Focus Issues

Insight

Artificial intelligence has established itself as a core strategic asset that goes beyond simple technological innovation to determine a nation's survival and security. Amid intensifying technological hegemony competition between the US and China, the US is strengthening its independent path combining security and supply chain control, while North Korea is also accelerating the automation of weapon systems and AI militarization by utilizing North Korea-Russia military cooperation and Chinese technology amidst sanctions. In the international community, regulatory vacuums are prolonging due to conflicting interests of major powers surrounding autonomous weapon norms. Amid this structural transition, South Korea must not get swept up in US-China-centric bloc logics, secure independent frontier model evaluation and breakout capabilities, and pursue a dual response strategy separating security-linked fields from commercial areas alongside multilateral normative cooperation.