1. Introduction
The situation is as follows:
On November 19, South Korea’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, Koo Yun-cheol, spoke with the media. He initially intended to share some positive content, but halfway through, he broke down.
His tone was heavy: “China is making every effort to catch up with our semiconductor industry… Every time I hear such news, I feel shocked, even a bit scared.”
The phrase “shuddering with fear” in Korean is almost an expression of extreme fear, equivalent to the Chinese expression of “chills down the spine, tingling scalp.” It is almost unprecedented for a finance minister of a country to use such words to describe feelings towards China in South Korean politics.
What is even more unbearable is what follows.
Reference:
https://www.guancha.cn/internation/2025_11_20_797668.shtml
2. Authoritative Report Exposes Reality
In February of this year, KISTEP, South Korea’s most authoritative technology assessment agency, invited 39 top experts in the semiconductor field to conduct the most professional and rigorous scoring.
Using the world’s top technology as a full score, the results were as follows: High-integration, low-impedance memory chips: China 94.1%, South Korea 90.9%,
High-performance, low-power AI chips: China 88.3%, South Korea 84.1%,
In all important fields such as power semiconductors and next-generation sensors, China is already in a leading position.
The conclusion is one sentence:
By 2024, China will have fully surpassed South Korea in all key semiconductor technologies.
3. The Three Pillars of South Korea Have Collapsed
For the past thirty years, South Koreans have consistently mentioned three things:
1: The world’s strongest chip design capabilities (Samsung, SK Hynix);2: We possess core source code and technical standards;3: Our fundamental research and process technology have no rivals.Now, the three “pillars” that used to make South Koreans’ hearts race in their dreams have all been toppled by China. They now all fall behind China, and this time, even the most proud South Koreans cannot bear it.
Currently, South Korea’s remaining two small advantages are advanced packaging and the commercialization of high-integration memory chips, but the lead is very small and can be surpassed at any time.
South Korea used to be the strongest in the semiconductor field, but now the stability of South Korea’s semiconductor industry is in jeopardy.