Yonhap News Summary

KOSPI, South Korea's benchmark stock index, suffered a significant decline on Friday due to concerns surrounding investments in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. The index experienced a steep drop of over 8 percent, briefly reaching below the 5,000 point mark in trading. The index managed to recover some of its losses but ultimately fell by 6.02 percent, closing at 5,059.69 points.

In a political development, President Lee Jae Myung selected Lee Yong-cheol, the current chief of the defense procurement agency, to be the new justice minister. Ahn Duk-su, currently the head of the National Tax Service's Seoul office, was nominated as the new head of the agency, while Choi In-ho, the president of the Korea Housing & Urban Guarantee Corp., was appointed as the agency's secretary for political affairs. These appointments were revealed during a press briefing by presidential chief of staff Lim Kwang-hyun.

Another significant appointment was made in the field of law enforcement. Kim Jong-chul, the deputy commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency (KNPA), was nominated to assume the role of the agency's new commissioner general. This appointment comes at a crucial time, as the position has been vacant for nearly two years since former President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law.

Kim expressed his sense of responsibility for the nomination, as he takes on this role during a critical period ahead of a meeting of the National Police Commission to deliberate on his appointment.