At first glance, all seems serene on a spring morning at the research-and-development campus of SK Innovation, one of Korea's biggest industrial conglomerates. The campus sits in Daejeon, a tidy, planned city an hour's high-speed-train ride south of Seoul that the national government has built up as a technology hub. Dotting SK's rolling acres are tastefully modern glass-and-steel buildings that wouldn't be out of place in a glossy architecture magazine. One contains a library, its tables stocked with rolls of butcher paper and Post-it notes to spur creativity. Another houses an espresso bar where engineers queue for caffeination. A cool breeze blows. Birds chirp. Pink cherry blossoms bloom.
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