Housing, Care, and Local Government

Public rental housing is the most direct and essential means of housing welfare. However, simply ensuring an adequate supply of public rental housing does not automatically guarantee the realization of housing welfare. In many long-term rental housing complexes, the proportion of residents who are elderly or in need of care services exceeds 60%, and this number continues to rise. Yet, there is still no clear answer as to who should be responsible for providing support services to residents or how the costs should be covered. Since March 2026, the “Act on Integrated Support for Community Care Including Medical and Nursing Services” has been in effect, establishing a legal basis for people in need of care to continue receiving integrated care support where they live. In order to provide integrated support for healthcare, welfare, nursing care, and housing services, appropriate housing must first be made available for people who need care. However, in this law, the housing-related provis

2026.04.17 11:09

Connected AI, Disconnected Government

The warning about the future of AI delivered by Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, carries significant weight. He points out that if AIs become interconnected and form a collaborative network that creates its own language and communicates independently, it could lead to a situation where humans find it difficult to maintain control. The power of an AI collective that goes beyond individual intelligence and merges together is not an exaggeration but a real existential threat, precisely because its scale and direction are unpredictable. Yet, here lies a paradox. Unlike AIs that can collaborate to a degree that challenges human control, why is cooperation within human society still so slow to progress? "A single bamboo stalk snaps easily, but a bundle does not break." Humanity has long overcome crises with this wisdom. However, a close look at today's public administration reveals that even this fundamental principle often fails to function properly. When observing how public officials w

2026.04.03 16:15

Let’s Redesign the Path of Lifelong Learning

On March 24, major organizations related to lifelong education gathered at the National Assembly to hold the launch ceremony for the "Korea Lifelong Education Alliance" and adopted a resolution urging the enactment of the Basic Lifelong Learning Act, once again highlighting the importance of lifelong learning. This event is significant in that it not only serves as a declaration but also calls for the need for institutional transformation. In today's era of 100-year lifespans, few people believe that a fulfilling life can be achieved through school education alone. Technological change is rapid, and the lifespan of occupations has become shorter. In such times, lifelong learning is not a choice but a necessity. Joseph Stiglitz and Bruce Greenwald, in "Creating a Learning Society," emphasize that the core of economic growth lies not in technology itself but in the ability to learn and disseminate knowledge. They also argue that, since the market cannot provide sufficient learning, activ

2026.03.26 07:50

In the Era of Tech Wars, Now Is the Time to Invest in Universities

The world is currently facing an unstable international order. With ongoing geopolitical tensions such as the war in Iran, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and the clashes between Israel and Gaza, the nature of global competition is also changing rapidly. Today's competition is no longer centered solely on military power but is increasingly focused on technology and industry. The term "Chip War" has emerged, highlighting how competition over semiconductors and advanced technologies has become a matter that can determine the fate of nations. In this era of technological warfare, the foundation of industrial competitiveness lies not only in the research and development (R&D) conducted by industries themselves but also, in the long term, in "university education" and in "basic and applied research" that support such endeavors. Industries that drive the Korean economy today?such as HBM and DRAM semiconductors, smartphones and home appliances, mobility and energy, as well as biotech

2026.03.19 11:34

On The Establishment Of The Serious Crimes Investigation Office And The Public Prosecution Office

On April 23, 2013, the Central Investigation Department of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, which had been at the center of South Korea's anti-corruption investigations for 32 years, took down its nameplate and disappeared into history. At that time, as the head of the "Task Force for the Reform of the Special Investigation System of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office," which was in charge of abolishing the Central Investigation Department and designing a new special investigation body within the prosecution, I issued a reflection filled with self-reproach, saying that I had "failed to recognize that public distrust was growing significantly behind the lofty pride of the CID prosecutors." Thirteen years have passed since then, and the prosecution, having failed to learn any lessons from the abolition of the Central Investigation Department, has now come to face a situation in which its very existence is being denied and even its name is disappearing. The failure to recognize the raison d'

