Cheong Wa Dae Deputy Minister for Policy Kim Yong-beom argued that profits corporations earned from the artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor boom should be returned to the public. The opposition poured out criticism, calling it a "anti-business policy" and a "socialist-style policy."
People Power Party lawmaker Park Su-young posted on Facebook on the 12th an article titled "Cheong Wa Dae wants to go socialist," saying, "Cheong Wa Dae Deputy Minister for Policy Kim Yong-beom talked about a 'national dividend system,' targeting excess profits of certain corporations such as semiconductors," and added, "Going a step beyond the demands for performance bonuses and strikes by entrenched unions at large corporations such as SK hynix and Samsung Electronics, the Cheong Wa Dae Deputy Minister for Policy argued for a 'corporate profit rationing system' to distribute excess corporate profits to all citizens in a socialist manner."
Park said, "Corporations pay the taxes stipulated by law according to what they earn. The Lee Jae-myung administration even raised the corporate tax rate by 1 percentage point arbitrarily," and added, "Does it make sense to collect taxes as taxes and then also tell them to share the profits?"
He went on, "If you want dividends, you can become a shareholder," and pointed out, "So why should corporations pay dividends for the Lee Jae-myung administration's 'profit rationing system' when the state is not even a shareholder?"
Park said, "Deputy Minister Kim Yong-beom's 'national dividend system' brings Venezuela to mind," and criticized it as "an administration of Lee Jae-myung that forgets that Korea is a free market economy and tries to put the people of Korea on an express train to socialism, to Venezuela."
Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok also wrote on Facebook, "Corporations share performance with their members, pay dividends to shareholders, and faithfully pay taxes set by law to the state. Any attempt by the government to force 'social responsibility' beyond that is exactly an anti-business policy," he said.
Lee said, "I want to see Samsung Electronics and SK hynix stand firm against the threats from Lee Jae-myung's faction in its wild days and pour the cash from this boom into aggressive reinvestment," and added, "Make strategic investments in or boldly acquire corporations such as IBM or Texas Instruments in the United States to secure the fundamental technologies that will feed Korea for decades to come and generate multiplier effects."