Slow Letter is
a curated snapshot of Korea.

We go beyond the headlines, connect the dots, and show you what really matters — with insight and edge. We surface the stories behind the noise and bring the context you didn’t know you needed. It’s not just about what’s happening. It’s about why it matters.

This English edition combines AI-powered translation with careful human editing — using Upstage Solar-Pro-2 — and it’s still in beta mode.We’re learning as we go, and your feedback is invaluable.

A Black Tuesday Followed by a Black Wednesday.

• The circuit breaker has been triggered for two consecutive days—a first. The KOSPI index fell to 5,663.2. Market capitalization shrank by 865 trillion won in two days.
• SK Hynix saw its stock price plunge despite recording its best-ever performance.
• The KOSPI and KOSDAQ dropped 6.0% and 6.1%, respectively. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix fell 5.2% and 9.6%, respectively—contracting to 200,000 won and 140,000 won per share.
• The KOSPI has lost one-third of its value this month. Market capitalization has decreased by 2,261 trillion won.
• The JoongAng Ilbo called it “the day retail investors surrendered.” It is a phase of “surrender selling” with no short-term bottom in sight. A securities researcher interviewed by the JoongAng Ilbo said, “Frankly, I have no confidence.”
• Mirae Asset Securities lowered SK Hynix’s target price from 420,000 won to 280,000 won—a 33% cut. Kim Young-geon (Mirae Asset Securities researcher) assessed, “The recent stock price decline has been excessive compared to its fundamentals.”
• Related Link.

What Matters Now.

Record Revenue, Record Plunge.

• Second-quarter revenue was 79.3 trillion won, with operating profit of 60.5 trillion won. The operating margin was 76.3%.
• Remarkable performance, but slightly below the securities firms’ consensus of 63.2 trillion won. Not an “earnings shock,” but evaluations of an “earnings miss” emerge.
• Stock prices reflect the future, not the present. Peak-out concerns compounded the sharp decline.
• The JoongAng Ilbo pointed out, “No specific shareholder return plans were presented.” Kim Sun-woo (Meritz Securities researcher) argued, “Excess funds from surging cash flows should be used to restore shareholder value.”
• In an editorial, The Hankyoreh urged faster action: “Accelerate the completion of the Yongin cluster and expedite fab construction on the Gwangju military airfield site,” insisting, “The government must also speed up securing power, water supply, and site preparation.”
• Related Link.

SK Hynix’s Frustrating Conference Call.

• Plans to increase capital expenditure to the high 40 trillion won range. (Last year’s capital expenditure was 3.02 billion won.)
• These were the remarks from yesterday’s earnings announcement: no sense of crisis, and no regard for market concerns.
• “What about reduced AI investment?” “We see this as a phase to increase utilization of AI infrastructure built at scale and begin monetization.”
• “No oversupply concerns?” “Long-term supply contracts are increasing. Deposits are being taken for mid-to-long-term volumes.”
• “HBM market competition?” “HBM4E has completed sample shipments. Mass production is targeted for 2027.”
• Related Link.

When Will the Panic Selling End?

• Song Je (BNP Paribas Asset Management analyst) said, “The semiconductor market ran too fast and too far,” adding, “People blindly believed the memory market would rise forever.”
• Jim Handy (Objective Analysis analyst) said, “The market’s biggest concern is catching up with demand, but if the bubble bursts, it will cause major problems in the opposite direction.”
• Mohamed Apabhai (head of Citigroup Global Markets Securities’ Asia-Pacific trading strategy) assessed, “Retail investors have not yet started panic selling,” adding, “It’s too early to shift to optimism.”
• Panic selling is the cause, but there is no bottom in sight. Retail investors have been propping up the falling stock prices, but their ammunition has run out. The analysis is that the bottom will only be confirmed after retail investors who bought stocks during the decline have sufficiently cut their losses.
• Related Link.
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Leveraged ETF Losses Reach 56 Trillion Won.

