South Korea

Intelligence for Better Decision Making

South Korea’s AI Foundation Model Initiative Advances Amid Recognition, Controversy and Policy Reform

Jan. 5, 2026 | Technology & Innovation

South Korea’s effort to establish independent AI foundation models now faces recognition, controversy and policy reforms.

**The Independent AI Foundation Model Project achieved its first major milestone when all five domestic entrants—Naver, SK Telecom, NC AI, LG AI Research and Upstage—landed on Epoch AI’s “Notable AI Models” list.**
Their inclusion raised Korea’s representation from three entries last year, all from LG AI Research, to eight, reflecting rapid national progress in AI capabilities.

**Project teams selected in August 2025 spent four months developing the five models—HyperCLOVA X Seed 32B Sync (Naver), A.X K1 (SK Telecom), VAETKI (NC AI), K-EXAONE (LG AI Research) and Solara Open 100B (Upstage)—before releasing them as open-source packages on Hugging Face at the end of 2025 to foster ecosystem engagement.**
As of January 2, 2026, Naver’s HyperCLOVA X 32B leads downloads with over 15,000.

**Allegations surfaced that Upstage’s Solara Open 100B borrowed from Zhipu AI’s GLM-4.5-Air, but Upstage rebutted this during a public technical verification session, arguing that shared architectural elements in open-source frameworks do not equate to unauthorized derivation.**
Saionic AI’s CEO Go Seok-hyun acknowledged methodological limitations in his claim, apologized for the confusion and called for clear academic and technical standards to define sovereign, independent AI.

**In response, the Ministry of Science and ICT will overhaul its AI project evaluations to emphasize development traceability alongside performance.**
Teams must submit final models and intermediate training checkpoints so that the Korea Testing Laboratory of Information and Communication Technology (TTA) and an expert committee can track development histories and detect any externally sourced weights. Evaluations begin in early January 2026 with one team eliminated by mid-month, and they will recur semi-annually through 2027 until two finalists emerge.

**Industry experts view the controversy and revised evaluation process as an opportunity to establish verification standards for model independence, such as permissible use of open-source architectures, thresholds for structural similarity and guidelines for component reuse like tokenizers.**
By shifting accountability toward development history rather than solely assessing end-product performance, the government’s approach reflects growing maturity in South Korea’s AI ecosystem.

**Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon pointed to roughly 90 onsite experts and journalists and 2,000 online participants at the public verification event as proof of the ecosystem’s transparency and self-correcting capacity.**
He stressed the need for ongoing public technical debates and announced that evaluations for the five elite teams will run from early January to January 15. Bae affirmed the government’s commitment to refining definitions and verification protocols for independent AI foundation models as a fair supporter of the sector.

President Lee’s State Visit to China Begins Amid Push for Enhanced Security, Economic, and Cultural Ties

Jan. 5, 2026 | Geopolitics & Defense

President Lee Jae-Myung travels to Beijing for a four-day state visit aimed at strengthening security, economic, and cultural ties between South Korea and China.

**President Lee departed for Beijing on January 4, 2026, marking the first visit by a South Korean president to China since 2019 and his first trip to China after assuming office in June 2025.**
Invited by President Xi Jinping, Lee will attend a bilateral summit in Beijing on January 5, where Xi will host an official welcoming ceremony, hold discussion talks, sign memoranda of understanding and host a state banquet. The two leaders last met at the APEC summit in Gyeongju in November 2025.

**Lee will make denuclearization and the security of the Korean Peninsula central to his discussions, urging China to play a constructive role in advancing denuclearization and improving inter-Korean relations.**
National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac has pointed to Beijing’s capacity to influence North Korean behavior and contribute to regional peace and stability.

**Economic cooperation forms another pillar of Lee’s agenda.**
He will lead a large Korean business delegation to the Korea-China Economic Forum in Beijing, seeking expanded collaboration in artificial intelligence, green energy, supply-chain resilience, tourism, medical care, content industries and infrastructure. The two sides plan to sign more than ten memoranda of understanding and work toward a more balanced, horizontal economic partnership.

