Lee posts 7 social media messages over weekend to defend Honam semiconductor push

President Lee Jae Myung published seven posts on social media over the weekend to make the case for large-scale semiconductor investments by Samsung Electronics and SK hynix in the Honam region. The blitz appeared aimed at going on the offensive after the People Power Party and conservative circles began criticizing the plan as preferential treatment for the region.

Lee is set to chair a public briefing Monday at Cheong Wa Dae's Yeongbingwan on the government's three major mega-projects — semiconductors, physical AI and AI data centers — and announce corporate investment plans and government support measures to complete what he has called a Korean-style AI industrial revolution. Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won are expected to appear in person to unveil their companies' large-scale investment plans.

In the lead-up to that event, Lee posted a series of messages on X (formerly Twitter) on June 27 and 28, rebutting criticism over water supply issues for semiconductor manufacturing, opposition politicians' demands for objective site-selection criteria, power supply concerns, and allegations that the government had strong-armed the companies into investing.

The flurry of posts came as political sparring over the suitability of the Honam location intensified, with Lee apparently moving to win over the public directly. Analysts say he also wants to firmly hold the initiative on what has become a flagship economic priority in his second year in office.

Against criticism that the region lacks sufficient water and electricity for semiconductor production, Lee shared documents and news reports from the previous Yoon Suk Yeol administration. He highlighted a report showing that South Jeolla Province and Gwangju had already received the highest scores in a 2023 competition for a semiconductor specialized complex held under the Yoon government. "This was already officially confirmed by the People Power Party government while President Yoon Suk Yeol was in office in 2023," Lee wrote, "so I ask that People Power Party lawmakers, at the very least, refrain from making strange remarks about the suitability of the Honam semiconductor industry site."

On the allegation that the government had pressured global chipmakers into investing, Lee rebuffed the claim. "From the perspective of those who used to exploit national policy for political ends and twist companies' arms, this might look the same," he wrote. "But to be precise, this was a decision made by CEOs who judged it to be in their companies' interest — following the government's work to create a business environment covering water, power, land, infrastructure, workforce development and living conditions, and after officials made their case through persuasion and requests."

He added that such conduct "is not called abuse of authority or coerced instruction — it is called administrative guidance and facilitative administration," and described the outcome as "the result of officials fulfilling their proper responsibilities to achieve the administrative goal of balanced national development, which has become a survival strategy for South Korea." He called the investment "a historic achievement of an unprecedented, ultra-large-scale regional investment attraction that deserves praise."

On the claim that steering chipmakers to Honam amounted to regional favoritism, Lee invoked policies from the Park Chung-hee era and urged people to "refrain from stoking regional divisions and conflict for political purposes."

"The Park Chung-hee government's strategy of 'selection and concentration' centered on the Greater Seoul area and the Yeongnam region produced industrialization achievements that astonished the world," he wrote, "but it also generated the enormous side effect of extreme concentration in the capital region." He added that the country must now "break this long-standing chain of threefold discrimination and exclusion — not only in the name of justice and equity, but also for the sake of sustained inclusive growth."

He also stressed that "building a semiconductor industry ecosystem in Honam is not preferential treatment for a specific region," but rather "the practice of a national cause — achieving balanced national development and easing deep-rooted regional discrimination and the Yeongnam-Honam divide."