South Korea selected Pacific Biosciences’ HiFi long‑read sequencing technology as the primary platform for its national pangenome reference project, aiming to generate more than 1,000 telomere‑to‑telomere assemblies representing the Korean population. The data will feed into the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium (HPRC). The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency and Korea National Institute of Health will lead the initiative; PacBio will provide whole‑genome sequencing, full‑length RNA analysis and chromosome‑scale structural‑variant detection. PacBio shares rallied on the news. The project accelerates regional pangenome efforts designed to improve variant representation for under‑served populations and strengthen precision‑medicine pipelines by incorporating complex structural variation and haplotype diversity into reference models.