• Citi Global Markets Securities analysis. The market cap of Korea-related leveraged ETFs shrank from $52.5 billion on August 22 to $19 billion recently.
• SK Hynix leveraged ETFs and Samsung Electronics leveraged ETFs each lost over $17 billion and $5 billion, respectively.

All Three Major U.S. Indices Fall.

• S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq indices fell -1.52%, -2.19%, and -1.74%, respectively. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped -5.33%.
• Donald Trump (U.S. President) warned of a strong strike against Iran. He unleashed a torrent of aggressive rhetoric.
• “We’re going to beat the fucking shit out of them. We’ll be hitting them hard. They’re going to get a beating.”
• Related Link.
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Only CXMT Rose.

• Taiwan’s Taiex and Japan’s Nikkei indices also fell 3.8% and 1.5%, respectively.
• Japan’s Kioxia dropped -13.9%, and Taiwan’s Nan Ya fell -9.9%.
• China’s CXMT rose 12.7%.

Meta Reports Record Revenue, Shares Fall.

• Meta released its earnings. It recorded a record high in revenue, but fell short of consensus estimates.
• The shock point was that its cash flow dropped below $1 billion. The company raised its 2023 spending forecast from $125 billion to up to $145 billion. Shares fell 1.3% during the day and were down over 6% in after-hours trading.
• It’s a situation similar to SK Hynix.
• Related Link.
• Related Link.

U.S. Rates Frozen for Now.

• Kept the benchmark rate at 3.50–3.75%.
• The Wall Street Journal assessed, “Kevin Warsh’s (Federal Reserve Chair) pledge to end inflation has become an empty promise.”
• Kevin Warsh (Federal Reserve Chair) said, “The Fed doesn’t have magical powers to bring inflation down quickly.”
• Related Link.

Deep Dive.

The Unavoidable AI Deluge.

• The largest infrastructure project in human history is underway. The New York Times assessed, “It’s comparable in scale to 1800s railroad construction, the 1930s New Deal, and the 1940s Manhattan Project.”
• Globally, AI chips in data centers—based on the H100 standard—will reach 20 million units, doubling every nine months to hit 200 million by late 2028.
• IDC analyzed that AI infrastructure investment will surge from $318 billion last year to over $1 trillion by 2029.
• Hyperscalers like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Oracle are projected to spend $750 billion on facilities this year.
• Power consumption is staggering. Data centers used 64GW last year; by late 2030, that’s expected to quadruple. The U.S. alone has 5,500 data centers. Four American companies control 80% of global AI computing power.
• Demis Hassabis (DeepMind CEO) forecasted, “AI could drive a revolution 10 times the scale of the Industrial Revolution, at 10 times the speed.”
• Philippe Aghion (Collège de France professor) warned, “Every technological revolution has been followed by a bubble collapse.”
• Erik Brynjolfsson (Stanford professor) analyzed, “Millions of jobs will vanish, and millions will emerge—but even new jobs won’t be the same as the old ones.”
• Tharman Shanmugaratnam (Monetary Authority of Singapore Governor) cautioned, “If AI investment shrinks, the combined effect of reduced corporate spending, semiconductor demand, and negative asset effects could sharply contract global economic growth.”
• Related Link.
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ETF Leverage, Third Measure in Half a Month.

• Criticism abounds that the tail is wagging the dog, yet no fundamental solution exists. Koo Yoon-cheol (Minister of Economy and Finance) said, “We regretfully acknowledge shortcomings in our oversight during product launches.”
• Yesterday, authorities proposed capping single-stock leverage ratios at 20%.
• Measures to lower leverage multipliers and tighten eligibility for new purchases are also under review.
• The deposit requirement was raised from ₩10 million to ₩30 million, with the timeline accelerated. Lee Won-bok (Financial Services Commission Chairman) remarked that the hike would reduce trading volume by 60%.
• Outside the National Assembly, funeral wreaths demanding the abolition of leveraged ETFs have piled up.
• Related Link.

