Democratic Party Rep. Kwak Sang-eon has long been known by a single label: the son-in-law of late President Roh Moo-hyun. In an interview, he did not avoid that reality.
“I lived as Kwak Sang-eon, but the world often saw me as President Roh’s son-in-law,” he said. He said the experience taught him, firsthand, what political power owes the public and left him with compassion for other people’s lives.
But in the interview, Kwak — a first-term lawmaker representing Seoul’s Jongno district — focused less on family ties and more on policy: balancing growth and redistribution, the roles of markets and the state, industrial strategy in the age of artificial intelligence, talent outflows and political conduct. He emphasized restraint over provocation, and institutions and trust over factional slogans.
Asked what matters most for national competitiveness in the AI era, Kwak repeatedly returned to one word: institutions. “If I had to pick just one, it would be institutions,” he said. Technology and talent matter, he said, but without fair and transparent systems, technology will not be used well and people will leave. For him, institutions are the foundation of trust that allows companies to invest, young people to work and researchers to take risks.
Kwak called AI a foundational industry that could shape South Korea’s next 10 years — and even the next 100. Still, he warned against treating AI as a cure-all. AI is not a stand-alone sector, he said, but a base technology that supports other industries and matters only if it strengthens the conditions of daily life and survival. He also said the country should not tolerate monopolies, information distortion or other market failures as AI expands.
On his political ambitions, he said he wants to “turn possibility into the present.” He added: “Not with loose and provocative actions or language, but with restrained language,” and said he would make political choices with an undistorted view rather than a one-sided perspective.
The following are excerpts from a Q&A with Kwak.
- South Korea faces overlapping crises in politics, the economy and diplomacy. What kind of leadership is needed?
“South Korea’s crises are countless,” he said, citing economic, diplomatic and social challenges that are intertwined. He pointed to slowing growth, surging prices and exchange rates, real estate and household debt, as well as trade, supply-chain and technology-competition pressures. He also cited low birthrates and an aging population.
Kwak said leaders must set direction by listening closely to experts, judging what serves the national interest and protects people’s lives, and explaining what can and cannot be compromised before making decisions. “That’s how trust is built,” he said, adding that speed alone does not determine whether a decision is good. What matters, he said, is a rational decision reached through procedures the public can accept and trust.
- How do you view the balance between growth and redistribution?
Debates over state-led growth versus a limited government role — and over growth versus redistribution — have lasted for decades, he said. But he argued the two are not mutually exclusive. “There is no country with only redistribution, and no country with only growth,” he said. “Redistribution without growth cannot be sustained, and growth without redistribution will collapse a country, so it cannot be sustained.”
He said the key questions are whether the gains from growth concentrate among a few, and how those gains are shared — through social investment and safety nets such as education, housing and health care, or through simple transfers. He added that growth and redistribution reinforce each other, and that the method of redistribution can raise or slow growth.
“Regulation should be as limited as possible, but necessary regulation must be done”
- Where do you stand on government intervention in markets?
Kwak said the answer depends on the industry and the degree of public interest involved. Government cannot do everything, he said, and its basic role is to create conditions for companies to compete and individuals to be protected — a free and fair market with rational regulation. “Regulation, in principle, is better the less there is,” he said.
But he said that does not mean avoiding regulation. Government should intervene when markets fail and when actions undermine community order, he said, warning that leaving markets alone can entrench the strong. In areas where market failure is likely or severe, or where public interest is heavy, he said, the state’s role should be larger.
- Should the state take a leading role in AI industrial policy?
Kwak said some fields require national decisions despite uncertainty, and that South Korea is at a point where it must decide whether its industrial future will be reorganized around AI or remain centered on existing industries. In making that choice, he said, the state should lead by building an industrial base and developing talent.
If South Korea’s investment share lags other countries, he said, it should be adjusted, including the overall amount. But he cautioned that public spending cannot be done carelessly and said the government should review how budgets are deployed and verify that funds are used properly, based on trust in execution.
He warned that in the AI era, falling behind by a day can become a month, and a month can become a year, even 10 years. The state, he said, should not merely watch from the sidelines but help drive society forward.
- Of technology, institutions and talent, what is most urgent for competitiveness?
