Former Blue House Chief Ahn Jong-beom: "Internal Conflict in Korea, an Obstacle for G3... Will Become a Populism Buster"

Former Blue House Policy Coordination Secretary An Jong-beom presented the possibility of South Korea rising to the status of G3 (the world's three major countries) through his book G3 Republic of Korea: Finding the Path from K-Wealth Theory. This is the third book in a policy series published as the director of the Policy Evaluation Institute, which he established last year. Previously, Director An criticized populist policies through two books: Deceived by Politics, Weeping over Taxes: 11 Measures Against Tax Populism and Theory of Policy Evaluation Reform: Right Policies Come from Right Evaluations.

Director An pointed out that South Korea, with the world's 10th largest economy and significant economic and cultural influence through the K-series, stated, “If we go just a little further from here, South Korea will become a G3 country.” He also predicted the possibility of South Korea becoming the second country to surpass a Gross National Income (GNI) of $30,000 and achieve $50,000.

He identified populism as the obstacle blocking the path to G3. He argued that South Korea should emulate the U.S. policy evaluation system, which emphasizes both ex-ante and ex-post policy evaluations. Emphasizing the entertaining aspects of the K-series such as K-POP, K-Food, and K-Game, he also proposed collectively calling them K-Jam.

Director An presented the institute’s vision as minimizing the damage to the public caused by populist policies and stressed the need to foster a socio-cultural environment where the public, as beneficiaries of policies, actively participate in policy formulation.

PERI President An Jong-beom delivering the opening remarks at the Policy Evaluation Research Institute (PERI) symposium [Photo by PERI]

Regarding rumors about his candidacy in next year’s general election, he drew a clear line. He said, “I am fully engaged in international symposiums, book publications, and policy platform development, and I will devote myself solely to playing a role that can be a stepping stone on South Korea’s path to becoming a G3 country.” He added, “My final mission in life is to dedicate my remaining ability and passion to policy research and become a ‘populism buster’ who changes politics.”

Director An was involved in the so-called 'Choi Soon-sil political scandal' during the Park Geun-hye administration, served four years in prison, and was released in 2021. In May of last year, he established the private Policy Evaluation Institute. The symposium held last month attracted significant attention with the attendance of many current and former ministers and vice ministers.

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