Lawmaker Lee Hae-min pushes AI-power legislation, direct power purchase agreements, cloud security governance
Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker Lee Hae-min said that at a presidential luncheon with non-negotiating-bloc lawmakers the previous day, she urged the president to advance legislation for Korea to become a top-three AI power and to establish cloud security governance. She noted that while becoming a top-three AI power is an ambitious national agenda, it first requires clear metrics across three areas: public satisfaction, global corporate value, and administrative efficiency and safety.
On AI data center legislation, she said she has sponsored a bill enabling power purchase agreements (PPAs) that let data centers contract directly with power plants, bypassing the state utility KEPCO's transmission grid. The bill has passed the Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee but remains pending in the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. She explained that companies seeking AI data centers prioritize stable power supply, low cost, and large-scale capacity in that order — and that cost has actually become a lower priority.
On security, she cited concerns that Anthropic's newest model can reportedly bypass most existing defenses, prompting security meetings among US financial institutions and government agencies with access. Currently 52 companies have been granted access, all US-based, with the UK the only non-US country included — leaving Korea excluded, a gap she flagged as a concern. She stressed the need to diversify partnerships across multiple AI providers rather than relying on a single vendor, and called for domestic cloud security policy to be built quickly from the user's perspective.
Referencing the conflict between Samsung Electronics' union and shareholders, Lee said the US-style RSU (restricted stock unit) system aligns the interests of employees and shareholders and helps retain talent, contributing to sustainable corporate growth. She described the AI value chain as consisting of five layers — data/users, networks, computing (chips), data centers, and power — noting Korea's strength lies in memory semiconductors and neural processing units (NPUs).