South Korea’s de facto presidential transition team has unveiled the highly anticipated blueprint of national goals and policy priorities that the administration of President Lee Jae Myung will pursue over the next five years.

The blueprint was announced at the end of the nearly two-month operation of the national policy planning committee, which was established soon after Lee won the June 3 early presidential election to serve as a presidential transition team, as Lee had to start work immediately without the usual preparation period.

The six tasks related to the goal of making the country one of the top three artificial intelligence powerhouses, to which this column is dedicated, were largely in line with pledges that Lee and his party had made during the campaign period and with the remarks that the committee members had made in recent weeks.

Looking at them more closely, the committee said the country would secure more than 50,000 cutting-edge graphics processing units, high-quality datasets, core technologies and top talent as early as possible, which are widely seen as the key elements indispensable for advancing AI capabilities.

In the context of the global AI race, this goal is not merely symbolic, since advanced GPUs have already become one of the most contested resources worldwide, with shortages hampering development even in leading economies such as the United States.

It also said the government would aim to establish the country’s own complete AI ecosystem by building AI highways — connecting existing high-capacity data centers and those to be built across the country — and securing next-generation AI chip production and AI foundation technologies.

Such an initiative, if successfully implemented, would reduce South Korea's dependence on foreign technologies while positioning domestic firms as competitive players in next-generation infrastructure.

The blueprint also set goals to firmly establish a personal information protection system while aggressively opening public data for AI development. It also proposed the establishment of a 100 trillion won ($72.3 billion) public-private fund to support AI and other future strategic industries.

This unprecedented level of financial commitment underscores the government’s recognition that massive investment is indispensable in an era where global competitors are also pouring resources into similar technologies.

It is welcome that the committee tried to maintain consistency in such an important national agenda as those related to AI innovation, not only from the plans charted during the election campaign period but even from the policy direction adopted by the previous Yoon Suk Yeol administration.

AI landscape changing by day

The willingness to carry forward past initiatives suggests a rare continuity in South Korea’s policy environment, which is often criticized for abrupt shifts after changes in government.

However, the committee provided no fresh plans beyond what its members and government ministries have already announced in recent weeks. It also did not elaborate on the fate of enforcement decrees and rules for the basic AI law, which are long overdue past the government’s self-imposed deadline of June 30. This silence was particularly glaring given that businesses and researchers have been waiting for concrete guidance on how the law will actually function in practice.

The lack of clarity on the fate of the subordinate legislation work for the basic AI law could cause much more serious confusion than the government assumes, because not only AI developers but also many other companies are having trouble making preparations for the implementation of the law in late January 2026. Uncertainty could lead some firms to delay or scale back their plans in anticipation of shifting obligations.

A group of ruling party lawmakers had proposed a bill to revise the basic AI law toward suspending all the provisions and obligations on AI companies, calling for a fine of up to 30 million won for violators for three years. Science and ICT Minister Bae Kyung-hoon had expressed his support for the idea of suspending the obligations during his confirmation hearing session, but has since failed to follow up on it.

This lack of follow-through risks undermining confidence in the government’s ability to provide a predictable policy environment for one of the most critical industries of the future. There is no denying that maintaining consistency in government policy is very important.

The borderline between consistency and complacency is always so delicate that even experts cannot easily reach an agreement in most cases. The national policy planning committee’s announcement of tasks and goals for advancing the country’s AI capabilities is one such case because many people, including myself, were paying attention to the final announcement. South Korea’s choices today will determine its role in the global AI order of tomorrow.

The lack of comments on the restructuring plans for the Presidential Committee on AI, also known as the national AI committee in Korean, was also disappointing, given that the committee is the highest apparatus to review, coordinate and make decisions on AI issues.

Moreover, ruling party members had publicly said that the new administration would disclose draft plans on restructuring the committee during July. The absence of such detail raises questions about whether the administration is prepared to take bold steps in reshaping governance structures for this rapidly evolving field.

After all, I respect the fact that the national policy planning committee tried very hard not to create unnecessary confusion or controversy by giving up the principle of maintaining consistency in national agendas.

However, we need to ask ourselves whether it was complacency for the sake of consistency, especially at a time when the global landscape of AI changes not by the year but by the month or even by the day. In an environment where innovation cycles are accelerating and competitors are moving aggressively, South Korea’s ability to adapt swiftly may prove just as important as its ability to stay consistent.

Yoo Choon-sik

Yoo Choon-sik worked for nearly 30 years at Reuters, including as the chief Korea economics correspondent, and briefly worked as a business strategy consultant. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. -- Ed.


khnews@heraldcorp.com