President Lee Jae-myung will meet with International Labour Organization (ILO) Director-General Gilbert Houngbo at Cheong Wa Dae on the morning of the 22nd. As artificial intelligence (AI) technology rapidly transforms the labor market and the overall industrial structure, the meeting will share the government's labor policy results and exchange views on the direction of future policies.
According to Cheong Wa Dae, Director-General Houngbo previously served as prime minister of the West African nation of Togo and as ILO deputy director-general. As ILO director-general, he is regarded as a figure who has worked to create quality jobs and a fair labor market.
The meeting is expected to discuss a wide range of domestic labor issues, including labor's pushback against advances in AI technology and the government's alternatives, as well as unions' demands for performance bonus distributions amid recent profits at semiconductor corporations and the process of labor-management agreements. The sides also plan to exchange opinions on ways to cooperate between Korea and the ILO.
Attending the meeting from Cheong Wa Dae will be Policy Chief Kim Yong-beom, Senior Secretary for Social Affairs Moon Jin-young, and Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon, while from the ILO side, Asia-Pacific Regional Director Kaori Nakamura and others will be present.
The ILO is an organization established in 1919 to improve working conditions and protect workers' rights. It adopts conventions and recommendations that serve as international labor standards and helps member states comply with them. Its headquarters is in Geneva, Switzerland. Korea joined the ILO in 1991 and held the chair of the Governing Body in 2003 and 2004, and in 2024 and 2025.