2026.02.26 14:14

What Kind of Housing Should We Supply Now

As housing prices in Seoul have surged, the government has followed strong demand-suppression policies with an ambitious housing supply initiative. In the "Housing Supply Expansion Plan" announced in September last year, it unveiled a plan to supply 1.35 million housing units over the next five years. In the "Plan to Expand and Expedite Housing Supply in Urban Areas" released on January 29 this year, it finalized a plan to secure sites for the rapid supply of 60,000 housing units. Public attention is now focused on what kind of housing will be supplied and whether they themselves will be eligible to move into those homes. Should the government once again, as with the first-generation new towns announced in 1989 or the Bogeumjari Housing in 2009, concentrate on supplying low-priced apartments for the middle class in order to stabilize housing prices? Too many conditions have changed for that approach to work as before. First, one- to two-person households now account for about 66% of al

2026.02.19 13:00

The Next Challenge After Market and Government Failure: Platform Failure

Just as there is market failure in markets and government failure in governments, can there also be failure in platforms, the core infrastructure of the digital age? Recently, the concept of "platform failure" has been drawing attention in academia. Dutch media scholar Jos? van Dijck has pointed out that in the "platform society," platforms have evolved into structures that mediate society as a whole, but as public values become subordinated to the logic of private profit, new social problems are emerging. Platform failure refers to a structural phenomenon in which digital mechanisms based on data and algorithms, under the banner of efficiency, undermine publicness and trust. Platforms have been regarded as symbols of innovation by lowering transaction costs, expanding connections, and enabling new forms of interaction. However, as network effects and data concentration accelerate, competition has weakened while social dependence on a small number of platforms has actually increased. T

2026.02.06 08:57

Sustainable Growth Strategies to Surpass "Peak Korea"

Recently, a sense of "upward momentum" has been detected in Korean society for the first time in a while. The KOSPI has reached the long-dreamed-of 5,000 mark, and the real estate market, showing signs of overheating, seems to be supporting consumer sentiment through the wealth effect. The global spread of K-culture and the presence of high-tech manufacturing, including semiconductors, are also solidifying Korea's position in the global supply chain. The "Peak Korea" theory from a few years ago?which claimed that Korea had reached the apex of growth and was heading into a long-term slump?now seems almost irrelevant, as positive developments continue to unfold, at least on the surface. However, the underlying reality remains heavy. The number of young people giving up on marriage and childbirth continues to rise, and the trend of a fertility rate below 1.0 persists, while suicide rates and social isolation are not easily reduced. The concentration in the Seoul metropolitan area, which o

2026.01.29 08:51

Sustainable Internationalization of Universities for the Next Five Years

"In 2039, half of South Korea's universities will disappear." This prediction is not simply a message of crisis. It is a structural warning that higher education in South Korea cannot be sustained in its current form. Faced with the unavoidable reality of a declining school-age population, many universities have chosen internationalization as their solution. However, it is now time to ask a more fundamental question: Is our approach to internationalization truly sustainable? Until now, the internationalization of Korean universities has primarily focused on "expansion." As a result, by 2025, South Korea will have attracted more than 200,000 international students, making it one of the top 10 destinations for studying abroad worldwide. However, the reality on the ground feels different. Rather than building a cumulative structure, internationalization has often imposed excessive burdens on specific periods, departments, or individuals, leading to internal fatigue and resistance. The bi

2026.01.15 11:20

Hoping for Judicial Reform That Serves the People

When I was a rookie prosecutor, I heard something from my senior prosecutors: "Criminal justice has two main goals?speed and accuracy. If you have to choose one, swift case handling is more important. Delaying case processing deprives victims of the chance to seek remedies through other procedures." For prosecutors who considered postponing case processing a disgrace, this was a professional calling that everyone upheld. The number of "cases exceeding three months" left unresolved was even reflected in personnel evaluations. These days, such traditions and practices seem to be a thing of the distant past. People who have recently experienced filing complaints or lawsuits all express the same frustration: they cannot predict when their cases will be resolved and are left waiting indefinitely. This trend is also evident in statistics. In 2017, the average time to reach a verdict in first-instance civil panel cases was 293 days, but by 2024, it had increased to about 437 days. For first-i

2025.12.18 11:19