Na Kyung-won calls 300 trillion won Honam semiconductor plan a 'socialist political directive'

People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won criticized the government Thursday, saying a 300 trillion won ($195 billion) semiconductor investment plan was being driven not by companies but by the presidential office's policy chief. "Is this a socialist political directive?" she said.

Na made the remarks on her Facebook page Thursday, writing: "A semiconductor investment in Honam? Can semiconductors be stamped out by political decree?"

She said water supply and power issues must be resolved before any front-end semiconductor process can proceed, calling the transfer of skilled workers and a supporting industrial ecosystem an even greater challenge. "No government has ever beaten the market," she said. "Are they simply trying to eliminate it?"

Na also said the government was tying the hands of businesses through the so-called yellow envelope bill while Cheong Wa Dae acted like a company chief twisting their arms. "Have they made up their minds to ruin the country?" she said. "If the Lee Jae-myung administration forcibly mobilizes hundreds of trillions of won from companies based on electoral calculations, the devastating bill will fall squarely on the public — in the form of collapsing share prices and vanishing jobs."

She pointed to Japan's semiconductor industry as a cautionary tale, saying its factories were scattered across the country, fragmenting the industrial ecosystem and costing it competitiveness. "Taiwan's TSMC concentrated its materials, parts and equipment ecosystem in the Hsinchu Science Park and became the world's No. 1," she wrote. "History offers a clear lesson — we must not go in the opposite direction."