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Soo Kim

Soo Kim is a former CIA analyst and strategic risk consultant.

Soo Kim

The age of AI: Why hustle culture is a strategic dead end

For decades, corporate ethos has been defined by a clean, singular metric: efficiency. In the case of South Korea, the nation built a global economic powerhouse on the back of the “fast follower” model: taking a proven technology or successful market strategy and executing faster and with greater precision than competitors. Diligence, as a result, became a reliable national defense mechanism. Today, that hyper-drive has evolved into the cultural phenomenon known as "god-saeng." For the younger generation, “living like a god” is equated to a life of hyper-optimization. Miracle mornings, productivity hacks and the performance of perfect discipline. From the perspective of someone who spent years in the U.S. national security and intelligence communities analyzing how power and influence are actually wielded, there’s a brooding disaster in this trend. Many professionals — in Korea and elsewhere — are over-optimizing for a world that is rapidly evolving. Diligence and determination are never a bad thing, but overcorrection runs the risk of strategic paralysis. Ironically, by

May 12, 2026By Soo Kim
The age of AI: Why hustle culture is a strategic dead end
Soo Kim

'Silicon Island': Korea’s borrowed future

This week, the spot price for Brent crude oil came in at nearly $125 per barrel. In Seoul, that number isn’t just a statistic — it’s a tremor. It’s felt at the pump, in the grocery aisles and on the benchmark KOSPI, which just weathered its worst single-session collapse in 40 years. Beyond the everyday panic lies a deeper, more unsettling realization: South Korea is a high-tech superpower running on a borrowed heartbeat. Global headlines remain fixated on the “Tehran Tollbooth” and the negotiations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Korea, for its part, faces a unique existential crisis. For decades, it has branded itself as an architect of the global future. The foundry for the world’s clips, the primary laboratory for the global artificial intelligence revolution. It’s a brilliant narrative of digital sovereignty and global leadership — one that the world has also backed. The current maritime standoff in the Middle East, however, has exposed the friction at the core of that narrative. Beneath the glass and steel of Pangyo, Seoul remains a “Silicon Island” — a high

Apr 13, 2026By Soo Kim
'Silicon Island': Korea’s borrowed future
Soo Kim

BTS at Gwanghwamun: Beyond the stage

On an ordinary workday, Gwanghwamun moves with quiet precision. Office workers pass through the streets without lingering. Tourists pause to take photos near Cheonggye Stream and Gyeongbok Palace. Traffic loops through an area designed for continuity and movement — a space designed less for spectacle than for function. That cadence began to shift in the days leading up to K-pop phenomenon BTS’ long-awaited comeback concert. Barricades appeared, access became increasingly limited, and police presence was heightened throughout the city. By the day of the concert, roads and subway stations were closed, pedestrian movement was restricted, and tens of thousands of safety personnel had been deployed throughout central Seoul. What unfolded that evening was not simply staged — it was managed. And yet, when the group’s anticipated performance began, the outcome did not follow a familiar script. According to reports, crowd turnout fell well short of the expected 260,000 fans from around the world. Nearby businesses that had prepared for the surge of visitors encountered the opposite, with

Mar 31, 2026By Soo Kim
BTS at Gwanghwamun: Beyond the stage
Soo Kim

Your company’s Slack chat is the new DMZ

The new DMZ is not in the hills of Cheorwon, the town on South Korea's northeastern border — it’s in your company Slack chat. For decades, the Korean Peninsula has been understood through a deceptively simple image: a line that is fixed, fortified and visible. The 38th parallel, reinforced by concrete and wire, did more than divide territory — it shaped how security itself was imagined and how the North Korean “threat” was managed. Threats were external, legible and often deliberately performed, whether through missile launches, artillery movements or blustering rhetoric threatening to wipe the already-fragile peace off the table. That model is obsolete. The most consequential North Korean “incursion” today may not be unfolding at the border but within systems that were never designed to be treated as security environments. It’s taking place inside companies — quietly, routinely and often outside our line of sight. Recent reporting on the DPRK’s remote IT worker schemes and resulting sanctions designations from the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, p

Mar 17, 2026By Soo Kim
Your company’s Slack chat is the new DMZ
Soo Kim

When you’re the only woman in the room

In recognition of International Women’s Day, it’s worth reflecting on a professional dynamic that often goes unspoken from being the only woman in the room. In many professional settings, there’s a moment that quietly gets overlooked. The meeting begins, the discussion turns to strategy, innovation or policy, and soon it becomes apparent that only one woman has a seat at the table. Much of the conversation around gender representation focuses on numbers – how many women sit on corporate boards, how many hold c-suite roles or how many enter (and absolutely thrive in) traditionally male-dominated professions. Yet the experience and realities of being the only woman in the room is less often examined. That experience can subtly shape the dynamics of a conversation in ways that are not always visible. The experience of being the only woman in the room goes beyond representation. More fundamentally, it’s about how institutions and corporate cultures interpret, absorb and respond to difference. The attention it draws can lay the foundation for mentorship, opportunities and visibilit

