South Korea

Korea Herald | English | News | Dec. 12, 2025 | UndeterminedTaxes

Korea’s decade-old VAT refund incentive for foreign patients undergoing cosmetic and plastic surgery procedures will end on December 31, 2025. This program, introduced in 2016, allowed foreign medical tourists to reclaim a 10 percent VAT on various aesthetic treatments and has been a significant factor in attracting price-sensitive international patients to Korea. The National Assembly recently excluded the tax refund provision in the latest revision of the Act on Restriction on Special Cases Concerning Taxation, prompting concerns within the medical tourism sector about rising costs and reduced pricing transparency.

The aesthetic medical tourism industry is a major economic contributor, with foreign patient spending rising from about 400 billion won in 2019 to 1.24 trillion won ($840 million) in 2024, with plastic surgery and dermatology accounting for over 77 percent. VAT refunds issued to foreign patients reached a record 95.5 billion won in 2024. However, analysts suggest that the immediate effect of the tax refund removal may be limited due to Korea’s strong international demand, a weak won, and favorable visa policies, alongside high service quality and trust.

Despite short-term resilience, there are growing concerns that Korea’s competitive edge may decline as other countries like Singapore, Thailand, and China enhance their medical tourism offerings. Price sensitivity among Chinese patients, who make up a large share of Korea’s outbound medical tourists, could shift demand to rival destinations. Additionally, experts worry that ending the VAT refund system could reduce pricing transparency and revive issues with illegal brokers and inflated billing, as the refund program had helped mitigate these problems by encouraging price verification.

Medical tourism operators plan to continue lobbying the government for reinstatement of the VAT refund, citing successful industry efforts to restore other tourist-related tax incentives in the past. They emphasize the potential negative impacts of the program's abolition and hope for reconsideration to maintain Korea’s attractiveness as a medical tourism hub.

Joongang Ilbo | English | News | Dec. 12, 2025 | Geopolitical Conflict and Disputes

Second Vice Foreign Minister Kim Jina of South Korea arrived in Washington to urge the United States to swiftly implement an agreement allowing Korea to enrich uranium and reprocess spent nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes. This request comes ahead of the 10th Senior Economic Dialogue (SED) between the two countries, where bilateral economic and industrial cooperation will be discussed.

Kim emphasized that Korea is ready to begin substantive discussions and asked the U.S. to assign its counterpart to expedite the process. This follows a joint fact sheet released on November 13, 2025, in which the U.S. expressed support for South Korea's civil uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing efforts, which are currently prohibited under an existing bilateral nuclear pact.

During the SED, topics will include cooperation in shipbuilding, energy, cutting-edge technologies, and critical minerals. Kim also highlighted potential discussions on small modular reactors but stated that nuclear-powered submarines would not be part of the dialogue, as those are military issues expected to be addressed separately by South Korea’s National Security Adviser in an upcoming visit to Washington.

Kim will attend the SED before participating in the "Pax Silica" AI summit scheduled for December 13.

[취재수첩] 메모리 품귀의 역설…AI PC에 기회 될까

Digital Daily | Local Language | News | Dec. 12, 2025 | UndeterminedTech Development/Adoption

The electronics industry is experiencing a memory semiconductor shortage due to manufacturers prioritizing the production of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI infrastructure, leading to deficits in general-purpose memory. This shortage is impacting PC production, with Samsung Electronics unable to meet delivery deadlines for its PCs in B2B transactions, forcing an affiliate to substitute with Lenovo products. This situation signals challenges for Samsung in maintaining its domestic market dominance amid competitors who preemptively stockpiled memory.

As a result of the memory shortage, PC prices are rising, affecting price-sensitive custom-built PC markets and pushing finished PC prices upward. However, this price increase may reduce consumers' psychological barriers to purchasing AI PCs, which have struggled to gain popularity due to their high cost. If the price gap between general PCs and AI PCs narrows, consumers might prefer AI PCs when upgrading, potentially accelerating market adoption.

Industry forecasts, including those from IDC, predict AI PCs will represent 60% of the total PC market by 2027. The current memory shortage could therefore act as a catalyst for this generational market shift, turning a supply crisis into an opportunity to boost demand for higher value-added AI PCs. Whether this will trigger widespread AI PC adoption remains uncertain.