Experienced AI Technologies Like Coding Firsthand Over the Past Month
"Worried That the Young Generation May Turn to Rain-Prayer-Style Startups"
Lee Junseok, a member of the Reform New Party, stated, "About a month after the presidential election, I immersed myself in the so-called 'vibe coding' trend," and emphasized, "Some may question why a member of the National Assembly would engage in coding, but as a member of the Science, ICT, Broadcasting, and Communications Committee, it is only natural to invest time in directly exploring artificial intelligence (AI)." He also expressed concern that there are signs the developer supply structure, which has supported South Korea's IT industry for 30 years, is beginning to collapse.
Lee Junseok, the presidential candidate of the Reform New Party, arrived at the party's vote counting situation room set up in the National Assembly Members' Office Building after confirming the exit poll results announced by the three major broadcasters on the 3rd, and expressed his thoughts. 2025.6.3 Photo by Kim Hyunmin
On the 29th, through social networking services (SNS), Lee said, "Although there have been various issues in the early days of the Lee Jaemyung administration, my real focus has remained on the question, 'A massive wave called AI is coming?are we truly prepared for it in South Korea?'" He added, "Just experimenting with tools like Cursor, Claude Code, and Gemini CLI, I must have spent at least $1,000 worth of tokens."
He continued, "We have now entered an era where ideas that have long existed only in our minds can be realized at the level of 'verbal coding,'" and pointed out, "At the same time, there are signs that the developer supply structure, which has supported South Korea's IT industry for 30 years, is beginning to break down." After experiencing the recent level of AI technology firsthand, he noted, "While existing workers in Pangyo, Teheran-ro, and Gasan Digital Complex may be able to hold on for now without major changes, the situation appears far more challenging for the younger generation just entering the industry."
On June 18, 2025, Lee Junseok, a member of the Reform Party, is touring booths at the 2025 Metaverse Expo held at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News
Lee went on to say, "During the presidential campaign, I met a great number of university students and job seekers. Each had their own expectations for starting salaries, and there were plenty of valid reasons why it was difficult for them to give up those expectations," adding, "But to be honest, I am becoming less and less confident each day that enough quality jobs will be created to meet that demand in the future."
He further stated, "I wonder if we are entering an era where the generation just starting to prepare for employment will turn not to 'employment' but to 'entrepreneurship.' I am concerned that this entrepreneurship may not be a well-prepared challenge, but rather a 'rain-prayer-style startup,' where people build prototypes every month and simply wait for something to take off somewhere," and added, "If this is not a voluntary choice but a trend people are being forced into, that is even more troubling."
Meanwhile, the 'vibe coding' that Lee experienced and found surprising is a new programming method in which AI writes code based on a person's verbal instructions. It has become a hot topic in the tech industry because it opens up an era where anyone can develop computer programs and smartphone applications (apps) without knowing how to code. Specifically, 'vibe coding' is a neologism coined in February this year by OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy on social media. The term combines 'vibe,' meaning feeling, and 'coding,' the act of creating computer programs. It refers to giving instructions and making changes 'as you feel,' without needing to input complex code.
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