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Toward a new republic: Rethinking Korea’s political system for a technological era

Published: 16 Apr. 2025, 00:01

Yeom Jae-ho

The author is the president of Taejae University and vice chair of the Presidential Committee on AI.

The Sixth Republic of Korea was born from the constitutional reforms of President Roh Tae-woo, marking the end of the Fifth Republic under Chun Doo Hwan’s military regime. Since then, Korea has seen successive civilian administrations under the banner of democratization, earning praise worldwide as a rare case of a nation achieving both rapid industrialization and democratic development.

Former President Roh Tae-woo attends the opening ceremony of the 24th Seoul Olympics in 1988 with his wife Kim Ok-sook. [YONHAP]

Culturally, the country emerged as a soft power giant in the 21st century. With K-pop, K-dramas and Korean cuisine gaining global popularity, its cultural influence has grown significantly. Yet, as political science scholar Choi Jang-jip noted, Korea has failed to build a sustainable political system suited to its post-democratization era.

Instead of maturing into a fully functioning republic, both the conservative forces that led Korea’s industrialization and the progressive forces behind democratization have remained locked in a cycle of power struggles. Governance has stagnated. State power expanded as national revenue grew with Korea’s industrial success, but instead of directing these resources toward forward-looking policies, administrations relied on fiscal handouts through industrial and welfare spending to secure their support bases.

Presidents, constrained to a single five-year term, have often governed with short-term political gain in mind. The presidency’s formidable authority over regulatory and financial tools is often exercised to reward loyal constituencies. Successive governments have used the power of the purse without accountability, leading to inefficiencies and budget fragmentation. In 2023, for instance, the government allocated nearly 48 trillion won ($36 billion) to policies related to low birthrates — an amount that, in theory, could have delivered more than 200 million won per newborn.

Following two presidential impeachments and even the declaration of martial law, the Sixth Republic has clearly reached a breaking point. In just the past two and a half years, lawmakers have proposed 30 impeachment motions — a figure that exceeds the total number of such motions in Korea’s history since its founding. Yet as the country heads straight into another presidential election, little attention is being paid to institutional reform. It is as if we are determined to elect a new stable hand without first rebuilding the ruined barn.

What Korea needs now is a structural transformation that prepares the country for the future — especially one shaped by artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. Consider the example of DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis, whose AlphaFold system earned global acclaim for predicting protein structures in seconds — a task that previously took months in the lab. AlphaFold has mapped nearly 200 million protein structures, far beyond the 190,000 stored in the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database. Its success underscores how AI is revolutionizing scientific discovery.

Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper, two of the three laureates who have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2024, look on, at the offices of Google DeepMind UK in London, Britain, Oct.r 9, 2024. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

China has responded decisively to this global shift. After losing a Go match to AlphaGo in 2017, Chinese champion Ke Jie admitted defeat, prompting President Xi Jinping to launch a national AI development strategy. The resulting state-led push has produced tools like DeepSeek, which stunned the global AI community. The initiative has drawn comparisons to the U.S. response to the 1957 sputnik shock: former U.S. President John F. Kennedy's campaign promise to land humans on the moon.

China's broader investment in science and technology is relentless. In 2020, its research and development spending reached 90 percent of U.S. levels. Its Chang’e-4 spacecraft landed on the far side of the moon in 2019, a world first. It recently achieved the world’s longest quantum communication at more than 10,000 kilometers (6,214 miles), and it is now planning a massive solar project in space, capable of generating 100 billion kilowatt-hours — comparable to China’s Three Gorges Dam.

This photo taken and beamed back to Earth autonomously by a mini rover released from the lander-ascender combination of Chang'e-6 probe shows a view of the combination itself on the lunar surface, June 3, 2024. [China National Space Administration Handout via XINHUA/YONHAP]

Singapore has also moved strategically. Ranked third globally in AI capabilities, the city-state began crafting its national AI development plan a decade ago. This year, it launched a program to provide students in AI-related Ph.D. programs with a monthly stipend of 6.7 million won (about $5,000) and paths to long-term residency. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's government relies on Starlink, the U.S.-based satellite internet network, to conduct drone-based warfare, highlighting how advanced technology has become indispensable in national defense.

While the world moves swiftly toward AI, biotechnology, quantum computing and space technology, Korea remains mired in domestic political fights over past grievances. The legacy of the Sixth Republic continues to divide the nation along ideological lines — debating issues like judicial reform and anti-Communism — while failing to chart a course for technological competitiveness.

Reforming the Constitution is not a cure-all. But without it, the outdated framework of the Sixth Republic will continue to obstruct progress. Korea needs a new political paradigm that supports long-term innovation and strategic statecraft. Just as the country once achieved industrialization through military rule and democratization through civilian protest, it now requires a new kind of revolution — a technological revolution, underpinned by a reimagined republic — that can secure Korea’s place in the future.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.