Lee Jae Myung

Lee Jae Myung is mid-stride in a presidency defined by a single wager: that South Korea can convert a semiconductor windfall into a top-three global AI position before the window closes. He calls semiconductors, physical AI, and AI data centers the "triple axis for a great leap forward" and insists Korea secure AI core elements "faster than any other country." The numbers are staggering. A $518B southwestern chip hub anchored by Samsung and SK Hynix sits at the center, with Samsung accelerating its first Yongin fab to 2029 from a 2030-31 baseline. Lee ordered concurrent environmental and approval reviews to strip bottlenecks, declaring "only speed matters." On July 13 his government unveiled a record 800T-won FY2027 budget, up from a 412T-won revenue baseline now projected at 500T thanks to chip-tax receipts, framing the moment as the "golden window when the global race for AI leadership is being decided." A Future Response Fund channels those windfall revenues into the mega-projects plus housing, startup, and employment support for people in their twenties and thirties to combat K-shaped polarization. He is cutting 50T won from underperforming programs to help pay for it.

On the diplomatic front, Lee returned from a five-day tour through Ankara and Ulaanbaatar with a broadened footprint. At the NATO summit he proposed a Korea-NATO Defense Industry Partnership 2.0 with Secretary General Mark Rutte, opening Korean firms to a 15T-won annual procurement market and shifting toward joint R&D in AI-driven weapons. He pledged $100M in humanitarian aid to Volodymyr Zelenskyy and coordinated North Korean POW resettlement under international law. Trump pressed him at both the G7 and the NATO banquet to build 10 U.S. Navy warships under the MASGA initiative; Lee agreed to working-level consultations, and Korean shipyards have already responded to U.S. Navy RFIs. In Mongolia, Lee and President Khurelsukh signed a "golden era" declaration targeting $1B in bilateral trade by 2030 and critical-mineral supply chains, while Lee asked Ulaanbaatar to help reopen dialogue with Pyongyang. Pyongyang responded by condemning NATO and vowing accelerated nuclear growth. Lee hosted Princess Anne at the Blue House to cap a UK tour centered on shipbuilding cooperation, and his April India visit is now operationalizing as an India-Korea Digital Bridge on AI governance and critical minerals.

Domestically, Lee confirmed Han Seong-sook, former Naver CEO, as prime minister on July 1, only the second woman to hold the post. He is weighing a phased social-media ban for minors, calling algorithm side effects "very serious for those under 16" while deferring to public consensus rather than rushing. His revised Information and Communications Network Act took effect July 7, allowing courts to award up to 5x punitive damages for false information, drawing censorship warnings from press groups and U.S. officials. He ordered a crackdown on fuel-price collusion that produced indictments of four refiners for $17B in market impact. After the U.S.-Iran deal, he announced nearly all Korean vessels have exited the Strait of Hormuz and ordered supply-chain diversification, warning the "crisis is not yet over." Two frictions with Washington remain live: a House Judiciary Committee report alleging discriminatory regulatory probes into Coupang's data leak, and Section 301 investigations that could impose 12.5% tariffs on South Korea.