Prosecutorial Investigation Power Vanishes After 70 Years.

• Debates over the contentious supplementary investigation power—a saga of chaos and controversy—have reached a milestone. It passed the Legislation and Judiciary Committee yesterday and will be tabled at today’s plenary session. If the People Power Party launches a filibuster, it will be forcibly terminated after 24 hours, with passage likely tomorrow.
• Under the final amendment, prosecutors cannot conduct direct investigations and can only verify facts.
• There is no supplementary investigation power, but there is a right to request supplementary investigations. If prosecutors request one, police must comply unconditionally and complete it within one month.
• Six People Power Party members among the 18 Legislation and Judiciary Committee members walked out.
• Discussions on mandatory referral of seven major crimes—including domestic violence and child abuse—to prosecutors were postponed for separate consideration.
• Seo Young-kyo (Legislation and Judiciary Committee Chair) called it “a historic day when the disgraced prosecution vanishes into history.” Park Hyung-soo (People Power Party lawmaker) claimed, “This is not an amendment but a degradation.”
• Koo Ja-hyun (Acting Prosecutor General) argued, “Truths will be buried, and the criminal justice system will collapse.”
• The Kyunghyang Shinmun headlined its front page, “Still a Loophole-Riddled Supplementary Investigation Request Power,” noting, “Countermeasures remain insufficient when police fail to properly fulfill supplementary investigation requests.”
• Related Link.

Another Take.

Erasing Lee Jae-myung’s Trial? Two New Grounds for Dismissing Indictments.

• An amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act added a clause on “court grounds for dismissing indictments.”
• The People Power Party called it “a law to erase Lee Jae-myung’s (former mayor of Seongnam and Gyeonggi Province) trial,” claiming, “When they realized it would be hard to introduce a special prosecutor to withdraw the indictment, they created a workaround to let courts dismiss it instead.”
• Dismissing an indictment is a procedure to conclude a case without judging guilt or innocence when there are major defects in the indictment itself.
• Under the current law, this applies only if the indictment violates legal procedures or if the court lacks jurisdiction over the defendant. The amendment adds two new grounds: [when an indictment is filed based on a grossly unlawful investigation] and [when an indictment is filed by prosecutors (significantly abusing their discretionary charging power)].
• Despite objections from the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office during closed deliberations, the amendment was pushed through.

“Dismissing Indictments Is Not the Same as Withdrawing Charges.”.

• Chosun Ilbo assessed, “Legal grounds have been established to suspend trials if the defendant claims ‘the prosecution conducted targeted-illegal investigations’ and the court accepts this argument.”
• Han Dong-hoon (Independent MP) criticized, “Withdrawing charges is Plan A, constitutional amendment for extended tenure is Plan B, dismissing indictments is Plan C.”
• Kim Yong-min (Democratic Party MP) countered, “Dismissing indictments is a judicial decision and has no relation to withdrawing charges.”
• In an editorial, Chosun Ilbo criticized, “Since withdrawing charges is difficult, they are trying to pressure judges by making it easier for courts to dismiss indictments.”
• In its editorial, JoongAng Ilbo pointed out, “Dismissing indictments can occur even without this legal clause, so it’s hard to understand why they’re suddenly pushing for legislation—it only raises suspicions.”
• Related Link.
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No Constitutional Amendment for Extended Tenure.

• Cho Jung-sik (National Assembly Speaker) sparked massive controversy by stating, “It is a matter of the people’s choice.”
• Kang Hoon-sik (Chief of Staff to the President) said, “The President stated, ‘Our constitutional system does not permit it, the public would not easily accept it, and it is realistically impossible.’”
• Jeong Cheong-rae (former Democratic Party leader) remarked, “Cho Jung-sik seems to have been baited by reporters.”
• Cho Won-bin (professor at Sungkyunkwan University) pointed out, “The cleanest solution is for the President to explicitly state they will not pursue an extended term.”
• Choi Chang-ryul (professor at Yongin University) noted, “Framing it as ‘impossible due to the constitutional amendment blockade’ risks creating the misconception that it becomes feasible if the majority surpasses the two-thirds threshold.”
• Related Link.
• Related Link.

