Lee Jeong-hyeon, a conservative politician from the Honam region and former People Power Party nomination committee chairman. [Yonhap]
Lee Jeong-hyeon, a conservative politician from the Honam region and former People Power Party nomination committee chairman. [Yonhap]

Lee Jeong-hyeon, a conservative politician from the Honam region and former People Power Party nomination committee chairman, said Samsung Electronics and SK hynix's consideration of semiconductor investment in Honam has "shattered a fixed notion" about the region.

In a Facebook post Sunday titled "The glass has shattered," Lee said that while whether the two chipmakers ultimately invest in Honam "remains to be seen, depending on the companies' final judgment and market conditions," the announcements had already "brought a major change to South Korea, regardless of whether the investment materializes."

"For a long time, there has been a perception that large conglomerates and advanced industries find it difficult to come to Honam," he wrote. "Now the possibility has opened that any region in South Korea can become an important candidate site for the future semiconductor industry."

Lee argued that energy policy must underpin industrial ambition. "Advanced industries require nuclear power plants, renewable energy, energy storage systems and power grids all in place together," he said. "Energy policy is no longer a matter of ideology — it is a matter of national competitiveness."

On the challenge of regional depopulation, he said that when a single advanced company moves in, "partner firms, research institutes, universities, hospitals, residential areas and cultural amenities all grow alongside it," adding that "good jobs revive regions, and regions must be revived for South Korea to keep growing."

He said public attitudes toward business were also shifting. "The recognition that companies are not targets of regulation but the engine of growth has expanded," he said, adding that "the need for stable power supply — including nuclear power, not excluding it — is being accepted as a practical reality."

Pointing to ongoing discussions over revisions to the so-called Yellow Envelope Act, Lee said policies that "prioritize pragmatism over ideology and the middle class over progressive parties are gaining traction."

He described the Samsung and SK announcements as "an important turning point that prompts us to rethink industrial policy, energy policy, balanced national development, responses to regional depopulation, corporate philosophy and even the direction of politics — including the shift in the progressive camp's position."

"What matters now is not the announcement but the follow-through," Lee concluded. "The glass ceiling has shattered. It is now time to complete South Korea's new industrial map together."

On Saturday, Lee had posted a separate entry titled "Ready to be beaten for saying this," urging conservatives not to oppose the government's push for a Honam semiconductor cluster but instead to scrutinize and support it. "We cannot oppose South Korea's future industries just because we dislike the Lee Jae-myung administration," he wrote.


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