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President Lee Jae Myung speaks at a Cupboard assembly on the Blue Home on Jan. 20, 2026. (Yonhap)
The truth that President Lee Jae Myung acknowledged the “overwhelming public help” for nuclear energy and known as for “affordable dialogue free from ideology” in a Cupboard assembly on Tuesday stands in stark distinction to earlier statements that appeared to favor renewable power insurance policies.
On the marketing campaign path and as lately as September, Lee has repeatedly pressured that constructing nuclear energy crops is a coverage that can’t meet the demand of Korean industries. Vitality coverage consultants consider the president’s point out of the “overwhelming public help” for nuclear energy is itself an indication of coverage change.
Lee didn’t convey any clear directive to look into constructing new nuclear energy crops in a dialog with Local weather, Vitality and Setting Minister Kim Sung-hwan in the course of the Cupboard assembly. Nevertheless, after noting the general public’s help for nuclear energy, he did point out the tone of current discussions marked by “ideological agendas and political combating” and ordered “the gathering of enough suggestions,” leaving room for his remarks to be interpreted as tacit approval for the development of extra nuclear services.
In remarks made in September at a press convention on the a centesimal day of his tenure, Lee emphasised, “It takes 15 years to construct a nuclear plant. In a scenario the place we face an immense and urgent want for electrical energy, renewable power is the system able to supplying it the quickest.”
It seems that the president’s change of coronary heart on the nuclear problem has been influenced by calls for from business, which believes that offering a steady provide of the power required by future industries will probably be tough by means of renewable sources alone. Some near Lee consider a press release by SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son final yr that power was the “weak hyperlink” in Korea’s AI business could have served as a turning level.
In an interview with the Hankyoreh on Friday, Kim Yong-beom, the chief presidential secretary for coverage, described the need of constructing extra nuclear crops.
“AI and semiconductors are hippos that eat quite a lot of electrical energy. The scarcity of semiconductors has despatched the value hovering to the purpose the place they will’t even be offered, and we could face a scenario the place we are able to’t provide the electrical energy that Samsung and SK require,” Kim mentioned.
A collection of polls exhibiting help for extra nuclear energy crops far outweighing opposition within the lead-up to native elections could have additionally weighed closely on the president.
A Gallup Korea survey of 1,000 voters nationwide performed final week discovered that 54% of respondents believed that Korea ought to construct extra nuclear energy crops, greater than twice the proportion of those that believed extra crops shouldn’t be constructed (25%). (The survey was performed Jan. 13-15 over the telephone and had a 95% confidence stage and margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 factors.)
“A survey performed by the Ministry of Local weather, Vitality and Setting additionally discovered that help for constructing nuclear crops is way greater [than opposition],” a senior Blue Home official mentioned.
Lee Heon-seok, the pinnacle of coverage for the civic group Vitality Justice Actions, mentioned that the current discuss of nuclear energy is partially because of the upcoming elections.
“With the native elections arising in June, it’s about time for the Democrats and the administration to be making coverage selections. That’s why all of a sudden even the president is popping out and saying that there’s ‘overwhelming help’ for nuclear energy after each the social gathering and administration have prevented the nuclear energy debate up till now,” he mentioned.
“In his feedback at the moment, President Lee was basically giving tips to the knowledgeable commissioners tasked with arising with the twelfth grasp plan for power provide,” Lee famous.
By Search engine optimization Younger-ji, employees reporter; Park Ki-yong, employees reporter
Please direct questions or feedback to [english@hani.co.kr]
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