Asia-Pacific

South Korea's discriminatory treatment of American tech firms exposes a critical gap in the U.S.-Korea relationship. The two countries should negotiate a dedicated mechanism for resolving bilateral digital trade disputes.

Korean and industry reports suggest China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) is moving faster in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips than many in Seoul expected. Korea still leads. But the margin is narrowing, and that should change how Seoul thinks about its AI goals.

The Draft Law is contrary to Vietnam’s goals of both fostering homegrown innovation and deepening its techno-economic partnership with the United States.

The right goal for Korea is not an AI tax, but an AI diffusion strategy paired with sound tax reform. The government should help firms adopt AI, help workers transition, and make sure productivity gains are broadly shared, without making the use of AI itself more expensive.

South Korea produces large numbers of STEM graduates, but too many are attracted to medicine, and too few go into engineering. Korea should rebalance its education financing and university incentives to ensure that enough engineers are ready to work in advanced industries.

In the AI economy, competitive advantage will depend less on memorizing information and more on the ability to question intelligent systems, identify errors, and refine outputs. Korea’s education system should adapt to prepare students for workplaces where managing AI-generated mistakes is more valuable than speed of recall.

As Korea moves toward its goal of commercializing Level 4 autonomous driving by 2027, the central constraint may not be technological readiness but whether the government reforms the mobility market in advance. Without regulatory changes, Korea risks deploying advanced autonomous vehicles within a closed, taxi-centered system.

The Virtual Brunei Initiative shows how small nations can use immersive technology to build digital skills, promote cultural exchange, and drive economic growth through coordinated public-private partnerships.

Japan should revise its draft AI IP code to remove technically infeasible disclosure mandates and instead adopt workable, pro-innovation transparency standards aligned with international efforts like the Hiroshima AI Process to preserve U.S. alignment and avoid deterring AI investment.

Fifty-four members of Congress told Korea’s ambassador earlier this week: Stop targeting American tech companies—or risk the U.S.-Korea alliance itself.