Mar 9, 2026By Soo Kim
When you’re the only woman in the room
Soo Kim

What Japan’s election results mean for Seoul-Tokyo relations

On Sunday, Japanese voters delivered a decisive verdict in a snap election called just three months after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi assumed office. Framed as a referendum on leadership and national direction, the election produced an outcome few could ignore. Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) secured a commanding share of the lower house, winning 316 of 465 seats and achieving a two-thirds majority — the largest achieved by a single party in the postwar era. With its new coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, the ruling bloc now has 352 seats overall. The result is a rare political consolidation for Tokyo, one that leaves Takaichi with few domestic constraints to advance her agenda. For Korea, a cursory reading of these results may prompt anxiety or hope about the election’s implications on Seoul-Tokyo relations. But this perspective shifts the focus away from the key point that Seoul now faces: Japan’s election didn’t upend the relationship so much as clarify the strategic constraints under which Seoul must now pursue bilateral relations. In recent years,

Feb 10, 2026By Soo Kim
What Japan’s election results mean for Seoul-Tokyo relations
Soo Kim

The Maduro capture and takeaways for two Koreas

The new year kicked off with a bang — the Year of the Fire Horse. In East Asian tradition, this rare “double fire year” — one that happens every 60 years — symbolizes shocks, bold action and unpredictable energy. Less than five days into the new year and the world has already gotten the memo, loud and clear: The United States launched military strikes on Venezuela and captured President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, who were flown to New York to face multiple serious federal crime charges, including narcoterrorism conspiracy and weapons offenses. Stunned and still processing what this incident portends for geopolitics and our everyday lives this year, the international community reacted with a mix of alarm, caution, and uncertainty, from emergency UN sessions to even public condemnation and protests around the world. The rules-based order is under a fresh stress test as we kick off the new year. The ripples of the Venezuela crisis extend far beyond the borders of Latin America. For South Korea, the Maduro episode is more than just a headline. It’s a reminder that the differe

Jan 11, 2026By Soo Kim
The Maduro capture and takeaways for two Koreas
Soo Kim

Seoul must update view of shifting US policy world

For many Koreans, the United States still lives in memory as a coherent giant — a country with a long-term, unified strategy, fixed institutions and continuity in foreign policy. This framework was created in the 1990s and early 2000s, when Washington’s decision-makers generally spoke with one voice, and alliance commitments were anchored in shared values and a common vision rather than political whims. Fast forward to 2025. The U.S. policy world seems more splintered, and perhaps even more pluralistic. While U.S. power has not vanished, what’s changed are the pathways through which it flows — increasingly distributed across institutions, shaped by various interests and incentives and articulated through a more diverse range of actors. One strategic challenge Seoul faces in the alliance might be its view of Washington as unified, predictable and internally cohesive. This mindset, while not entirely flawed, does not entirely capture the reality of U.S. decision-making today. And such misunderstanding comes at a cost. For decades, Korea viewed U.S. power through a relatively stabl

Dec 11, 2025By Soo Kim
Seoul must update view of shifting US policy world
Soo Kim

Beyond headlines: Seoul’s post-APEC challenge

The 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit unfolded like a model spectacle of soft power. For a few days in the last week of October, Gyeongju, once the capital of ancient kingdoms, captured the world’s attention as the center of modern diplomacy and global commerce. We saw handshakes between world leaders, photo ops and K-pop stars hyping the event. Notably, the sight of three billionaires — Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and the heads of Samsung and Hyundai — walking into a neighborhood chicken joint brought a mix of gravitas, pop culture and whimsy to the summit week, underscoring the convergence of high-stakes diplomacy and moments of spectacle at APEC. As the saying goes, though, not all that glitters is gold. Once the dust settles and the fog dissipates, the true measure of APEC’s success will be determined not by CEO sightings or dazzling star power, but by the far less glamorous, less visible work that follows: the mechanics and implementation that translate handshakes, words and promises into policy. To be clear, symbolic gestures do carry significant weight in undersc

Nov 11, 2025By Soo Kim
Beyond headlines: Seoul’s post-APEC challenge
Soo Kim

Hidden grammar of US-Korea alliance

We often measure the strength of alliances by firepower and formal agreements. In practice, though, their resilience is defined by layers beyond what meets the wandering eye. Who ensures mutual understanding in times of discord, who translates strategy and policy implementation across assumption-baked cultures, who exchanges subtle nods and warnings? Quiet actors in the alliance — insiders fluent in both languages, cultures and logics — wield as much heft in the U.S.-Korea partnership as any treaty clause. To say that the U.S.-Korea alliance functions and operates in a purely top-down and formulaic structure would be a gross simplification of the complexities and vastly intersected reality that a seven-decade partnership entails. It goes without saying that government-to-government, department-to-department and leader-to-leader coordination remains critical to fostering alliance efficiency. Yet today, economic interdependence, artificial intelligence (AI) and innovation cooperation, and cultural fluidity wield greater clout in Washington and Seoul’s strategic alignment than befo

Oct 14, 2025By Soo Kim
Hidden grammar of US-Korea alliance
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