “omnimodal” AI models that learn from multiple data types within one architecture.**
These models will serve as the backbone of their next-generation AI agent services, scheduled to launch next year, and allow users to engage across modalities without switching among siloed systems.

**Kakao’s current multimodal engine, KANANA-o, merges vision and audio processing and already operates within KakaoTalk to analyze short-form content.**
It detects user emotions and intonation to support more natural conversational exchanges. Kakao applies reinforcement learning continuously to sharpen KANANA-o’s communication skills and optimizes the model for deployment across its broader service portfolio.

**The company plans to evolve KANANA-o into a full omnimodal platform by 2026.**
Meanwhile, it will introduce a successor—KANANA2—later this year. KANANA2 will feature advanced architectures such as Mixture of Experts and Multi-Head Latent Attention, and Kakao is considering an open-source release to encourage community-driven enhancements and wider adoption.

**Naver is advancing toward omnimodality with its forthcoming HyperCLOVA X foundation model, expected in January 2026, alongside the integrated Agent N platform, which will unify text, image, and voice inputs under one interface.**
In July, Naver set a precedent by open-sourcing the HyperCLOVA X Seed 14B Think model, signaling its strategy of sharing foundational technology with the broader ecosystem.

**By embedding vision, audio, text, and affective cues in a single framework, both companies aim to deliver AI agents that adapt seamlessly to human communication nuances and enhance user experience across diverse input forms.**

Monitored Intelligence for South Korea - Nov. 28, 2025


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적자 못 벗어나는 알뜰폰...전파사용료 부과에 생존기로

Budget phones stuck in the red... Struggling to survive due to radio usage fees imposed

ZD Net Korea | Local Language | News | Nov. 28, 2025 | Regulation

Budget phone companies in South Korea continue to face significant financial challenges, exacerbated by the increasing burden of spectrum usage fees. The Korea Association of Budget Phone Operators revealed that while budget operators started bearing 20% of these fees in 2025, this share is set to rise to 50% in 2026 and 100% in 2027. Even without paying these fees in 2024, budget operators posted a 1.5% deficit, which is expected to widen to 3.9% annually once full spectrum fees are imposed.

The survival of budget phone companies is threatened as institutional support diminishes and the business environment remains loss-making. These companies generate less than half the revenue per subscriber compared to the three major carriers, making profitability comparisons difficult. Additionally, the revenue-sharing model for wholesale rates results in a duplicated financial burden since fees paid to carriers include spectrum usage fees, placing further strain on budget operators.

Compounding these issues is the shift in wholesale rate negotiations from an ex-ante to an ex-post regulatory system starting in 2025, which disadvantages budget operators due to their weaker bargaining power compared to major carriers. This shift, along with intensifying price competition and the dominance of major carriers, raises concerns about the sustainability of competitive policies in the telecommunications market.

중국, 딥시크·알리바바 앞세워 'AI 오픈소스' 미국 추월

China Overtakes US in AI Open Source Led by DeepSeek and Alibaba

ET News | Local Language | News | Nov. 28, 2025 | UndeterminedTech Development/Adoption

China, led by DeepSeek and Alibaba, has surpassed the United States in the global AI open-source market for the first time. A recent study by MIT and Hugging Face indicated that Chinese AI open-source models account for 17% of new downloads over the past year, overtaking the combined 15.8% share of U.S. developers including Google, Meta, and OpenAI. This shift is seen as giving Chinese AI open source an advantage in global adoption, as open source lowers barriers for developers by allowing free downloads and modifications.

The United States' approach, shaped by the Trump administration’s push to promote open-source models reflecting “American values,” contrasts with China’s strategy. U.S. tech giants focus on developing proprietary frontier models to maintain control and revenue via subscriptions and corporate deals. While Meta initially opened models like "Llama," it has since increased efforts toward closed models for superintelligence development. Conversely, Chinese firms, encouraged by government policies and restrictions on exporting cutting-edge AI semiconductors, have accelerated open-source model development and domestic collaboration, fostering a more vibrant open-source ecosystem.

Chinese companies such as DeepSeek and Alibaba release models more frequently, often weekly or biweekly, providing a variety of options compared to the less frequent releases of U.S. firms. Techniques like model distillation, encouraged by U.S. export controls on advanced semiconductors, have led Chinese researchers to develop small but powerful models. Additionally, Chinese firms are actively progressing in AI video-generation models. Experts highlight that China has more active participants in open-source AI development than the U.S., prompting concern among U.S. analysts about China's rapid advancements in this field.

여야, 반도체특별법 사실상 합의…연내 통과 가능성 커졌다

Ruling and opposition parties virtually agree on the Special Semiconductor Act… Possibility of passing within the year increases

ET News | Local Language | News | Nov. 28, 2025 | Regulation

Ruling and opposition parties in the South Korean National Assembly are close to reaching a bipartisan agreement on the Special Semiconductor Act, increasing the likelihood of its passage within 2025. The Act, fast-tracked by the Democratic Party, aims to strengthen and support the semiconductor industry ecosystem with several key provisions.

The bill includes establishing a National Semiconductor Committee, government support for infrastructure development (such as power, water, and roads), subsidies for renewable energy facility costs to meet RE100 goals, the creation of a Semiconductor Industry Support Fund, and regional cooperation projects. However, the contentious issue of labor flexibilization, specifically relaxing the 52-hour workweek for semiconductor R&D, was excluded from the bill. Instead, parties agreed to continue discussions on this matter through supplementary opinions.

The Democratic Party initially fast-tracked the bill in April without full committee debate, leading to ongoing discussions at the Industry, Trade and SMEs Committee to resolve differences. Recent coordination between committee members from both parties suggests growing consensus and positive momentum toward the bill's prompt approval. Both parties commit to further talks to finalize details before the expected legislative decision.

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