Woofun AI reports that South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI index declined by more than 5% during trading, prompting the Korea Exchange to activate a sell-side sidecar. This marks the first activation of this circuit breaker in months, suspending program trading for five minutes to allow market reassessment. The trigger activates when KOSPI futures or the index itself drop more than 5% from the previous close.

The decline stems from overnight Wall Street losses, U.S. interest rate concerns, weak Chinese export data, and headwinds in South Korea’s technology sector. Market analysts describe the sidecar as a temporary pause rather than a fundamental solution. The last similar activation occurred in March 2020 during the COVID-19 crash.