Fast-Tracking the Fast Track: 90 Days to 30.

• It was passed yesterday in the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. The bill reduces standing committee reviews from 180 to 60 days, Legislation and Judiciary Committee reviews from 90 to 30 days, and allows bills to be immediately placed on the agenda at the next plenary session without a 60-day waiting period.
• The fast-track system was introduced to prevent rushed passage of contentious bills but has effectively become a slow-track system, taking up to 330 days.
• Cheon Ha-ram (Reform Party MP) argued, “What matters more than speedy legislation is proper legislation,” adding, “Reducing the agreed review period to less than a third is unacceptable.”

“Banning Chinese AI Is Not the Solution,” Zuckerberg’s Grievance.

• Mark Zuckerberg (Meta CEO) gave interviews to the New York Times + Financial Times and contributed an op-ed to the Wall Street Journal.
• In the New York Times interview, he argued, “Closed development leads to centralization of AI power,” adding, “It betrays American values.”
• In the Financial Times interview, he claimed, “Banning Chinese AI cannot be an effective solution,” insisting, “We must compete with Beijing.”
• “Whether superintelligence exists is not the key question—who has access to it is,” he stated. “Decentralization is the foundation of checks and balances and safety.”
• Why this ‘sudden’ stance? Meta has not profited from open-source AI. It has belatedly invested in Scale AI, released its closed model Muse Spark, and may be trying to counter Anthropic—or may have concluded it cannot win head-on in a closed market.
• Related Link.
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Anthrophic’s Isolation.

• It’s the hottest AI but faces heavy criticism for its ‘closed ecosystem.’
• While Big Tech firms like Nvidia, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Google joined a statement supporting open models, Anthropic was notably absent.
• Dario Amodei (Anthropic CEO) claimed, “Anthropic has never advocated banning open-weight models,” adding, “Risk-free open-weight models are a public good.”
• Despite this, with an IPO on the horizon, speculation arises that Anthropic is wary of open-weight models like LLaMA 3.
• Marc Suman (Maple CEO) quipped, “It’s interesting to distill the entire internet royalty-free and then oppose distillation.”
• Vishal Misra (Columbia University professor) said, “Anthropic is instilling fear in the public,” adding, “That fear becomes leverage to secure regulations favorable to them.”
• The Financial Times noted, “To counter Xi Jinping’s Digital Silk Road, the U.S. must cultivate more alternative models itself.”
• Related Link.
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A Decade Ago, the Same Machine, the Same Accident.

• HL Mando’s Pyeongtaek plant saw a subcontracted worker die.
• While operating metal-processing equipment, the machine activated and crushed him.
• No safety device to halt operation when the door opened, and no safety supervisor overseeing the process.
• There are even suspicions that interlocks were disabled with cable ties.
• According to Kyunghyang Shinmun, before the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s on-site investigation began, there were orders to remove the cable ties.
• Related Link.

The Fix.

Disclose the Delivery Algorithm.

• The algorithm acts as both employment rules and a middle manager. Deleting or suspending accounts is no different from dismissal or disciplinary action—transparency must be guaranteed.
• The Ministry of Employment and Labor decided to push for mandatory disclosure of algorithms that determine wages for platform workers, including delivery riders and proxy drivers. Platform companies are pushing back, claiming, “Algorithms are our core competitive edge and trade secrets.”
• Expanding the right to halt work is also under review. There have been many demands to allow workers to refuse orders during dangerous conditions like extreme heat or cold.
• According to the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, the number of ‘narrowly defined platform workers’—those with strong dependency, working through platforms and receiving payment—was 883,000 in 2023.
• Related Link.

