President Lee Jae-myung ordered a thorough investigation on the 4th regarding the recent incident in which a number of financial companies, including major commercial banks, were hacked using artificial intelligence (AI) agents. Kang Yoo-jeong, Chief Spokesperson of the Blue House, said on this day, "President Lee was briefed on the status of recent personal information leaks and responses from financial institutions and public institutions," and "I ordered him to take the issue seriously and make every effort to conduct a thorough investigation and prepare countermeasures." According to financial authorities and the financial sector, following an incident in which some personal information was leaked from Shinhan, KB Kookmin, Hana, and BNK Busan Banks, it was revealed that savings banks, capital companies, and mutual finance companies were all exposed to hacking threats, and anxiety is spreading.
U.S. President Donald Trump visited Ohio, one of the battlegrounds in the November midterm elections, on the 3rd (local time) and announced that the state is attracting large amounts of investment from foreign companies in the U.S. through tariff policies. “We give them a small window of about a year and a half to build a factory here,” President Trump said in a speech at a rally held at a high school in Ohio. “If they don’t do that, we impose tariffs of 150, 200, 250, 300 percent.” “At the end of the day, they are all building (factories) here,” he said. “This is all very simple, and we have been executing it at a level that no one has ever seen.” He then claimed that the United States was securing trillions of dollars through this.
North Korea is showing off its variety of hypersonic ballistic missiles that can neutralize ROK-US interception networks with irregular flight trajectories. Following the recent launch of an improved version of the anti-abuse short-range hypersonic missile 'Hwaseong-11ma', it is evaluated that the hypersonic 'mid-range strategic missile' with increased propulsion has the ability to threaten not only the US military base in Japan where US military reinforcements are deployed in case of emergency, but also the US territory of Guam. According to North Korean state media reports and expert opinions on the 4th, the ballistic missile that North Korea launched the day before from the Wonsan area appears to have been equipped with a cone-shaped hypersonic warhead that was test-fired in 2022 on a medium-range projectile.
The Serious Crimes Investigation Agency (Serious Crimes Investigation Agency) gave up its first holiday immediately after its launch and began strengthening the internal structure of the organization. According to the legal community on the 4th, the Central Investigation Agency is speeding up preparations to begin a full-scale investigation by sending some executives and employees to work. Officials who have come to work are reorganizing administrative and practical procedures, such as establishing office divisions and manuals for each bureau and department.
President Lee Jae-myung said on the 4th, “Reform should be a goal, not a means to reveal clarity, attract attention, and attack someone.” On this day, President Lee wrote on He emphasized, "Reforms should lead to actual results that improve people's livelihood and contribute to national development, and should not hinder the creation of results by making the process too noisy to attract attention."
The Democratic Party of Korea announced on the 4th that Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae of the Supreme Court had expressed his intention not to comply with the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee's request to appear as a witness for the National Assembly audit. Rep. Seo Young-kyo, chairman of the Legislative and Judiciary Committee, held a press conference at the National Assembly that day and said, "Chief Justice Cho submitted a written opinion regarding the request for attendance ahead of the Supreme Court's government inspection on October 6. They say it is difficult for him to appear as a witness and give answers." Rep. Seo criticized, “Every time the National Assembly asks for an explanation on pending issues in the judiciary, (Chief Justice Cho) repeatedly refuses to attend in the name of judicial independence,” adding, “Continuing to refuse requests to attend the National Assembly is a matter of denying the National Assembly’s checks and verification.”
The People Power Party is raising the level of its offensive targeting President Lee Jae-myung on the 4th. A fierce battle began regardless of policy areas such as security, economy, and judiciary. They appear to believe that concentrating their firepower on criticizing President Lee and the government's mismanagement ahead of the National Assembly audit will be effective in securing leadership in the political situation. Previously, the party leadership held a 'People's Action Rally to Restore People's Livelihood and Protect Security in Judgment of the Lee Jae-myung Administration' with members of the National Assembly and party members in downtown Seoul the day before, which was a holiday, and gathered their party power to condemn the government's mismanagement.
It was found that the degree of dependence on loans from financial institutions when buying a house in Seoul differed greatly between the Gangnam area and the outlying areas. In Gangnam-gu and Yongsan-gu, the proportion of loans from financial institutions among home purchase funds decreased significantly, while it increased in Nowon and Dobong-gu and remained at the 30% level in Gangbuk-gu. Accordingly, it is pointed out that if the home mortgage loan limit is further lowered, home buyers in the outskirts of Seoul, who are highly dependent on loans, may be relatively more affected.
It was found that nearly 1,700 cases of fraudulent subscriptions were detected at private apartment sales sites across the country over the past five years. False transfers to increase additional points by increasing the number of dependents accounted for 8 out of 10 cases. According to the 'Detection of violations and measures taken as a result of on-site inspection of private sales workplaces' submitted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on the 4th, People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Sang-beom, a member of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee of the National Assembly, inspected 212,892 households in 350 private sales complexes nationwide from 2021 to June of last year. As a result, 1,669 cases of fraudulent subscription were detected and an investigation was requested. By type, 82.7% of the total were false transfers of resident registration (1,380 cases).
It was found that more than 800 students in the so-called ‘Gangnam 3 districts’ general high schools, including Gangnam, Seocho, and Songpa-gu in Seoul, stopped studying last school year alone. First-year students who were the first to apply the 5-grade system for school records accounted for nearly 60% of all school dropouts. As a result of analyzing the 2026 'Study dropout rate and reasons for dropout by administrative district' data from the Education Statistics Service of the Korea Educational Development Institute on the 4th, there were a total of 816 students in general high schools in Gangnam's 3 districts in the 2025 school year (March 2025 to February 2026).
