Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Korea Information Security Agency unveiled the SEED algorithm in the year 1998. This cryptographic standard was designed to replace the weak 40-bit encryption that had long been mandated by United States export controls.
SEED operates as a 16-round Feistel network that processes data in 128-bit blocks with a matching 128-bit key. The algorithm employs two 8 by 8 S-boxes derived from discrete exponentiation and uses a recursive structure similar to the MISTY1 algorithm.
The key schedule of SEED generates thirty-two 32-bit subkeys through a process that incorporates the Golden ratio. The raw key undergoes a series of rotations and is applied through the G-function combined with round constants derived from the Golden ratio.
Mozilla Firefox decided to drop support for the SEED algorithm by default in version 27 and above because supporting SEED had not helped South Korea migrate away from ActiveX-based e-commerce. Other browsers were not offering any SEED-based cipher suites, leaving users in a precarious position.
On the 1st of April 2015, the Ministry of Science ICT and Future Planning announced a bold plan to remove the ActiveX dependency from at least 90 percent of the country's top 100 websites by 2017. This initiative marked the beginning of a significant shift in South Korea's digital infrastructure.
SEED has been adopted by several standard protocols including S/MIME, TLS/SSL, IPSec, and ISO/IEC 18033-3:2010. The algorithm's inclusion in these standards was a testament to its robust design and the efforts of the Korea Information Security Agency to promote it globally.