Nine Habits to Live Longer.

• Proper management in middle age can transform old age.
• First, interval training is essential. Try alternating 30 seconds of sprinting with 30 seconds of rest, repeated 10 times. Cardiovascular health is key—pushing to your limit matters.
• Second, social connections are vital. Walking, exercising, or even shopping with friends is beneficial.
• Third, fermented foods help regulate inflammation. Yogurt, kimchi, kombucha, and sauerkraut are recommended.
• Fourth, strength training is necessary. The goal is to reach a point where muscles feel strained and fatigue sets in.
• Fifth, adequate protein intake paired with strength training is advisable.
• Sixth, incorporate regular exercise into daily life. Choose stairs over elevators, walk at least 7,000 steps a day, and park farther from entrances when driving.
• Seventh, the shingles vaccine is mandatory—it reduces cognitive decline risk by 20%.
• Eighth, check your parents’ chronic conditions and consult a doctor.
• Ninth, sufficient sleep duration is important, but consistency matters too. Aim to sleep and wake up at the same time daily.
• Related Link.

Kumamoto Earthquake: Government Control Tower Activated Within One Minute.

• Since the 2016 earthquake, preparations have been made for the next one. The seismic reinforcement rate for housing was raised from 76% in 2013 to 89.5% in 2023.
• Chosun Ilbo compiled the timeline:
• 28th, 4:27 PM earthquake occurred,
• 1 minute later, 4:28 PM, the Prime Minister’s Office established the Crisis Management Center,
• 4:29 PM, Takaichi Sanae (Japanese Prime Minister) issued instructions (directing full-scale implementation of “push-type support,” sending supplies immediately without waiting for formal requests),
• 5:04 PM, Takaichi Sanae posted on X, “I convened an emergency team composed of bureau chiefs from relevant ministries and issued instructions,”
• 5:25 PM and 6:30 PM, Kihara Minoru (Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary) held consecutive briefings,
• 5:26 PM, Koizumi Shinjiro (Japanese Defense Minister) held a press conference,
• 5:48 PM, Takaichi held a press conference,
• 6:20 PM, the Emergency Disaster Response Headquarters was established,
• 7:56 PM, the first meeting was held.
• Analysis suggests the Hinagu Fault has ruptured after a decade. Sakai Shinichi (University of Tokyo professor) warned, “Since the southern part of the Hinagu Fault zone borders the sea, a tsunami could occur depending on the earthquake’s magnitude.”
• Related Link.

ICYMI.

Yangsan Hits 40.3°C.

• Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province, recorded a high of 40.3°C—the highest temperature since meteorological observations began.
• Busan reached 38.8°C, marking its highest temperature in 122 years of record-keeping.
• Precipitation in South Gyeongsang Province is at 23% of the annual average. The Miryang Dam’s water level has dropped to 34%.
• Related Link.

PwC’s Humbling.

• AI-generated AI report spewed hallucination errors.
• Financial Times analyzed it with GPT Zero and found fake footnotes, misattributed claims, and unverifiable information.
• One footnote even cited GPT as a source.
• PwC belatedly corrected the report. EY and KPMG have also withdrawn reports before.

All I Wanted Was the Feeling of Ordering.

• Dopamine apps are trending.
• ‘Food Won’t Come’ is a fake delivery app. There are also apps like ‘What Won’t I Eat Today.’ You can select menus, fill carts, and track virtual delivery drivers—but nothing arrives. You can even check calories saved today.
• Fake shopping malls like ‘BuyBuy’ that let you enjoy consumption without spending exist too. They sell items like a 10 million won ‘spacetime jump device,’ 30,000 won ‘universal translation jelly,’ and 50,000 won ‘starlight-catching bottle.’
• Apps like ‘Online Damta’ create virtual cigarette breaks.
• Dong-A Ilbo noted, “It’s not about eliminating dopamine but rebalancing it.” There’s also analysis that “ultimately, it’s anticipation—not objects—that creates joy.”
• Foreign media showed interest. Financial Times cited psychologist Hwang Sang-min: “Many young people have little hope or expectation for the future,” adding, “they’re trying to get dopamine their own way.”
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Asian Pop Only? BTS Skips Grammys.

