President Lee Launches Active SNS Campaign to Defend "1,000 Trillion Won" Non-Capital Advanced Industry Investment Against Opposition Claims

President Lee Issues Six Rebuttal Messages on Social Media
Directly Responds to Yoo Seungmin's "Why Honam?" Criticism: "Please Wait and See"
Lee Stresses Historic Achievements by Public Officials and Companies: "Do Not Criticize or Slander Based

President Lee Jae-myung continued his public campaign, actively refuting criticism from the opposition regarding his plans to attract investment in semiconductors, AI, and other industries in the southwestern and other non-capital regions as part of the "Great Leap Forward of the Republic of Korea." When former People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Seung-min questioned the basis for site selection and some in the party even raised suspicions of government pressure and forced investment on companies, President Lee posted a series of related messages on X (formerly Twitter) late into the night on the 27th. This appears to be a move to preemptively block the political controversy surrounding the advanced industry investment plans—such as those for semiconductors—from escalating ahead of the "Great Leap Forward of the Republic of Korea: National Briefing on the Three Mega Projects" scheduled to take place at the Blue House on the 29th.

President Lee Jae-myung is speaking at the Chief Presidential Secretary meeting held at the Blue House on June 25, 2026. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

President Lee wrote, "This is the result of public officials fulfilling their proper responsibilities in pursuit of the administrative goal of balanced national development, which has become Korea's survival strategy. It is an unprecedented and largest-ever regional investment attraction, and such a historic achievement deserves praise." He continued, "I hope you will not engage in criticism and slander based on your own past actions or experiences, assuming that others will do the same, and instead consider the morale of the public officials who achieved the government's greatest results and the corporate leaders who made bold, beneficial decisions for the nation and its people."

The Blue House plans to hold a national briefing session on the 29th, presided over by President Lee Jae-myung, with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won in attendance. The event will announce regional investment plans for the three strategic industries: semiconductors, AI data centers, and physical AI. The total investment in semiconductors and AI is reported to exceed 1,000 trillion won. The opposition has raised concerns that site selection might be based on political logic rather than industrial rationale.

Former lawmaker Yoo stated that while he supports the idea of attracting semiconductor plants to the southern regions such as Yeongnam and Honam, he questioned why only the Honam region would host a large-scale semiconductor plant and called for an explanation. He argued that site selection should be explained based on objective industrial criteria such as power supply, water, workforce, and land, and emphasized that corporate investment decisions should not be swayed by political considerations. In response, President Lee shared an article about Yoo's remarks on X, stating, "If you wait a little, it will be released officially," and urged, "Please do not rush."

President Lee also directly addressed key issues such as water supply, electricity, renewable energy, and land by presenting counterarguments. First, he rebutted the argument of water scarcity, stating, "Honam has as much water as Yeongnam or the capital region," and added, "If we establish the necessary management systems and properly allocate and manage water resources, it has been reviewed that supplying 1 million tons of industrial water per day is possible." Since large volumes of industrial water are essential for semiconductor manufacturing, the water issue has been one of the most sensitive points in the debate over locating the plant in the Honam region. President Lee characterized this not as a limitation of natural conditions but as a problem with the current water resource management system, stressing that the government can resolve it by redesigning infrastructure.

He also cited large-scale power supply and RE100 compliance as reasons supporting the southwestern region as an optimal site. President Lee emphasized that the semiconductor industry requires not only water but also abundant power and renewable energy, pointing out that the capital region is already saturated while the southwest coast has significant potential for solar and wind power. He further stated, "The undeveloped Honam region offers the most stable and cost-effective land, free from earthquakes."

Addressing the claim that companies are being forced to invest, President Lee said, "From the perspective of those who have politically exploited national policy, it may appear that way," but dismissed the allegations as baseless. "The world is not simply black and white. There are also shades of gray, red, and blue," he began, explaining, "CEOs made their decisions because they judged that the government's efforts to provide water, power, land, infrastructure, workforce training, and living conditions, as well as the persuasion and requests made by public officials, would benefit their companies."

He further clarified that such actions are not abuse of authority or coercion, but rather constitute 'administrative guidance' or 'development administration.' He explained that the government created a favorable business environment to achieve balanced national development, and companies made investment decisions based on profitability and strategic necessity.

In particular, President Lee cited evaluation data from the previous Yoon Suk-yeol administration as evidence against ongoing criticism from the People Power Party. He shared reports that, during the 2023 Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s competition for national advanced strategic industry clusters in the semiconductor sector, Gwangju and Jeonnam received the highest ratings in core evaluation categories such as infrastructure and business feasibility. He stated, "This has already been officially confirmed under the People Power Party government," and added, "I ask People Power Party lawmakers to refrain from making misleading comments about the Honam semiconductor site." He emphasized that the site selection was not a political creation of the current administration.

On the 27th alone, President Lee posted six related messages. In a post made in the morning, he wrote, "World-leading semiconductor companies like Samsung and SK hynix would never plan to build massive plants in regions lacking essential water without proper review, nor would the government encourage companies to build factories in places without adequate water supply." In subsequent posts, he raised his voice, saying, "A Buddha sees a Buddha, and a pig sees a pig. Many people tend to believe that others think and act the same way they do."

President Lee Jae-myung is speaking at the 'Future New Security Innovation Enterprise Development Strategy' meeting held at the Blue House on June 26, 2026. Photo by Yonhap News

Meanwhile, Kim Yong-bum, the Blue House policy chief, also joined President Lee in responding. Through Facebook, Kim said, "A common counterargument is, why is the government involved in private investment? But this is the wrong question," adding, "What the government is creating is a production platform. This is not a problem that individual companies can solve, but one that only the nation and local governments can address."

He continued, "Now the AI era and the next growth axis are ahead of us. Youth jobs, new industries, and new cities will ultimately be built on top of that production capacity," and went on to write, "What we are building now is the future production capacity of the Republic of Korea. 'Fab Capacity is King.'"

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.