South Korean authorities have imposed a record-breaking fine of $624 billion won (over $400 million) on retail giant Coupang after a data breach last year compromised the personal data of more than 34 million customers.

Seoul’s Personal Information Protection Commission issued the maximum penalty on Thursday following discovery of the breach in December 2025. The retail giant, which is headquartered in the U.S. but popular in South Korea and likened to the “Amazon of Asia,” had said the months-long data breach allowed a former employee to obtain names, email and shipping addresses, phone numbers, and order histories of about two-thirds of South Korea’s population.

Coupang told BBC News that it plans to challenge the regulator’s decision. The fine represents a rare case of a financial penalty issued against a U.S.-based firm. Korean lawmakers have accused some of their American counterparts of imposing political pressure after reports that U.S. representatives were linking the data breach with U.S.-South Korean bilateral ties in response to the case against Coupang’s executives.

U.S. companies rarely face financial sanctions or criminal prosecution for data breaches as a result of lacking laws and enforcement powers.

A military research institute demonstrated three versions of a four-legged robot, one of them armed, for possible duty on remote outposts the coast guard struggles to staff.

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Taiwan’s main weapons-development institute put three robot dogs through their paces on Monday, presenting them as a possible answer to a hard problem: how to keep watch over tiny, far-flung islands in the South China Sea without sending many more people to live on them.

The National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, which is military-owned, demonstrated three versions of a four-legged robot built by Ghost Robotics, a US supplier of quadruped machines, according to Reuters.

The institute has fitted its own equipment to the robots for three roles: reconnaissance, surveillance, and firepower. The last of those carries a gun mounted on its back, which is the detail that tends to draw the eye, and the one that places these machines in the contested territory between a patrol tool and a weapon.

Ghost Robotics, unlike some rivals, has not barred the weaponisation of its quadrupeds, which is part of why its machines have found their way into military programmes that Boston Dynamics’ terms would not permit. Taiwan’s marines have said there is a pressing need for robots that can handle beach and coastline patrols and inspections in the Spratlys and the Pratas, the two island groups at issue.

Geography explains the interest. Taiwan controls Itu Aba, also called Taiping, the largest natural island in the Spratlys, and it holds the Pratas, which sit at the northern end of the South China Sea and are guarded in peacetime by the coast guard rather than the military. Both are small, remote, and expensive to keep manned.

A robot that can walk a perimeter in the heat without rotation, rest, or a supply chain for anything but power is, on paper, well suited to exactly that kind of posting.

The backdrop is a steadily tenser maritime standoff. Taiwan has complained of a rising number of Chinese coast guard patrols, and even drones, near the Pratas, part of Beijing’s broader pressure campaign against an island it claims as its own.

Unmanned systems have become a feature of that contest on both sides; Chinese forces have themselves trialled armed robot dogs and small drones in amphibious exercises near Taiwan over the past year.

For now this is a demonstration, not a deployment. Reuters reported that the military has signalled a requirement for the robots but has not placed a formal order, so the timeline, the numbers, and whether the armed variant ever reaches an actual beach all remain open.

Robotic quadrupeds have been edging into military service elsewhere, from the French Army’s trials of Boston Dynamics’ Spot to a wave of European battlefield-robot funding. Taiwan’s version of the idea now has a stage, a gun, and a set of islands it was built with in mind. What it does not yet have is an order.

As SpaceX counts down to what could be the largest IPO in history, the race to build the next generation of launch vehicles is heating up. Asia wants in. Startups across Australia, India, Japan, and South Korea are racing to establish themselves in a market long dominated by the U.S. and China.

One of them is Unastella, a four-year-old South Korean startup that just closed a $24 million Series B, bringing its total funding to $44 million. The company launched its own rocket, the UNA EXPRESS-I, from South Korean soil in May 2025.

The Seoul-based rocket startup is developing its own launch vehicles and engines, with an initial focus on small satellite launch services. Unastella’s near-term focus is validating its technology and business model through orbital launches, with crewed suborbital spaceflight as a longer-term goal, founder and CEO Jae Park told TechCrunch.

Unastella uses a kerosene and liquid oxygen propulsion system, one of the most proven combinations in rocket history, and one that is also used by SpaceX’s Falcon series. On top of that, the company swapped out the traditional turbo pump for an electric motor pump, a simpler and cheaper alternative that Rocket Lab has already validated in flight.

The tradeoff is payload. Electric motor pumps are heavier, which means less room for satellites. But Park said that’s a deliberate decision.

“We’re not an R&D group trying to build the most impressive rocket,” Park said. “We’re a commercial launch company trying to get to market fast.”

Park also notes that Unastella handles everything in-house, such as design, manufacturing, ground operations, and flight data. The UNA EXPRESS-I launch last year was the first real-world test of the entire system end-to-end, Park said.

The CEO has spent his entire career working on rocket engines. Before founding Unastella, Park worked on combustion systems for Korea’s Nuri rocket — the country’s first indigenously developed orbital launch vehicle, built by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). He then moved to the German Aerospace Center in Berlin to work on European launch vehicle engines, and returned to Korea to join another rocket startup before deciding to build his own.

Unastella isn’t generating revenue yet, but investors appear to be backing the startup’s roadmap. Altos Ventures led the Series B, joined by Korea Development Bank, Strong Ventures, and Hana Ventures, among others.

UNA EXPRESS-II, targeted for next year, is the launch Park is really building toward. Reaching 100 kilometers would mark a significant milestone, one he believes will open the door to partnerships with South Korea’s major aerospace and defense firms.

The 22-person startup has already laid the foundation and developed institutional relationships. Korea’s national space agency has flown components on UNA EXPRESS-I, and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute has transferred electric motor pump technology to the company.

Unastella is not alone in the race to tap into the global space launch market, which was worth roughly $15 billion in 2023. By 2030, it is projected to nearly triple to $41 billion, according to Grand View Research.

South Korea’s commercial launch sector is still in its early stages, but the field is already taking shape.

Hanwha Aerospace, the country’s largest defense conglomerate, took over the government-built Nuri rocket last year after acquiring full technology rights from KARI. Two startups are also competing: Innospace, which went public on the Korean stock exchange and has conducted a sub-orbital launch, and Perigee Aerospace, which is developing its Blue Whale rocket. None have yet achieved a commercial orbital launch. South Korea’s space agency KASA, established in 2024, has committed $266 million over seven years to build out launch infrastructure — a sign that the government is betting on the private sector to take the lead.

The competition extends well beyond Korea. In Asia, China leads the pack: Galactic Energy, LandSpace, and iSpace have all conducted multiple launches. Japan’s H3 rocket, developed by JAXA and Mitsubishi, completed its first successful launch in 2024, while startup Interstellar Technologies is building its own small vehicle. In Australia, Gilmour Space attempted its first orbital launch this year. And then there is Rocket Lab — founded in New Zealand, now listed on Nasdaq — which remains the only Asian-founded company to have built a commercially viable launch business.

This story has been updated to reflect that UNA EXPRESS-II is targeted for launch next year, not later this year as originally reported.