Bae Gyeong-hun (배경훈), deputy prime minister and minister of South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT, said he will keep pushing the homegrown AI foundation model project known as “Dokpamo.” He also said the country will take on frontier AI at the national level.

In a Facebook post late on the night of Sept. 29, Bae said, “Dokpamo continues,” and added that South Korea “must also challenge frontier AI at the same time.”

He laid out his position directly as various outlooks and speculation have recently emerged around Dokpamo and frontier AI.

Bae said the past year has seen domestic AI capabilities grow more than expected.

He said, “Stanford University’s AI Index 2026 counted 8 ‘notable AI models’ from South Korea in 2025. That ranks third in the world after the United States and China. Artificial Analysis also recently assessed South Korea as a top-three country in the global AI race.”

Bae said, “Making good models alone is not enough,” adding that there are areas that must be viewed soberly. He pointed in particular to the continued use of Chinese open-weight models in many places, and to the rapid spread of Chinese open-weight AI in manufacturing, finance, healthcare and public services as well as in the physical AI market.

Bae set “AI chosen in the field” as the next goal after Dokpamo. He said that when the project was first planned, GPU shortages led resources to be concentrated in a small number of companies, but support methods will change now that government and private investment in GPUs has risen sharply.

Bae said the focus should now be less on “who to eliminate” and more on “how to grow more possibilities,” adding that startups and small and medium-sized companies developing specialised AI should also be given computing resources and growth opportunities.

Still, Bae stressed that the third round of Dokpamo, currently under way, will be wrapped up as planned. He said frontier AI, meanwhile, will be pursued boldly at the national level.

His plan is for large companies and startups, and universities and researchers, to join forces based not on company size or name but on technological capability and ambition, to build a world-class model and develop it into a “national strategic asset.”

Bae said frontier AI will be one pillar to break through South Korea’s technological limits, while Dokpamo will be another pillar to ensure South Korea’s AI is used throughout industry and society. He stressed that it is not a matter of choosing one or the other.