Bill seeks to boost South Korea's AI competitiveness after DeepSeek shock
South Korea's ruling People Power Party Rep. Kim Gunn introduced a bill seeking to expand investment in the country's artificial intelligence and boost innovation.
Kim said he proposed the bill to boost South Korea's competitiveness in the AI field amid the accelerating global race for AI supremacy, after the Chinese startup DeepSeek sent shockwaves through the tech community.
According to Kim, the relatively limited pool of AI experts is one of the main challenges facing South Korea in the sector.
While China has about 410,000 experts working in the AI industry, and the US has about 200,000, South Korea has only about 20,000, Kim said.
Kim said South Korea planned on investing 65 trillion won between now and 2027, compared to the US, which plans to inject some 180 trillion won through 2030.
Based on existing AI laws, tax exemption was limited to select fields such as semiconductors, secondary batteries and vaccines.
The bill proposed by Kim would extend tax exemption to AI and cloud computing technologies, and offer more favorable tax credit rates to related research and development.
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Korea Herald
14 minutes ago
- Korea Herald
Lee invites Xi to APEC summit as both vow to forge 'new ties'
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Korea Herald
15 minutes ago
- Korea Herald
Main opposition calls for Lee to proceed with election law retrial
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Korea Herald
2 hours ago
- Korea Herald
Can President Lee stay out of court?
President Lee Jae-myung's term will likely be unaffected by his ongoing criminal trials, with the ruling Democratic Party of Korea set to push for a Criminal Procedure Act amendment that would postpone any criminal trials involving sitting presidents until they leave office. A total of five different criminal trials presented major challenges for Lee during his presidential campaign, allowing other candidates to question whether Lee was truly qualified to lead the country. Some in the legal community expected that the trials would remain hurdles for Lee even after the election as Article 84 of the Constitution -- which stipulates that the president cannot be criminally prosecuted while in office except in cases of insurrection or treason -- does not clarify whether this immunity extends to ongoing trials that began before the president took office. But the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, led by the Democratic Party, approved a revision to the Criminal Procedure Act in early May to prevent legal ambiguity. The ruling party is reportedly considering proposing the amendment in a National Assembly plenary session on Thursday. 'The Constitution guarantees the president immunity from prosecution in order to ensure stable governance. The Criminal Procedure Act also states that criminal trials fall under the definition of prosecution,' said Democratic Party Rep. Jeon Hyun-heui during the ruling party's Supreme Council meeting on Monday, claiming that the entire case needs to be suspended regardless of when it began. The Democratic Party added that the amendment is a legislative clarification introduced to avoid any conflict between constitutional immunity and the actual judicial process. The main opposition People Power Party condemned the liberal party's legal revision, calling the amendment of the Criminal Procedure Act a 'bulletproof law,' a self-interested measure aimed at granting immunity to the president. 'All are equal before the law. The presidency is not a position to escape trials that began before taking office,' said People Power Party interim leader Kim Yong-tae in a press conference held Sunday, asking whether President Lee is willing to attend a hearing in his trial for alleged election law violations scheduled on June 18. Kim criticized the proposed bills -- the amendment of the Criminal Procedure Act and a proposed expansion of the Supreme Court -- which he said the ruling party is attempting to ram through only for the benefit of the current president. In early May, the Supreme Court's Court Administration Office stated that the judges of each court will have to decide whether to stop or proceed with the trials by applying Article 84 of the Constitution to a criminal defendant who has been elected president. Meanwhile, the Seoul High Court announced Monday that the hearing in Lee's retrial on charges of election law violations, which was set to be held on June 18, will be postponed. 'The court has rescheduled the hearing date and will set a new date later. The decision was made after considering Article 84 of the Constitution,' the Seoul High Court said, without giving a new date for the hearing. At a general meeting of the main opposition party, People Power Party Rep. Kweon Seong-dong said the judges chose to "abandon judicial independence," and the court's decision will be remembered as the judiciary's embarrassing past. "I hope the judges who are tasked to hear Lee's other criminal trials do not make foolish mistakes. I urge the Seoul High Court to withdraw its arbitrary interpretation of Article 84 of the Constitution and appeal to the Supreme Court of Korea for legal clarification," Kweon said. Decisions about Lee's remaining criminal trials, in which the president is accused of subornation of perjury, corruption, illegal money transfers to North Korea and misappropriating public funds, are yet to be announced.
