South Korea

與, 모든 기업 법인세율 1%P 인상 강행

Hankyung | Local Language | News | Dec. 2, 2025 | Regulation

The South Korean government will proceed with amending the Corporate Tax Act to uniformly increase the corporate tax rate by 1 percentage point across all company sizes, effective from December 1, 2025. This increase applies to all four income brackets, moving rates from 9%, 19%, 21%, and 24% to 10%, 20%, 22%, and 25%, respectively. The ruling Democratic Party of Korea successfully pushed this, despite opposition from the People Power Party, which sought to exclude small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from the hike. The opposition’s attempts to maintain lower rates for SMEs were rejected, leading to criticism of the ruling party as imposing a "tax dictatorship." The estimated additional revenue from this tax adjustment is approximately 18 trillion won over five years.

Alongside the corporate tax amendment, the Education Tax Act will also be revised to double the tax rate on profits exceeding 1 trillion won for financial companies, from 0.5% to 1%. This change is expected to generate about 1.2 trillion won more annually from around 60 financial institutions. The government and ruling party justify this as necessary tax normalization to align with financial companies' increased profitability and allocate funds toward talent development. The opposition regards this as a punitive "windfall tax" that disrupts corporate planning.

In addition, the National Assembly’s Strategy and Finance Committee approved other budget-related bills, including amendments to the Restriction of Special Taxation Act. These include a new dividend tax structure with rates ranging from 14% to 30% based on dividend income levels. Regarding mutual finance institutions, lawmakers agreed to relax the non-taxable income threshold for quasi-members from the government's proposed 50 million won to 70 million won, reflecting sensitivity to local constituency concerns. This marks some compromise between parties on tax policy outside the corporate and education tax amendments.

마스오토, 자율주행 데이터 1천만km 달성

ZD Net Korea | Local Language | News | Dec. 2, 2025 | UndeterminedTech Development/Adoption

Masauto, led by CEO Park Il-su, has surpassed 10 million kilometers of real-world driving data through its vision-based End-to-End (E2E) AI autonomous driving trucks and data collection devices. This includes 2 million kilometers from autonomous freight transport and 8 million kilometers from its camera-based data collection device, MasBox, installed on trucks of major domestic logistics partners operating nationwide across highways, provincial roads, and urban areas.

The company's autonomous freight trunk-line transport service commenced in 2023 following a regulatory sandbox exemption from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy in 2022. Masauto collaborates with major logistics firms such as Hyundai Glovis, Lotte Global Logistics, CJ Logistics, Hyundai Mobis, and others. So far, paid transport trips have exceeded 5,000, with an average round-trip distance of approximately 540 km. The collected data encompasses diverse real-world scenarios including various weather conditions, traffic congestion, and accident situations, used to train a single neural network-based E2E heavy-truck autonomous driving AI system.

Masauto’s data acquisition supports the South Korean government’s “K-Mobility Global Leading Strategy,” which promotes a shift toward AI-centered autonomous driving using large-scale real-world data rather than traditional LiDAR-based, rule-driven approaches. The company plans to scale MasBox installations to over 1,000 units among partners to collect around 100 million kilometers of data, further advancing its autonomous driving AI.

In early November 2025, Masauto was appointed lead organization for an 18.2 billion won government project titled “Development of unmanned autonomous driving commercialization technology for large-truck freight transport.” The project involves a 13-organization consortium from industry, academia, research, and government, targeting the commercialization of large-truck autonomous driving by 2027.

Joongang Ilbo | English | News | Dec. 2, 2025 | UndeterminedMergers & Acquisitions

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and HD Hyundai Mipo have completed their merger and are now operating as a single entity named HD Hyundai Heavy Industries. This consolidation aims to strengthen their position as the world’s leading shipbuilder by maximizing synergies and expanding market presence. The merger aligns with similar moves by competitors in China and Japan and seeks both quantitative and qualitative growth in the global shipbuilding industry.

The merged company plans to focus on cooperation with the U.S. market under the "Make American Shipping Great Again" initiative, along with bolstering its defense sector, targeting 37 trillion won ($25.2 billion) in revenue by 2035, with 10 trillion won from defense. It also aims to accelerate development in environmentally friendly and next-generation shipbuilding technologies by integrating R&D and design capabilities.

The new HD Hyundai Heavy Industries intends to diversify into special-purpose vessels, including icebreakers, responding to increasing demand from Arctic development. Chairman Chung Ki-sun expressed optimism about technological innovation following the merger, emphasizing employee collaboration. Actor Kim Woo-bin also conveyed support for the merger as a catalyst for a stronger shipbuilding industry in Korea.