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Park Chan-kyong

South Korea is banking on moonshots in a post-AI economy to stem sluggish growth potential amid an ageing population and deepening reliance on its semiconductor exports.
From quantum chips and fusion power to a lunar landing, Seoul this week unveiled a strategy to build seven next-generation industries over the coming decades.
The aim is to secure a foothold in technologies shaping a post-AI world before superpowers the United States and China pull further ahead.
The move marks mounting urgency for a country whose potential growth, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), could fall to a record-low 1.52 per cent next year. Economists also warn that a recent semiconductor export boom is not enough to sustain the economy.
The plan, announced by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources on Wednesday, identifies seven “Strategic Emerging Engines for Disruptive Innovation,” or SEEDs: small modular reactors, nuclear fusion, breakthrough renewable energy, quantum technology, space and aviation, advanced biotechnology and advanced supply chains.
It aims to turn the seven areas into major growth industries over the next 10 to 20 years, with President Lee Jae Myung reportedly telling his cabinet “the seeds of advanced technologies we plant today will grow into giant trees in the future”.
Seoul has set ambitious targets, including landing a spacecraft on the moon by 2030, becoming the world’s leading manufacturer of quantum chips by 2035 and generating electricity from nuclear fusion by the next decade.

New engines
The latest announcement comes as South Korea grapples with one of the world’s lowest birth rates and a greying population.
“The government is setting forth a long-term strategy to lay the groundwork for economic growth for next generations,” Professor Hur Jung of Sogang University’s economics department told This Week in Asia.
South Korea’s potential growth rate is projected to fall to a record low next year, according to the OECD, whose latest data puts the mark at 1.52 per cent in 2027, down sharply from 1.66 per cent this year.
The economy grew a remarkable 3.7 per cent year on year in the second quarter through June, but the surge was largely attributed to booming semiconductor exports.
“Everyone knows this growth wouldn’t last long,” said Professor Song Heon-jae of the University of Seoul’s economics department, citing South Korea’s declining growth potential and the semiconductor industry’s boom-and-bust cycle.
“South Korea needs to build new industries to bolster its potential for future economic growth, and the government announcement is part of such efforts,” he said. “Thanks to its industrial prowess, it is in a relatively advantageous position to do so.”
The government believes established industries such as semiconductors and automobiles alone will not be enough to secure long-term growth.
The US and China are also pouring national resources into technologies increasingly viewed as “post-AI” fields, including quantum computing, nuclear fusion, space, biotechnology and brain-computer interfaces. That is adding pressure on Seoul to move quickly.
“As the US and China are taking the lead in AI value chains, South Korea should focus on sectors where it can do best, such as HBM [high-bandwidth memory] chips,” said Professor Kim Gwang-suk of Hanyang University’s economics department, describing such areas as “choke-point technologies”.
HBM is a critical component of modern AI accelerators and graphics processors.

Powering an era
As AI data centres expand rapidly, reliable power supplies are also becoming an increasingly important prerequisite for technological competitiveness.
The government aims to commercialise a light-water innovative small modular reactor, or i-SMR, in Busan’s Gijang county, by 2035.
An SMR is a compact advanced nuclear reactor that produces up to 300 megawatts of electricity per module, roughly one-third the capacity of a traditional nuclear power plant.
There are also plans to spend 590.6 billion won (US$430 million) between 2027 and 2032 on detailed design work and invest another 896 billion won over the same period in research, development and business development for a molten-salt reactor, an advanced nuclear fission reactor in which the primary coolant or fuel consists of a molten-salt mixture.
Nuclear fusion is an even more ambitious goal.
The government intends to set up a 100MW electric fusion power plant by 2039 and connect three to four commercial-scale reactors, each capable of generating 300MW to 500MW, to the power grid in the 2040s.
Fusion energy has reportedly shifted from a distant scientific ambition into an increasingly well-funded commercial race, with private companies and government projects targeting the early to mid-2030s for the first commercial electricity generation.
Renewable-energy efforts will focus not simply on expanding deployment but on overcoming technological limitations.
South Korea aims to raise solar-cell efficiency to at least 35 per cent by 2035, develop ultra-large wind turbines with capacities exceeding 20MW, and build water-electrolysis systems with capacities of 50MW to 100MW.
In quantum computing, Seoul will establish a “K-Quantum Foundry”, leveraging the country’s semiconductor manufacturing capabilities, and seek to become the world’s leading manufacturer of quantum chips by 2035.

The government is also eyeing its first lunar landing by 2030 and, five years from then, establishing an independent low-Earth-orbit satellite communications network in preparation for the 6G era.
In advanced biotechnology, South Korea wants to use AI and robotics to accelerate drug discovery tenfold and develop a blockbuster drug by 2035.
Stable supplies of minerals and materials are increasingly seen as an economic security priority for resource-poor South Korea, which is as much as 99 per cent dependent on foreign sources for certain heavy rare earth elements used in permanent magnets for electric-vehicle motors, humanoid robots and AI data centres.
“This is the Achilles’ heel for South Korea. Realistically, this is the most crucial sector South Korea needs to be concerned about,” Hur said, citing the country’s vulnerability to rare earth export controls by countries such as China.
Hur urged South Korea to acquire overseas mining rights, invest in refining facilities and strengthen its mining and materials supply chains.


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South Korea’s moon landing, quantum chips: Seoul bets big on post-AI economy

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung views a container vessel model equipped with a small modular reactor at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Wednesday. Photo: EPA/Yonhap

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung (fifth from right) speaks during a meeting to explore ways to nurture advanced future industries in Seoul on Wednesday. Photo: EPA/Yonhap

A highest-capacity, high-bandwidth 16-High HBM3E memory chip from SK Hynix. Photo: Reuters

South Korea is targeting its first lunar landing by 2030. Photo: Shutterstock

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A financial data screen in the dealing room of Hana Bank shows the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index having lost 3.08 per cent from the previous session to an intraday low of 6,392.44 in early trading in Seoul, South Korea, on Monday. Photo: EPA/Yonhap

Signage of Samsung Electronics is displayed outside the company’s Seocho building in Seoul, South Korea, on July 30. Photo: AFP

Funeral wreaths calling for the delisting of single-stock leveraged ETFs are displayed near the main gate of the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, on July 29. Photo: Yonhap via Reuters

A dealer monitors the market in the dealing room at Hana Bank’s headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, last week. Photo: Korea Times

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The country has identified seven next-generation industries, including nuclear fusion and small modular reactors, to stem sluggish growth potential


The country has identified seven next-generation industries, including nuclear fusion and small modular reactors, to stem sluggish growth potential.


South Korea’s moon landing, quantum chips: Seoul bets big on post-AI economy

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The country has identified seven next-generation industries, including nuclear fusion and small modular reactors, to stem sluggish growth potential

The country has identified seven next-generation industries, including nuclear fusion and small modular reactors, to stem sluggish growth potential