South Korea

Joongang Ilbo | English | News | Oct. 2, 2025 | Political Scandal or Corruption

President Lee Jae Myung sharply criticized prosecutors on September 30, 2025, for abusing their right to appeal acquittals, arguing that this practice harms innocent defendants and wastes public resources. He questioned why prosecutors persist in appealing cases after lower courts have acquitted defendants, highlighting the financial and emotional toll on those wrongfully targeted. Lee emphasized the principle of the presumption of innocence, asserting that doubts should favor defendants and urging Justice Minister Jung Sung-ho to pursue reforms to curb prosecutors’ repeated appeals.

Justice Minister Jung acknowledged that prosecutors have traditionally operated oppositely by frequently appealing acquittals, although he noted a recent decline in this practice and said he reviews cases daily. Jung proposed institutional reforms, including revising the Criminal Procedure Act to restrict appeals only to cases involving clear legal issues or exceptional circumstances. He also suggested internal rule changes within the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office to limit appeal cases.

Lee further accused prosecutors of selectively indicting political opponents while protecting allies, a point that some ruling party members linked to broader criminal justice reforms and plans to abolish the prosecution service. The opposition People Power Party condemned Lee’s remarks as an attempt to protect himself amid his own legal challenges, citing his mixed acquittal and conviction record.

In the same Cabinet meeting, lawmakers passed a Government Organization Act revision to abolish the prosecution service within a year, replacing it with a new indictment office under the Ministry of Justice and a Serious Crimes Investigation Agency handling investigations. Additional government restructuring included changes to telecommunications oversight, the splitting of the Ministry of Economy and Finance into two separate ministries, and reforms to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the Ministry of Environment. A new law was also passed to allow prosecution of witnesses committing perjury before parliamentary committees even after sessions end. All approved bills will be promulgated on October 1, 2025, and take immediate effect.

김동환 포티투마루 "공공 AX 혁신 시작... 초거대 AI 활용 확산"

ZD Net Korea | Local Language | News | Oct. 2, 2025 | UndeterminedTech Development/Adoption

Kim Dong-hwan, CEO of Potitumaru (42MARU), presented at the AI Festa 2025 in Seoul, focusing on "Public AX Innovation in the Agentic AI Era." The event, hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and organized by the Korea Artificial Intelligence Software Industry Association, took place from September 30 to October 2 and showcased advanced AI convergence technologies to industry and public stakeholders. Kim introduced Potitumaru's flagship AI product and detailed plans for implementing public AX systems using super-large AI models across government ministries and agencies.

Potitumaru specializes in developing a Deep Semantic QA platform that accurately understands user queries to provide precise answers from vast unstructured data. Kim is an AI expert recognized internationally, notably tying for first place with Google's AI team in the SQuAD 2.0 machine reading comprehension challenge. He is also advancing cloud SaaS-based, domain-specific super-large language models aimed at entering the global enterprise market. Kim highlighted that government-level “public AX” initiatives aim to deploy large language models (LLMs) on public platforms for conversational services akin to ChatGPT, with pilot services running through November and official launch planned for 2026.

Kim emphasized Potitumaru’s approach of operating smaller LLMs alongside larger models to address hallucination, security, and cost concerns, with plans to incorporate national foundation models and private models validated for public platform use. The company enables conversational AI interfaces and API integration for various agencies. Busan City was cited as a practical case, utilizing smaller LLMs for policy planning, civil servant assistance, and municipal monitoring, with plans to expand LLM applications publicly next year.

He concluded by noting the spread of super-large AI across central ministries, local governments, defense industries, and citizen services. Government preparations are accelerating, aiming to cultivate AI-native capabilities, enhance productivity, and improve global competitiveness through diverse AI adoption cases in the public sector.

"이번이 마지막 기회" 당국, 석화 구조조정 압박

Maekyung | Local Language | News | Oct. 2, 2025 | Regulation

The petrochemical industry is undergoing full-scale restructuring due to a crisis caused by oversupply. Creditor financial institutions have agreed to provide financial support—including maturity extensions and new funding—only to companies that submit detailed plans to reduce supply through measures such as plant consolidation. The government is pressuring firms to quickly submit these self-help plans, emphasizing that without concrete reduction targets, financial aid will not be granted.

An agreement signed by 17 banks, four policy finance institutions, the Financial Services Commission, and the Financial Supervisory Service establishes a framework for liquidity support. This support targets otherwise healthy companies without defaults that commit to supply reductions. The creditor group's leverage is significant, given loans to 11 major petrochemical firms totaled 32.8 trillion won in the first half of 2025. The banking sector has also requested government relaxation of asset soundness standards for loans under maturity extensions to minimize loan-loss provisioning.

The government supports this request and has expressed dissatisfaction with the industry's slow progress on restructuring. Vice Chairman Kwon Dae-young of the Financial Services Commission criticized the lack of concrete reduction plans and warned this is the industry's "last chance" to comply. The government demands voluntary cuts in naphtha cracking facility capacity by 2.7-3.7 million tonnes within the year, urging companies to promptly submit clear restructuring blueprints.

The petrochemical industry argues the creditor group's conditions are too strict, and negotiations over restructuring intensity are ongoing. Companies acknowledge the difficulty of identifying effective self-help measures under current conditions. Meanwhile, the government plans additional support mechanisms, including a 2-trillion-won low-interest loan program via the Korea Development Bank and potential funding through a separate policy finance account or a 1-trillion-won restructuring fund managed by the Korea Asset Management Corporation.