Lee pushes back on 'Kospi at 4,100 without chips' report: 'Would you call Son Heung-min ordinary if you took away soccer?'

President Lee Jae Myung on Monday pushed back against media reports that the Kospi, stripped of semiconductor stocks, stands at no more than 4,100, drawing a sharp analogy: "Nobody says, 'Son Heung-min is just an ordinary person if you take away his soccer skills.'"

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Lee turned the framing on its head. "Shouldn't the headline rather be, 'Kospi still at a whopping 4,100 even without semiconductors'?" he said.

Lee added that he struggled to understand the logic behind the exercise. "Semiconductors are one of the core pillars of our industry," he said. "I simply don't understand why anyone would calculate the composite stock index by leaving them out."

Lee shared the post alongside a news report headlined "Market illusion exposed — Kospi only 4,100 without semiconductors." The report cited an analysis by Eugene Investment & Securities finding that the Kospi, excluding semiconductor names such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, effectively sits in the 4,100–4,200 range. The broader market has recently broken through the 8,000 mark, but the report argued that a so-called "K-shaped polarization" is becoming more pronounced, with share prices outside the semiconductor sector continuing to lag.