Beer and diluted soju supply 97% of the two-year fall in Korea's domestic liquor tax
Korea's tax on domestically produced alcohol fell 4.5% to 2.4352 trillion won in 2025, a six-year low, National Tax Service data show. Beer and diluted soju explain nearly all of the two-year drop, but four years of falling retail sales cloud the youth-drinking story.
Reality
- Evidence62
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives40
- Confidence58
People Power Party presses the pension fund for minutes on its January rebalancing suspension
Korea's People Power Party wants National Pension Service minutes on a rebalancing delay it says propped up shares before June's elections. With no trade to examine, the January minutes are the one record that could show a motive.
Reality
- Evidence30
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+35
- Incentives75
- Confidence55
Korea imported 1.12 million Brazilian eggs at three to four times the US price, out of 133.24 million through September. Weighted by price, Brazil is a few per cent of the egg bill, so any verdict on the subsidy rests on American eggs.
Reality
- Evidence62
- Adoption1
- Hype gap+30
- Incentives55
- Confidence60
Korea's fewer, bigger strikes cost 24% more workdays in nine months than all of last year
South Korea lost 489,190 working days to strikes through September, 24.2% more than in all of last year, labor ministry data show. The losses trace to disputes at large workplaces, so a few big employers' wage talks now set the national figure.
Reality
- Evidence65
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+35
- Incentives60
- Confidence55
Korean police seek legal power to break into accounts that spread child abuse material
South Korea's National Police Agency wants a law next year letting officers hack offenders' accounts, as only 33.9% of takedown requests succeed. Officers could also disable security and add data, so the bill will turn on who authorises each entry.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+25
- Incentives65
- Confidence50
Nearly a third of Korea's SME-ministry innovation products have never had a public buyer
Of the 591 products South Korea's SME ministry certified as innovative from 2020 through last year, 186, or 31.5%, have never had a public purchase. On the ministry's own figures, the label produces first orders more reliably than it produces repeat public customers.
Reality
- Evidence60
- Adoption40
- Hype gap+5
- Incentives35
- Confidence55
KOTRA's new-exporter tally clusters at the $600 bar tied to staff pay
Nearly 3 in 10 of the 10,976 firms KOTRA counted as new exporters in 2023-2025 shipped just $600 to $699, KOTRA data obtained by Rep. Yoon Han-hong shows. KOTRA's fix, a $1,000 minimum from this year, adds $400 to the price of a credit while the count still scores a single year's shipment.
Reality
- Evidence62
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+10
- Incentives72
- Confidence58
Korea's budget minister cites Norway to defend bond sales through a 63 trillion won tax windfall
Budget minister Park Hong-keun cited Norway to defend Korea's steady bond issuance as a chip boom helps push tax revenue 63.2 trillion won above forecast. Opposition lawmakers want the surplus used to borrow less, and the ministry says it has yet to decide between deeper issuance cuts and another fund.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives55
- Confidence50
Korea's opposition pins 54 trillion won of investor losses on single-stock leveraged ETFs
Korean opposition lawmaker Park Sung-hoon blamed single-stock leveraged ETFs for 54 trillion won of losses at parliament's audit of the financial regulator. The ruling Democrats called the launch unavoidable, and the hearing as reported produced a fight over who decided it with no proposal to tighten the rules.
Reality
- Evidence30
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+40
- Incentives70
- Confidence35
Korea's financial watchdog tells firms to police request patterns after flagging 30 suspected AI-attack IPs
Korea's Financial Supervisory Service told financial firms that blocking the 30 IP addresses tied to suspected AI-agent attacks will not be enough. Attackers can swap addresses through proxies, so the regulator wants firms to judge how requests behave.
Reality
- Evidence58
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+10
- Incentives35
- Confidence55
Korea's land minister concedes housing starts will reach only 80% to 88% of this year's target
Land Minister Hong Ji-sun told lawmakers South Korea will start only 80% to 88% of this year's planned homes, the government's first admitted shortfall. Even the low end needs September-to-December starts about 1.55 times last year's, so the public-land fast-track she promised has to show up in starts before the year ends.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+30
- Incentives55
- Confidence55
Seoul apartment jeonse prices rise 8.18% this year, more than double the national pace
Seoul apartment jeonse prices are up 8.18% this year, Korea Real Estate Board data show, against 3.83% nationwide. To meet even the minister's lowered forecast, greater Seoul's housing starts would need to run about three times their pace so far.
Reality
- Evidence62
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives55
- Confidence60
President Lee Jae Myung ordered resources onto a breach of customer data at seven Korean financial firms, citing possible AI use in some attacks. What the firms pay will turn on a network law amended five days earlier and on which ministry runs the case.
Reality
- Evidence58
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+25
- Incentives55
- Confidence55
Korea's tiered basic pension pays 1.54 million seniors less next year than current law would
South Korea's government will hold the basic pension at 349,700 won through March, skipping a 2.6% inflation rise for 5.17 million low-income seniors. Each loses 27,270 won that is never repaid, leaving 1.54 million in the 30th-45th percentiles behind current law for the year.
Reality
- Evidence58
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+5
- Incentives55
- Confidence62
IBK's loans to zombie firms grew almost three times as fast as its corporate book
Industrial Bank of Korea's loans to zombie firms rose 62.8% to 37.6 trillion won since end-2022, against 22.6% growth in its whole corporate book. Firms that have failed to cover their interest bills for three straight years now account for about 13.4% of its corporate loans, up from 10.1%.
Reality
- Evidence64
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+8
- Incentives40
- Confidence60
Korea added nuclear reactors and Alaska LNG to its $200 billion U.S. plan without feasibility reviews
Korea swapped two of three projects in its $200 billion U.S. plan for reactors and Alaska LNG, ministry documents obtained by an opposition lawmaker show. Neither went through the feasibility study the originals had, and the only price on the LNG leg is Donald Trump's $54 billion.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+55
- Incentives70
- Confidence50
KB Kookmin Bank's simulation puts the 2030 property tax rise for northern Seoul's priciest apartments at 76%
Base property tax on top complexes in Nowon, Dobong and Gangbuk rises 76.1% by 2030 in KB Kookmin Bank's simulation, against 46.6% in the Gangnam area. Against the roughly 48% price gain the model assumes, northern bills grow faster than the homes they tax, while Gangnam-area bills keep pace.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+25
- Incentives50
- Confidence45
Korean lawmaker seeks gift tax scrutiny of 52 minors with billion-won bank balances
Rep. Park Sung-hoon wants authorities to examine how 52 South Korean minors came to hold over 1 billion won in bank deposits, up from 42 seven months earlier. The rise is ten children in a tally that can count one child twice, while billion-won accounts hold about 0.7% of minors' 9.74 trillion won.
Reality
- Evidence60
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives40
- Confidence55
Korea's rival parties back a 70% redevelopment consent rule that has stalled in subcommittee
Lawmakers from South Korea's two main parties have filed bills cutting the owner consent needed to form a redevelopment association from 75% to 70%. Past that early stage, Democrats push approval deadlines while the People Power Party pushes density and lighter developer obligations.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+10
- Incentives50
- Confidence60
LH chief Lee Sung-hoon calls for a lower 600 million won mortgage cap around Seoul
Korea Land & Housing chief Lee Sung-hoon wants the 600 million won mortgage cap on greater Seoul homes up to 1.5 billion won lowered. His plan uses credit to hold prices until new supply arrives, and buyers in their 30s, the heaviest borrowers, would put up more of their own cash.
Reality
- Evidence62
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+25
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence58