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Korean Government Officially Designates Korea Zinc’s Precursor Technology as National Core Technology and National High-tech Strategic Technology

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SEOUL, South Korea, Nov. 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Korea Zinc (KRX:010130), the world’s leading non-ferrous metal smelting company, announced today that its precursor technology, a key material for secondary batteries, has been designated as “national core technology” and “national high-tech strategic technology” by the Korean government. 

The precursor technology, jointly owned by Korea Zinc and its subsidiary KEMCO, has been recognized for its significant technical and economic value in both domestic and international markets, as well as its potential for industrial growth. The government’s decision also acknowledges that should the technology be leaked abroad, it could have a serious negative impact on national security and the country’s economic development.

With this ruling, Korea Zinc will now be able to build a foundation to establish a stable self-sufficient supply chain for precursors, a key material for secondary batteries, using entirely homegrown technology. The company will also begin implementing protective measures against overseas technology leaks in accordance with relevant laws.

The Korea Zinc technology that has been recognized as both national core technology and national high-tech strategic technology is the “technology for manufacturing and processing of cathode active material precursor with a nickel (Ni) content exceeding 80% for lithium-ion batteries.” Korea Zinc submitted its application for this designation to the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy in September, and after two rounds of expert evaluations, the designation was recently finalized.

According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, the technology is classified under the electrical and electronic sector in the national core technology category and the national high-tech strategic technology’s secondary battery sector.

Through the Industrial Technology Protection Act (ITPA ) (Act on Prevention of Divulgence and Protection of Industrial Technology), the government gives national core technology designation to technologies with high technical and economic value in domestic and international markets, or those with significant growth potential in related industries that if leaked abroad, could seriously threaten national security and economic development. More than 70 technologies across sectors like semiconductors, displays, electronics, shipbuilding and nuclear energy are currently designated and managed as national core technology.

Under the National Advanced Strategic Industry Act (NASIA) (Special Measures Act on Strengthening and Protecting the Competitiveness of National High-tech Strategic Industry), technologies with significant national and economic security impact, as well as substantial economic effects in terms of exports and employment, are designated as national high-tech strategic technologies.

With this designation, Korea Zinc’s technology will be subjected to strict regulations. The company plans to implement protective measures under Article 10 of ITPA and Article 14 of NASIA. Furthermore, any export of this technology, or any foreign investment involving mergers, acquisitions or joint ventures, will require approval from the Minister of Trade, Industry, and Energy, as per Article 11 of ITPA and Article12 of NASIA.
 
Domestic battery companies have been relying almost exclusively on China for cathode active materials (CAM), including precursors. According to the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation, as of H1 2023, 97% of domestic precursor imports came from China, raising significant concerns for economic security. In response, Korea Zinc has been accelerating efforts to establish a mass domestic production system for high-nickel precursors to secure a local supply chain for the secondary battery industry, a national high-tech strategic industry. To achieve this, the company began construction of an all-in-one nickel smelter in Ulsan, Korea through its subsidiary KEMCO last November, with trial operations scheduled for next year.

In 2022, KEMCO and LG Chem formed a joint venture called Korea Precursor Corporation (KPC). In March, for the first time in the world, KPC completed construction of a precursor production plant with process innovation applied, yielding an annual capacity of 20,000 tons. The plant successfully produced prototypes just two weeks after the test run began. Notably, it was the first in the world to apply a method that dramatically increases the process capacity of the precursor production process, including the use of the world’s largest capacity reactor during test run and prototype production. This innovation is expected to allow KPC to produce higher-quality precursors more efficiently than its competitors, including Chinese companies.

Korea Zinc anticipates that its proprietary technology will shorten overall processing times, reduce processing costs and improve line efficiency, thereby enhancing productivity and quality in precursor manufacturing. The designation of this technology as national core technology is expected to bolster the nation’s global competitiveness. Moreover, by diversifying the supply chain of critical minerals for domestic battery materials, Korea Zinc aims to reduce dependence on any single country and contribute to the economic security of the battery industry. 

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SOURCE Korea Zinc

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Trip.com Group Sincerely Accepts Administrative Penalty Decision Issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation of the People’s Republic of China

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July 25, 2026

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SINGAPORE, July 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Trip.com Group Limited (Nasdaq: TCOM; HKEX: 9961) today announced that it has received the administrative penalty decision issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation of the People’s Republic of China.

Trip.com Group sincerely accepts the decision and will adopt rectification measures in accordance with applicable laws and regulations to implement the decision’s requirements. The Company will strengthen its long-term governance mechanisms and strive to contribute to the sustainable development of the travel industry.

Trip.com Group’s management team will host a conference call at 8:00 AM U.S. Eastern Time on July 27, 2026 (or 8:00 PM Hong Kong Time on July 27, 2026).

The conference call will be available on Webcast live at: http://investors.trip.com.

All participants must pre-register to join this conference call using the participant registration link below:
https://register-conf.media-server.com/register/BIb78e08d8f18340c4882a7e4ab961906b.

Upon registration, each participant will receive details for this conference call, including dial-in numbers and a unique access PIN. To join the conference, please dial the number provided, enter your PIN, and you will join the conference instantly.

For further information, please contact:
Investor Relations
Trip.com Group Limited
Email: iremail@trip.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tripcom-group-sincerely-accepts-administrative-penalty-decision-issued-by-the-state-administration-for-market-regulation-of-the-peoples-republic-of-china-302834599.html

SOURCE Trip.com Group Limited

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NAVER Partners with Brookfield and NVIDIA to Expand Korea’s National AI Factory Infrastructure Buildout

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July 25, 2026

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SAN FRANCISCO, July 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — NAVER, Brookfield and NVIDIA announced an expansion of Korea’s sovereign AI factory infrastructure. New investments will increase the initial NVIDIA DSX™ AI factory deployment from 55 megawatts to 200 megawatts.

Announced during Korea President Jae Myung Lee’s AI Summit visit to San Francisco, the planned 200-megawatt expansion will be built with the NVIDIA DSX platform at NAVER’s GAK Sejong hyperscale data center in Sejong, South Korea. The expanded infrastructure will provide Korea- and U.S.- based AI innovators with access to production-scale AI compute for building next-generation models, agents and AI-powered services.

Under the terms of the agreements, Brookfield will fund up to $9 billion as the exclusive capital partner, NVIDIA will invest $1 billion and NAVER will fund the remaining amount to finance the $10 billion project.

This builds on NAVER’s June announcement to extend its GAK Sejong data center with NVIDIA DSX, with a long-term path to gigawatt-scale sovereign AI infrastructure serving Korea’s enterprises, industries, government organizations and global AI cloud customers. Combining Brookfield’s capital with NVIDIA’s computing platform, the investment supports NAVER’s AI factory deployment.

“NVIDIA’s strategic investment and our infrastructure supply agreement with Brookfield have propelled NAVER’s vision for the AI Factory business into a robust execution phase,” said Haejin Lee, Founder and Chairman of NAVER. “Leveraging the solid partnerships with our global partners, we will drive technological innovation, foster a sovereign AI ecosystem, and spearhead efforts to strengthen South Korea’s AI competitiveness.” 

AI Factory Expansion and Open Model Collaboration to Fuel AI Innovators

NAVER, as an NVIDIA Cloud Partner, provides deep expertise in operating hyperscale infrastructure powered by the full-stack NVIDIA AI platform. The 200-megawatt AI factory, featuring NVIDIA Vera Rubin and Blackwell platforms, will establish a dedicated resource pool for emerging AI companies, providing the compute, software and support needed to develop and deploy competitive AI models and applications at scale.

This expanded infrastructure also builds on NAVER and NVIDIA’s collaboration on open model development for agentic and physical AI. NAVER is advancing its HyperCLOVA X models to be based on NVIDIA Nemotron™ 3 Ultra open models with its proprietary data and training expertise. NAVER is also the first Korean company to join the NVIDIA Nemotron Coalition, contributing to open model development across pretraining, post-training and reinforcement learning.

NAVER plans to launch an AI agent platform in Korea in the second half of the year, powered by NVIDIA Agent Toolkit software including NVIDIA NemoClaw™ blueprints. NAVER is also developing a Seoul World Model using proprietary urban street-view and spatial modeling data, built on NVIDIA Cosmos™ world foundation models.

About NAVER

Founded in 1999, NAVER is Korea’s largest Internet company and one of the world’s top tech companies. Leading cutting-edge technologies, NAVER operates the No.1 search engine in Korea and holds various business portfolios encompassing commerce, fintech, cloud, AI and robotics.

NAVER recorded sales of KRW 12.04 trillion (USD 8.18 billion) in 2025. TEAM NAVER continues to enhance its business portfolio and expand its global presence across Japan, North America, and Europe, while pursuing innovation through continuous research and development in future technologies.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/naver-partners-with-brookfield-and-nvidia-to-expand-koreas-national-ai-factory-infrastructure-buildout-302834577.html

SOURCE NAVER

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Beijing Review: Walking Through Time: China and U.S. Youths Explore Dali’s Past and Future

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July 25, 2026

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BEIJING, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — On July 17, a China-U.S. youth delegation came to Dali of Yunnan Province. By examining how Dali’s rich history intersects with modern development, the delegates explored new pathways for rural development.

They visited Dali Old Town, tried their hand at making the Bai people’s Three-Course Tea and also explored the ancient town of Xizhou, where they learned how modern tourism and indigenous life coexist.

In Yunnanyi Village, they explored its history as a stop along the Tea Horse Road and learned about the role it played during the Second World War (WWII).

Tyler James Smith

“I think it’s a very underappreciated part of World War II history. Hearing these stories of different countries working together despite cultural differences is incredibly inspiring.

I also think there are many stories like these that haven’t been widely told, simply because World War II is such a complex period in history. That’s why I think it’s so meaningful to visit museums like this and experience these stories firsthand.”

At Xiangyun Economic and Technological Development Zone, they visited a local new energy company to see how green, low-carbon development is driving regional growth.

Valerie Marie

“I recently started studying energy transitions. I know China has been really big in the renewable energy sector. So actually getting to hear more about [China’s] 2060 [pledge], learning more about carbon neutrality [goals], as well as other zero-carbon goals, was cool.”

During their stay in Dali, they also strolled along the Erhai Lake Ecological Corridor.

Bai Yiwen

“I’d describe this journey as “to be continued,” because my own connection with Yunnan is far from over. For the U.S. delegates, this was only their first visit, so they’ve only had a glimpse of what Yunnan has to offer. I hope they will have more opportunities to come back to China, explore other cities in Yunnan, and discover even more of its people, culture and traditions.”

After Dali, the delegates will visit Beijing for more tours and exchanges. The event was co-hosted by China International Communications Group (CICG) Center for the Americas and the U.S.-based International Student Conferences.

https://x.com/beijingreview/status/2080104404552663067?s=46&t=yfVMVdMyE2zKAFrYaLoV-g

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1EtGCCKzy4/?mibextid=wwXIfr

https://www.tiktok.com/@cachinachic/video/7665536913532587294?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7227134149436605995

https://youtu.be/jGONWTqwduc?is=KfL-Zn3HyVYE-KEm

Contact: Jiaweibellapeng@163.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/beijing-review-walking-through-time-china-and-us-youths-explore-dalis-past-and-future-302834587.html

SOURCE Beijing Review

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