The Democratic Party of Korea, one of South Korea’s two major political parties, has established a “Digital Asset Committee” under the party’s “Real Korea” Presidential Campaign Committee.
According to a report from local South Korean news site News 1, Representative Min Byung-duk, the party’s chair, will head up the new committee alongside Rep. Kim Byung-gi, who will serve as its adviser, and former South Gyeongsang governor Kim Jung-woo, who joined as senior vice chairman.
The purpose of the committee will be to address issues related to central bank digital currencies, cryptocurrencies, and other virtual assets with a focus on bridging the gap between standing laws and the party’s ambitions in the digital assets space. The committee held its first meeting in Seoul on May 13.
South Korean regulators hope to challenge the status quo for crypto and digital assets regulation
According to the report, the chairman of the Standing Committee of the Presidential Election Committee, Yoon Yeo-joon, who attended the meeting, said, “the world is in a fierce competition to gain an edge in the new financial paradigm, and the digital asset industry is at the forefront of it.”
“However,” he added, “Korean regulations do not support the potential of digital assets, and uncertain regulations and institutional vacuums cause innovative companies and investors to go abroad in search of a better environment.” He further stressed that the Digital Assets Committee would need to challenge the status quo by creating laws that better served the needs of the people.
To address these goals, the Digital Assets Committee will consist of two distinct committees, the Industrial Innovation and Growth Committee and the Policy and Institutional Support Committee.
The former will focus on developing strategies for industrial innovation and addressing the global market under its chairman, Professor Kang Hyung-gu of Hanyang University. Meanwhile, the Policy and Institutional Support Committee will write legislation to advance the group’s goals and oppose what it considers counterproductive legislation.
Another four subdivisions will also be arranged under the two main ones, these include a division focused on the enactment of the Digital Framework Act, the User Protection Division, the Digital Asset Growth Division, and the External Cooperation Division.
Amid political turmoil, the Democratic Party hopes to shore up the nation’s crypto vote
Overall, the group will focus on specific challenges, including the implementation of a stablecoin backed by the Korean won, the rescinding of South Korea’s restrictive “One Exchange, One Bank” rule, and the expansion of South Korea’s presence in the global digital assets market.
The flurry of movement from the Democratic Party comes ahead of the nation’s upcoming presidential elections, scheduled for 3 June 2025. The elections were moved up by nearly two years, having originally been scheduled for March of 2027, but changed in the wake of the impeachment of former president Yoon Suk Yeol.
Yoon’s impeachment by the South Korean high court came in April of 2025 after the nation’s parliament voted to have him removed over political turmoil caused by the former president’s declaration of martial law in December of 2024. After ordering soldiers to physically remove lawmakers during the declaration, he was subsequently arrested on charges of mounting an insurrection in January. Yoon was replaced by acting president and prime minister Han Duck-soo, who faced his own impeachment battle before resigning in early May.
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