▲ President Lee Jae Myung delivers congratulatory remarks at a public briefing on the development of advanced industries in Chungcheong in the central city of Asan on July 2, 2026. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

(LEAD) Lee-Chungcheong investment

(LEAD) Lee vows to turn Chungcheong region into center of AI-led innovation

(ATTN: UPDATES with Lee's remarks at meeting with aides)

SEOUL, July 2 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Jae Myung vowed Thursday to turn the central Chungcheong provinces into the global center of artificial intelligence (AI)-led innovation as he promoted the government's plan to support large-scale facility investment in the region.

Lee made the pledge during a public briefing held in Asan, about 80 kilometers south of Seoul, as a follow-up to the government's announcement of a tripolar mega project centered on attracting massive investment in semiconductors, physical AI and AI data centers.

"Chungcheong possesses infinite growth potential," he said. "If it is combined with businesses' strategic investment and the government's firm will, Chungcheong will stand upright as the center of global innovation beyond the center of the Republic of Korea's advanced industry, that leads the AI era."

Ahead of Lee's remarks, companies including Samsung Group and SK hynix unveiled plans to invest 392 trillion won (US$252.5 billion) to construct a high bandwidth memory fab, a packaging facility and other sites in Chungcheong.

"The four major advanced industries of semiconductors, displays, secondary batteries and bio are the key strategic industries that will determine the future of the Republic of Korea in the AI era," Lee said. "The place where these four advanced industries form a single ecosystem is none other than Chungcheong."

Lee thanked the companies that made the investment pledges while expressing particular confidence in Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, whose grandfather, the late Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul, paved the way for South Korea's rise as a global chip leader.

"Just as (his) foresight turned the Republic of Korea into a semiconductor powerhouse, I am confident that Chairman Lee Jae-yong's decisive leadership will spearhead a new leap forward for the Republic of Korea's advanced industries," he said.

Critics have accused the government of strong-arming conglomerates into making the investment commitments in order to bolster support for the Lee administration ahead of the ruling Democratic Party's national convention in August.

Lee dismissed such claims as "an impossible story."

"We cannot survive like that," he said. "We are not competing domestically but with the world, so we have to be more forward-thinking than others."

He addressed the topic again at a meeting with his senior aides at Cheong Wa Dae later in the day, saying the tripolar mega project is not a "handout" for the regions but the only path to make the country "the final winner of the fourth industrial revolution."

"It will be the engine that transforms the entire land into a Korean Silicon Valley," he said.

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