Designers should have a grasp on artificial intelligence to build a system that is fully aware of what users want in advance, said Yong Kim, chief product officer at Woowa Brothers, which runs delivery app Baemin, at this year’s Herald Design Forum on Thursday. “Users shouldn’t have to tell their apps what they want, when they want it. They should be given choices they like and that will be the new human-machine interface,” Kim said. Kim referred to GPT-3, a language-ge

Social Affairs Oct. 14, 2021

The military should adopt clearer rules to enable victims of sexual violence to find immediate care and avoid being repeatedly forced to deal with their abusers, an advisory panel said Wednesday, ending a monthslong mission to address rights abuses in the military. The panel, launched in June following the alleged cover-up of the suicide of an Air Force master sergeant who had reported a sexual assault, recommended that the military expand outside oversight as well, with a civilian voting membe

Defense Oct. 13, 2021

The Navy has steadily scaled back exercises using live ammunition since President Moon Jae-in took office in 2017, a lawmaker said, amid concerns that Moon’s North Korea policy could affect combat readiness. Live ammunition was used 96 percent of the time in 2016, but the rate has since slowly fallen and hit 87 percent in 2020, according to Rep. Shin Won-sik of the main opposition People Power Party, citing data compiled by the Navy. The data was an average of the rates that live ammuni

Defense Oct. 12, 2021

President Moon Jae-in’s top security adviser, Suh Hoon, is expected to meet with his US counterpart and make his case for signing a declaration to end the 1950-53 Korean War armistice as a way to facilitate North Korea’s denuclearization. “This week, a discussion will take place between Suh and national security adviser Jake Sullivan. The agenda is denuclearization,” a senior Cheong Wa Dae official said Sunday referring to Suh’s trip, without elaborating, though ma

Politics Oct. 11, 2021

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un urged his party officials to improve people’s lives in the next five years amid a growing economic crisis aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic, the official Korean Central News Agency said Monday. “As set forth in the January congress, the five-year plan has to improve the living conditions, bring about a fundamental change and buttress a socialist utopia the world envies,” Kim said as he marked the anniversary of the regime’s ruling pa

North Korea Oct. 11, 2021

Fifteen service members linked to the suicide of an Air Force master sergeant who claimed to have been sexually assaulted will be indicted, the Ministry of National Defense said Thursday, ending a monthslong investigation. But the 10 suspects accused of botching the initial investigation or bullying the victim when she was relocated upon the incident will not stand trial, because little evidence was found to press charges, the ministry said. The suspects include military police, prosecutors an

Defense Oct. 7, 2021

Most of North Korea’s naval drills involving submarines in the past seven years took place in 2018, when the two Koreas held talks three times to defuse tensions, Rep. Han Ki-ho of the opposition People Power Party said Tuesday, citing the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The military found that the North deployed its submarines to rehearse attacks on the South about 150 times in 2018, the highest number since 2014, when such drills took place about 120 times. Excluding 2018 from 2015 to 2019, Pyon

North Korea Oct. 5, 2021

President Moon Jae-in said South Koreans should be proud of the latest missiles the country has recently revealed, Moon’s communications secretary said Saturday in a post on Facebook. The post quoted Moon during a closed-door meeting with his senior secretaries a day after the launch. On Sept. 15, South Korea test-fired its first submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from a homegrown submarine, along with an air-to-surface missile and a cruise missile. The Sout

Politics Oct. 3, 2021

The US State Department said allies should continue enforcing UN sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, in response to the South Korean foreign minister’s suggestion to ease sanctions for nuclear talks amid North Korea’s latest weapons tests. “It is important for the international community to send a strong, unified message that the DPRK must halt provocations,” the State Department told Voice of America on Friday, referring to the North’s

North Korea Oct. 3, 2021

North Korea test-fired a new anti-aircraft missile Thursday, its official Korean Central News Agency said amid an impasse over nuclear negotiations with the US and frayed ties with South Korea. The launch is the latest weapons test Pyongyang has conducted since test-firing a hypersonic missile Tuesday and ballistic missiles and a cruise missile earlier in September. It is considered a follow-up on Pyongyang’s plan to bolster its defense capabilities made public at its January congress. &

North Korea Oct. 1, 2021

The Air Force on Friday set up a unit of investigators at its headquarters following accusations that cover-ups led to the suicide of a master sergeant who claimed to have been sexually assaulted. The unit will take away military police power to investigate crimes, as they have been accused of looking the other way when the master sergeant filed a complaint. The sergeant’s death sparked a public outcry that led the military to form an independent investigation arm. Military police will n

Defense Oct. 1, 2021

The Air Force opened a space center Thursday to bolster its defense capabilities and exchanges with foreign counterparts as the country seeks a greater presence in space. In May, South Korea and the US terminated missile guidelines that since 1979 had allowed Seoul to build missiles with a range of no more than 800 kilometers. The restrictions prevented Seoul from flying missiles far beyond the Korean Peninsula. “Space will be a key war-fighting domain and we will have our weapons ready

Defense Sept. 30, 2021

North Korea said Wednesday that their newest weapon tested the previous day was a hypersonic missile, and that the launch matched all technical expectations. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the weapon seems to be in its early stages of development and far from deployment, adding the missile defense South Korea and the US maintain can take it down. “Flight maneuverability and stability of the missile, along with the gliding characteristics of the hypersonic warhead, were pr

North Korea Sept. 29, 2021

The South Korean Army will start testing a new combat system in 2024 to guide its entire operations as early as 2040. “The Army Tiger 4.0 is the future of warfare delivered by cutting-edge advances in technology,” the Army said. Tiger 4.0 is short for “Transformative Innovation of Ground forces Enhanced by the 4th industrial Revolution technology.” The Army said it will employ artificial intelligence-powered drones to facilitate decision-making on the battlefield, and

Defense Sept. 28, 2021

North Korea fired what appeared to be a short-range missile into the East Sea on Tuesday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The launch took place just minutes before North Korea’s ambassador to the UN urged the US to drop its “hostile policy” at the UN. The JCS offered no details, saying South Korean and US intelligence are looking into the launch, while Japan’s Defense Ministry said the projectile appeared to be a ballistic missile, without

North Korea Sept. 28, 2021