South Korea Issues First-Year Policy Booklet, Highlights Digital-Asset Ecosystem

South Korea’s "People’s Sovereignty Government" has published a booklet marking its first year in office, outlining policy achievements and progress on key national agenda items. It identified artificial intelligence, advanced industries and the creation of a digital-asset ecosystem as core tasks in its innovation-economy agenda.

On May 26, the Office for Government Policy Coordination and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism released the booklet, titled “The Road to a Great Transformation Made by the People.” The publication compiles 38 signature achievements and progress on 123 national policy tasks.

In the section covering the 123 policy tasks, the government presented “a country where the people are the owners, a Republic of Korea where everyone is happy together” as its national vision. It set out five policy goals: national unity in politics, an innovative economy, balanced growth, stronger social foundations, and diplomacy and security centered on national interests.

In the virtual-asset market, the creation of a digital-asset ecosystem was included among innovation-economy tasks. The government listed it alongside building an AI highway, advancing an AI-based basic society and fostering advanced industries as key achievements.

The report cited several digital-asset milestones under the current administration: allowing nonprofit corporations and virtual-asset exchanges to sell virtual assets in June 2025, stepping up discussions on the Digital Asset Basic Act in the second half of 2025, and launching a tokenized-securities consultative body in March 2026. It also said the Tokenized Securities Act is scheduled to take effect in February 2027 and that it will push to institutionalize stablecoins as soon as possible.

The government also presented 38 headline achievements. It grouped them into five categories — competence, livelihoods, coexistence, pragmatism and communication — and highlighted the Kospi’s intraday rise above 8,000, exports reaching $700 billion, 35.5 trillion won in research and development investment, K-food exports of $13.7 billion and a push to become one of the world’s top three AI powers.

In the balanced-growth category, the booklet included the “five poles and three special zones” strategy, a second round of public-institution relocations and a plan to turn South Korea into a maritime power in the era of Arctic shipping routes. In the pragmatism category, it cited investment promotion for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Gyeongju, the restoration of summit diplomacy and expanded defense exports.

In the booklet’s foreword, the government said the strength that allowed the country to normalize quickly over the past year came from the people. It added that a major transformation is needed to move beyond recovery and normalization and achieve a bigger leap, and pledged to continue pursuing policies that change people’s lives.