“If I had to choose one, I would choose institutions,” he said. Fair institutions create opportunity for talent, he said, and transparent institutions enable investment in technology. Trustworthy systems, he said, allow companies to invest, young people to work and researchers to continue their work. If institutions break down, he said, technology will concentrate among a few and talent will lose the capacity and motivation to keep researching.
He also argued that “talent” should not mean only a handful of elites. National capability, he said, is the broader capacity built through education and society’s ability to solve problems — a foundation that, in a broad sense, overlaps with institutions.
- Some say thousands of KAIST-trained people work in Silicon Valley. Is that also an institutional issue?
Kwak said people with similar abilities move their lives for reasons tied to differences in systems. People choose where they can better use their abilities, gather the rewards and use those rewards for themselves and their communities, he said — depending on whether the institutional foundation exists.
- What core strategic industry must South Korea choose for the next 10 years?
Kwak said politics must create conditions for people to survive — guaranteeing a minimum and building systems that allow a higher standard of life. To identify a strategic industry, he said, policymakers should consider which sector can expand jobs most broadly, raise productivity and secure technological sovereignty.
Given the advanced information society and the role of innovation and talent development, he said, South Korea should choose an industry with wide spillover effects that can spread technology and knowledge broadly. “At present, that industry has to be AI,” he said, describing it as a foundation that can drive growth across other sectors. He said the country must develop AI talent and find ways to integrate AI across industry.
Still, he said AI cannot stand alone. “If there were no other industries and only the AI industry, the AI industry would be useless,” he said. AI, he argued, should strengthen the basics of life — clothing, food and shelter — and the spaces where people live, work and connect.
- The U.S. and China are investing enormous sums in AI. Critics say South Korea’s public and private investment is relatively weak.
Kwak said the state should lead more in areas with high public interest because building the foundation matters. If South Korea lags other countries’ investment shares, he said, it should adjust both the share and the amount.
But he said AI’s rise should not mean tolerating monopoly power. He said industrial history shows that as new technologies spread, market failures such as monopolies emerge. He said AI already shows concentration, with public use focused on a small number of programs, which can lead to information distortion and unfair trade. In such cases, he said, the state should intervene strongly to correct the market.
- What do you see as your strengths and weaknesses as a politician?
Calling it a difficult question, Kwak said others could judge more accurately. Still, he said his strength is that he has learned through experience what political power and the state should do for the public.
Though new to the National Assembly, he said he has been in political news for more than 20 years because of his relationship to Roh. He said he shared in both praise and criticism directed at Roh, and said he was subjected to long-term surveillance by the National Intelligence Service. Through that, he said, he came to understand how power operates and developed compassion for others.
“A decade on an electricity-rate lawsuit — I didn’t avoid the work given to me”
Kwak said he worked as a lawyer for about 20 years before entering politics and pursued public-interest cases over long periods. He said he handled an electricity-rate case for nearly 10 years without compensation, paying expenses out of pocket. He said he tends not to avoid work assigned to him and hopes he can say he puts the community’s interest ahead of his own, even if it brings criticism or misunderstanding.
- You are being watched as a next-generation leader. What path do you want to take?
“That’s more than I deserve,” he said, but added he would try to become such a leader. Referring to the interview’s focus on possibility, he said: “I will try to make that possibility the present.” He repeated that he would do so with restrained language and an undistorted view, and said he would serve the public.
He also recalled earlier writing about public office as a entrusted role rather than a possession, saying people must recognize what has been entrusted to them and act in line with the hope the public places in them.
[Rep. Kwak Sang-eon]
Kwak is a 22nd-term National Assembly member representing Seoul’s Jongno district. A member of the Democratic Party, he serves on the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts and the Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee. Born in Seoul in 1971, he graduated from Seoul National University with a degree in international economics, passed the bar exam and worked as a lawyer. Before entering politics, he became known for long-running public-interest litigation, including a lawsuit over the progressive household electricity-rate system.
He remains widely recognized as Roh’s son-in-law, but in the interview he described that connection not as political reflected glory but as responsibility and burden. He said the experience helped shape his emphasis on institutions and trust. He argued that growth and redistribution are inseparable, that markets and the state should not be treated as a simple binary, and that AI should be pursued as a strategic industry while preventing monopolies and verifying the use of public funds.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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