Blog

Ukraine's president, addressing the UN General Assembly's high-level session in New York, said he'd recently sent two captured North Korean soldiers to South Korea. He described their capture as anything but smooth — one of the men, sensing he was about to become a prisoner of war, reportedly tried to kill himself. The president said he was struck that the soldier survived at all, calling it a window into how North Korea's regime treats its own people.

At a briefing the same day, South Korea's foreign ministry stopped short of confirming the transfer outright, but said it had been in continuous contact with Ukrainian counterparts. Officials added that details about the men's whereabouts and travel route couldn't be disclosed, citing safety concerns for the individuals and their families. By not pushing back on the president's remarks, the ministry's response amounted to a tacit acknowledgment.

The two soldiers in question were captured by Ukrainian forces during fighting in Russia's Kursk region, reportedly in January of last year. Their identities became public after Ukraine's president posted footage of the capture on social media at the time. Since then, the men have reportedly written letters to North Korean defector groups in South Korea and given media interviews expressing a wish to resettle there.

Under South Korea's constitution, which treats North Korean territory as part of the country, Seoul has long held that North Koreans are technically its own citizens and has committed to accepting them if they choose to come. The issue has already moved through diplomatic channels: in March, the two countries' foreign ministers agreed to resolve it in line with international law and humanitarian principles, and in July, President Lee and Ukraine's president discussed it again in person on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.

In his speech, the Ukrainian president accused North Korea's leadership of treating its own soldiers like goods traded for compensation, and warned that Asian countries have likely already seen evidence of North Korea's improved missile and drone technology. Ukrainian intelligence separately estimates North Korea has deployed several thousand troops to Russia — including drone units tasked with reconnaissance and strike missions — putting the total at around 8,500.

LG Electronics and SK Enmove have agreed to jointly develop next-generation cooling materials. At the heart of the MOU is a plan to co-create refrigerants, refrigeration oils, and immersion cooling technology together. The deal was signed at SK's Seorin Building in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on September 21, with LG Electronics President Lee Jae-sung — who oversees the company's energy solutions business — and SK Enmove CEO Kim Won-ki among those in attendance.

The starting point for the collaboration is a new refrigerant built to meet tightening environmental rules. As greenhouse gas emissions standards get stricter across Europe and North America, there's growing demand for a refrigerant with a global warming potential (GWP) under 150 and no PFAS (perfluorinated compounds) at all. The plan splits the work: SK Enmove develops candidate substances, and LG Electronics tests them in actual HVAC products. The two are also co-developing a matching refrigeration oil — a lubricant-like material that reduces wear on components like compressors — optimized for the new refrigerant to boost both efficiency and durability.

The other big focus area is immersion cooling: submerging heat-generating equipment like servers directly in an insulating cooling fluid. It's far more efficient than conventional air cooling, which is why it's gaining traction as an alternative for power-hungry AI data centers. The two companies have previously worked with a US-based cooling specialist to test the technology's feasibility and commercial potential. Building on that, they plan to explore expanding its use beyond data centers to other heat-heavy power equipment, including energy storage systems (ESS) and EV components.

Executives from both sides expect the partnership to give them an edge in the increasingly competitive thermal-management race. SK Enmove said it wants to lean on the materials expertise it's built up in the lubricants business to speed up commercialization, while LG Electronics said it plans to keep pairing its HVAC and cooling technology with SK Enmove's materials know-how to chase new market opportunities.

Nvidia runs a certification framework called "DSX Ready" that vets AI data center components — everything from compute and cooling to power and software — under a single standard. For cooling distribution units (CDUs), only large-capacity systems above 2.3 megawatts qualify for review. LG Electronics announced on September 22 that its 2.5-megawatt CDU cleared that bar and received formal approval. The unit is designed to cool multiple server racks as a single group; as AI server racks have grown to around 120 kilowatts each, a cluster of roughly 20 racks now generates heat loads around 2.5 megawatts, which the industry treats as the benchmark for large-scale cooling.

LG Electronics had already secured the same certification for 600-kilowatt and 1-megawatt units in July and earlier this month, respectively. With this latest approval, the company now has a complete CDU lineup spanning small, medium and large capacities. Combined with its chillers for bulk chilled-water production, server-room air conditioning units, and cold plates that cool chips directly, LG says it now covers the full spectrum of thermal management for AI chips.

On the same day, affiliate LG Energy Solution received DSX Ready certification in the battery energy storage system (BESS) category. Only three companies worldwide have passed this certification, and LG Energy Solution is the only Korean battery maker among them. The certified product, the lithium iron phosphate-based "JF2 AC Link," adjusts charging and discharging to match sudden swings in AI servers' power draw and keeps supply stable even when grid voltage fluctuates sharply.

Market researchers expect liquid cooling adoption in AI data centers to climb from about 14% in 2024 to nearly 60% by 2027, making both cooling and power storage central to AI infrastructure buildouts. LG Energy Solution currently operates five ESS production sites in North America and plans to expand its regional capacity to more than 50 gigawatt-hours by the end of the year.

According to trade data the Korea Customs Service released Sept. 21, the country's exports for Sept. 1-20 jumped sharply from a year earlier, marking the strongest total ever recorded for that 20-day window. The gain looks even more striking given there was one fewer working day this year than last.

Semiconductors were the clear driver. Chip exports nearly tripled from a year earlier, setting a new record for the period, and semiconductors' share of total exports jumped to nearly half. Petroleum products, passenger cars, ships and computer peripherals also grew, but nowhere near as fast as chips.

By destination, Taiwan posted the steepest growth rate. Exports to the U.S. and China roughly doubled, while Vietnam and the EU also posted solid gains, with most of Korea's top trading partners turning in strong numbers across the board. China, the U.S. and Vietnam alone accounted for more than half of total exports.

Imports rose too, but at a slower pace than exports, pushing the trade balance to the largest surplus on record for the period. On the import side, semiconductors, chipmaking equipment and crude oil all climbed sharply, while petroleum product imports fell — a split trend. Imports from China, Japan and the U.S. all increased.