South Korea’s exports started the year on a strong note, with outbound shipments surging in January on more working days and robust semiconductor demand, the Wall Street Journal reported. Exports from Asia’s fourth-largest economy jumped 34% from a year earlier to $65.85 billion, following a 13% increase in December, according to preliminary data released by the trade ministry on Sunday. The January surge had been widely expected because of 3.5 additional working days due to the Lunar New Year holidays shifting to mid-February this year. That was much stronger than expectations.

The South Korean Supreme Court announced on January 28 that it will expand support for litigation costs in personal bankruptcy procedures for small business owners, amid a surge in personal rehabilitation cases, Chosun.com reported. Under the recently revised "Regulations on the Operation of the Litigation Assistance System," small business owners with annual sales of up to 300 million Korean won will be eligible for "litigation assistance" starting from the 1st of next month.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung ​said on Wednesday if Washington introduced higher U.S. tariffs on semiconductor imports, it would likely boost U.S. prices, playing down concerns ‌about the proposed duty, Reuters reported. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said that South Korean and Taiwanese chipmakers may face tariffs of up to 100% unless they commit to increased production on American soil. Lee said that given South Korean and Taiwanese chipmakers' dominance of the market, a 100% U.S. import duty would likely sharply raise prices for chip products in the United States.

South Korea is tightening its grip on how crypto platforms reach users, using app stores as an enforcement lever as regulators sharpen the boundary between compliant digital finance and unregistered crypto activity, Decrypt.com reported. The country has advanced legislation establishing a legal framework for security token offerings, creating a regulated pathway for blockchain-based issuance and trading of tokenized securities.

South Korea plans to open its markets to spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) this year, part of a broader digital asset push led by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) under its 2026 economic growth strategy, CoinDesk.com reported. Until now, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin weren’t legally recognized as valid underlying assets for ETFs, blocking the creation of these products in the country. The FSC appears to be following the lead of other jurisdictions, including the U.S. and Hong Kong, where spot bitcoin ETFs have seen significant success.

South Korea's factory activity expanded in December, after two months of contraction, on a rebound in export demand, a private-sector survey showed on Friday, with manufacturers' optimism surging to a 3-1/2-year high, Reuters reported. The purchasing managers index (PMI) for manufacturers in Asia's fourth-largest economy, published by S&P Global, stood at 50.1 in December, just above the 50-mark separating expansion from contraction, after two consecutive months at 49.4.

Kim Seong-sik, a lawyer from Law Firm One, has been nominated as the new president of the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC), Chosen.com reported. Kim, a classmate of President Lee Jae-myung from the 28th session of the judicial examination, served as part of the defense team during the trial related to the abuse-of-power charges against President Lee when the latter was governor of Gyeonggi Province. On the 30th, the Financial Services Commission announced that it had nominated Kim as the new KDIC president.

Mirae Asset Financial Group is considering an acquisition of Korbit, the fourth-ranked among Korea’s five digital asset exchanges, sparking speculation that the deal could shake up a market long dominated by Upbit and Bithumb, according to industry officials Monday, the Korea Times reported on Monday. The Seoul-based financial group has been centering on traditional finance since its founding in the late 1990s and has no prior involvement in crypto-related businesses.