Deputy Prime Minister Baek Kyun to Also Serve as AI Strategy Committee Vice Chairman: "Minimizing the Vacancy"

Review of First Quarter Progress on the AI Action Plan

With Lim Moon-young, Standing Vice Chairman of the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy Committee, leaving his post to run in the June 3rd by-election for the National Assembly, Baek Kyun, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, will fill the vacancy. As his first official work with the Committee, Deputy Prime Minister Baek reviewed progress on building an AI innovation ecosystem and advancing the transition of the national administrative system to AI (AX).

Baek Gung-hoon, Deputy Prime Minister for Science and Technology and Minister of Science and ICT, attended the Special Task Force on Managing Daily Living Prices held at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on April 9, 2026, and spoke about the restructuring plans of the three major telecommunications companies' pricing plans. Photo by Jo Yongjun

On May 14, the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy Committee announced that, taking into account Baek’s expertise in AI and the need for policy continuity, he will serve concurrently as Standing Vice Chairman and oversee the committee’s operations. Lim officially resigned and was dismissed from his post on May 12 after declaring his candidacy for the Gwangsan-eul by-election in Gwangju.

As his first official agenda with the committee, Deputy Prime Minister Baek presided over the 18th Steering Committee meeting that day and checked the progress of the Korea AI Action Plan for the first quarter of this year. To manage implementation of the action plan, the committee conducted self-assessments across 31 lead ministries last month and expert reviews within 13 subcommittees.

The review found that 288 out of 326 tasks are proceeding as planned. For building the AI innovation ecosystem, the “Special Act on Fostering the AI Data Center Industry” passed the National Assembly’s plenary session, and in line with the “Advanced Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) Acquisition and Allocation Plan” approved in December 2025, a total of 13,000 GPUs were distributed: 4,000 to industry-academic-research sectors, 3,000 to national projects, and 3,000 to independent foundation model development. In March this year, the government invited applications from operators to secure, build, and operate large-scale advanced GPUs.

Policies are also underway to drive a nationwide AI-based transformation. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety, in cooperation with the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Intelligence Service, has established the “Status and Future Direction for Cloud-Native Transition of Administrative and Public Systems.” The ministry plans to finalize the transition plan by the fourth quarter of this year, conduct a comprehensive assessment of cloud-native suitability for all core information systems, and select systems for priority application. In addition, the committee has developed measures to fundamentally redesign the national information management system, cooperating with related ministries to prioritize the establishment of 134 disaster recovery systems at the Daejeon Center of the National Information Resources Service. To further contribute to the global AI society, the committee is also operating AI experience centers and providing customized AI education programs tailored to different life stages.

For the 38 tasks identified as needing further improvement, detailed content was supplemented in accordance with the original policy recommendations. For tasks involving multiple ministries or agencies, inter-agency collaboration mechanisms were established, and there was a consensus that continued efforts are needed to secure next year’s budget. The committee intends to continue focused reviews of these improvement tasks, as well as periodic and repeated assessments of the overall action plan.

During the steering committee meeting, ministries shared the results of support for next year’s planned new AI budgets and R&D project areas, and agreed to begin full-fledged planning support for non-R&D areas as well. In addition, members discussed ways to evaluate each ministry’s AI policies and project implementation using AI-related evaluation indicators included in this year’s government work assessment plan, as well as a cross-government “AI Legislative Framework” to ensure a coherent legislative system aligned with the national AI strategy.

Deputy Prime Minister Baek stated, “As our national AI competitiveness is more important now than ever, I will ensure stable leadership as the AI control tower,” adding, “We will rapidly push forward on core tasks to ensure smooth implementation of the action plan and position Korea as a global AI powerhouse.”

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