**Cultural exchanges and regional tensions will also feature prominently.**
Seoul will press for relief from China’s informal restrictions on South Korean content imposed after the deployment of a US missile defense system in 2016 and 2017. In a recent interview, Lee reaffirmed South Korea’s commitment to the One-China principle amid heightened tensions following China’s military exercises near Taiwan. The visit will also address maritime disputes caused by China’s construction of steel structures in the overlapping Yellow Sea provisional measures zone, with working-level talks already in progress.

**On January 6, Lee will meet Premier Li Qiang and Zhao Leji, chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee.**
He will then travel to Shanghai to honor the 100th anniversary of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea and commemorate independence leader Kim Gu’s 150th birth anniversary. In Shanghai, Lee will attend the Korea-China Venture Startup Summit with entrepreneurs from both countries and meet local officials to discuss subnational exchanges.

**The Blue House expects this visit to rebuild political trust, restore the Korea-China strategic cooperative partnership and establish new cooperation models in supply chains, cultural content and peace initiatives on the Korean Peninsula.**

Monitored Intelligence for South Korea - Jan. 5, 2026

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N. Korea's Kim inspects production of tactical guided weapons at munitions factory

Yonhap | English | News | Jan. 5, 2026 | North Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has inspected a munitions factory producing tactical guided weapons, urging officials to increase production capacity by 2.5 times. During his visit, Kim examined modernized production areas but noted ongoing deficiencies in the assembly process modernization and called for revised plans to improve munitions enterprises this year.

Kim emphasized the importance of innovative planning and rational systems to create a flexible manufacturing framework that can simultaneously advance current production and modernization efforts. He highlighted the tactical guided weapons system’s military value as a potential replacement for the multiple launch rocket system and revealed plans to equip major military units with these weapons starting in the first half of 2026.

Additionally, Kim stressed the need to meet defense ministry and General Staff demands through expanded output and to pay close attention to the quality of products under contract. The location and name of the inspected factory were not disclosed by state media.

지구 9천 바퀴 달린 미·중 '로보택시'…한국도 전국 확장 시동

US-China 'Robotaxi' Drives Equivalent to 9,000 Earth Circumferences… South Korea Also Begins Nationwide Expansion

ZD Net Korea | Local Language | News | Jan. 5, 2026 | UndeterminedTech Development/Adoption

South Korean companies Humax Mobility, FutureLink, and Konatus have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enter the robo-taxi commercialization market, following the lead of the US and China. Their collaboration focuses on the phased introduction and expansion of robo-taxi services nationwide, leveraging data sharing, joint development of autonomous driving and taxi-hailing technologies, and collaboration with local governments and public institutions.

FutureLink has demonstrated its Level 4 autonomous driving technology with 40,000 km of accident-free driving in the Gangnam area, using a hybrid learning method that combines domestic road data with technology from Pony.ai. Konatus operates the Turu Taxi brand across Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Gangwon regions, while Humax Mobility utilizes AI and cloud-based technology to manage extensive parking infrastructure nationwide. Together, these companies aim to strengthen business competitiveness and accelerate the domestic robo-taxi market commercialization.

In global context, Waymo in the US has accumulated approximately 160 million km of autonomous driving through licensed commercial urban operations, equivalent to about 3,990 Earth circumferences. In China, Baidu’s Apollo Go service has provided over 14 million autonomous public rides across 16 cities, accumulating more than 200 million km of autonomous driving, roughly 5,000 Earth laps. South Korea’s initiative follows these significant examples in the commercial robo-taxi industry.

North Korea launches ballistic missile as President Lee departs for China

Joongang Ilbo | English | News | Jan. 5, 2026 | North Korea

North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the East Sea on Sunday morning, marking its first ballistic missile launch of 2026 and the first since a short-range missile was fired on November 7, 2025. The launch was confirmed by South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

The missile launch coincided with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung's departure for a four-day state visit to China, invited by Chinese President Xi Jinping. The upcoming Seoul-Beijing summit is expected to address North Korea's denuclearization.

The launch occurred shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump announced the military ousting of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday.

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