ED Gov't, parties in unison
External shocks are not usually welcome. But recent accelerated steps demonstrated by global artificial intelligence (AI) firms, the Chinese startup DeepSeek and the Stargate project between OpenAI and SoftBank are spurring Korea to take action. This comes as government and the rival parties are bogged down in the impeachment and political quagmire caused by President Yoon Suk Yeol's Dec. 3 martial law imposition.
A four-way consultative apparatus, launched Dec. 26 to bring together the government, the National Assembly, the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), will hold its first policy meeting next week to deal with pressing livelihood and economic issues. Topping the agenda is the passage of bills such as the Semiconductor Special Act, the Expansion of the National Power Grid Act, the AI Basic Act as well as a supplementary budget.
It's deplorable but better than never that external uncertainties, namely the threats stemming from tariff impositions by U.S. President Donald Trump as well as AI developments, have gotten the consultative body into action.
In the wake of DeepSeek's unveiling of its R1 open source language model, another surprise development was Tuesday's three-way meeting in Seoul between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Samsung Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son on possible cooperation between the three companies on the Stargate project, a $500 billion AI infrastructure led by OpenAI and SoftBank. A private project announced personally by Trump, the Stargate is regarded as an initiative to fuel U.S. leadership in the global AI race against China.
No feasible agreements were reached at the Seoul meeting, but such cooperation could boost Samsung's lackluster performance in both foundry and high-bandwidth memory chips. To facilitate these steps, those bills — in particular the Semiconductor Special Act and the entailing easing of the 52-hour workweek system for workers in the semiconductor industry — should be approved with all parties, especially the DPK and the PPP, staying on the same page.
The four-way policy meeting will be chaired by acting President Choi Sang-mok, National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik, PPP interim leader Kwon Young-se and DPK Chairman Lee Jae-myung. They must be able to put aside political differences and put their heads together to speed up on improving people's livelihoods and spurring advanced technological sectors in the nation.
At the working-level preparatory meeting held Tuesday, the ruling and opposition parties proposed approving three energy bills including the Semiconductor Special Act in a National Assembly session soon. A supplementary budget — around 20 trillion won ($13.8 billion) to 30 trillion won as espoused by the opposition — and reform of the national pension that began last year were also proposed for next week's meeting agenda. Needless to say, these are all dire issues and undoubtedly the public, wary over the legal battles of the past two months, will be relieved to know that an effective governance apparatus will be turning its wheels soon.
It helps that Lee Jae-myung, the DPK leader regarded as upholding a liberal platform, has increasingly moved toward the right of the political spectrum. He has been indicating that he finds it hard to oppose the high-earning researchers wanting to work more than 52 hours in high-tech sectors such as semiconductors and that he is willing to forgo his idea of providing 250,000 won ($183) universal cash vouchers for a supplementary budget. There is skepticism that these moves are more to recruit moderate or centrist voters if there should be a snap presidential election. The recent political and technological developments surrounding and within Korea dictate prudent pragmatism prevailing in the mindset of top policymakers and lawmakers.