• There are many songs in English. But insisting on a separate Asian pop category means treating K-pop as a distinct category.
• Bong Joon-ho swept Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars with subtitles.
• BTS’s decision not to submit for the Grammys is likely a form of protest. Chosun Ilbo analyzed, “It’s a clear rejection of attempts to confine K-pop to the margins rather than accept it as mainstream.”
• The 69th Grammy Awards will be held on February 7th next year. The submission deadline for nominees is August 28th.
• Related Link.

Worth Reading.

The President’s Homeowner Loan.

• “A poor urban boy who worked in a factory, through effort became a lawyer, and in 1998 finally owned a decent home—this story showed Korea was a society where ‘success through hard work’ was possible. But 28 years later, when he sold that home, it revealed a society where wealth breeds wealth, and the younger generation cannot succeed through effort alone.”
• This refers to Lee Jae-myung (President) setting a 1.7 billion won mortgage when selling his Bundang home.
• Columnist Jo Gwi-dong criticized, “The Blue House’s explanation that ‘it’s no different from a bank loan, just with a different transactional party’ is incomprehensible,” adding, “Insisting it’s ‘legal’ and therefore acceptable was also inappropriate.”
• Related Link.

This Is How Advanced Judicial Systems Work.

• This is the argument of Park Yong-hyun (Hankyoreh Columnist), who has strongly advocated for abolishing supplementary investigative authority.
• Park Yong-hyun pointed out, “The Jang Yun-gi and Choi Young-jung cases show how outdated and irrational the current criminal justice system is,” adding, “Normalizing this is another name for prosecutorial reform.”
• “The story goes that if investigative and prosecutorial roles are clearly separated and established, a natural incentive structure where each side needs the other will form.”
• Park Yong-hyun said, “Though the results still have shortcomings, looking back, it’s rare for any institutional reform to spark such fierce social debate,” and evaluated, “All of this was a constructive process toward rationalizing the criminal justice system.”
• Related Link.

Why Must Sports Become Political Fuel?

• The Korea Football Association is being summoned for a hearing.
• Kim Yang-hee (Hankyoreh Reporter) pointed out, “Thorough administrative verification that strikes at the core of the issue is distinctly different from ‘public shaming’—shouting angrily in front of cameras and consuming catharsis.”
• “Victories and defeats are the product of a single day, but sports policies shape a generation. What politics should focus on is not the results themselves, but the soil that makes those results possible. Viewing sports not as material for political showmanship but as an independent culture and industry—that is the minimum courtesy our society, or rather our legislature, needs when approaching sports.”
• Related Link.

Is the Baejae High School Incident Truly Resolved?

• It wasn’t mockery to say, “Let’s go to Starbucks,” because they didn’t know what 5.18 was. Learning history won’t change their minds either.
• “What’s regrettable is how this is framed as an educational issue. It’s not about lacking education. Students learn about 5.18, ace exams on it, yet hatred persists,” said Moon Sung-ho (Editor-in-Chief of Ttokkipul).
• Han Kang (author) stated, “If this incident signals something to us, we must collectively grasp the surface-level issues and deliberate on how to move forward.”
• Lee Hye-jeong (Professor at Gyeongin National University of Education) remarked, “Teachers already know that adding more education isn’t effective.”
• Lee Jong-kwan (teacher at Yeongseong Middle School) added, “Education that aims to ‘teach’ doesn’t work.”
• Song Hyun-sook (Director of Communications at Kyunghyang Shinmun) warned, “Hatred is still growing in every weak crack today.”
• Related Link.
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