SEOUL, May 13 (AJP) - South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI returned to record-setting climb Wednesday after President Lee Jae Myung moved to calm investor concerns over controversial remarks by his top policy aide suggesting that gains from the country’s AI boom could be redistributed more broadly to the public.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Lee accused some media outlets of distorting comments made by presidential policy chief Kim Yong-beom regarding a proposed “national dividend” linked to the artificial intelligence boom.
Lee said Kim’s remarks referred to the possible redistribution of excess tax revenue generated from extraordinary profits in the AI sector — not the direct redistribution of corporate profits themselves.
“What Kim Yong-beom referred to was a review of ways to distribute to the public part of the government’s excess tax revenue generated from extraordinary profits in the AI sector,” Lee wrote.
Lee added that Kim had already clarified the proposal concerned excess tax revenue rather than corporate earnings, but “misleading reports” continued circulating despite follow-up explanations.
“Political criticism and attacks that are not based on facts ultimately harm democracy,” Lee said.
The clarification helped ease fears of possible government intervention in corporate earnings tied to South Korea’s booming semiconductor and AI sectors, which have driven much of the market’s recent rally.
The KOSPI erased earlier losses and gained 2.63 percent to a new closing high 7,844.01.
Chipmakers also renewed bull march, with Samsung Electronics rising 1.79 percent to 284,000 won and SK hynix surging 7.68 percent to 1,976,000 won.
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