Korea overcame the curse of colonial rule. Now comes the 'Yellow Envelope' act.

Lee Ha-kyung

The author is a senior columnist at the JoongAng Ilbo.

The joint commission established by France and Haiti to examine their shared colonial history is scheduled to conclude its work by the end of this year. Haiti, then a French colony, launched the world's first successful slave revolution in 1791. Napoleon Bonaparte's forces suffered heavier losses there than they later did at Waterloo. Descendants of enslaved Africans brought from West Africa declared independence in 1804, establishing the first Black republic in the Americas.

Prosperity did not last. In 1825, King Charles X (1757-1836) dispatched a naval fleet and demanded 150 million francs in compensation for the losses suffered by former slave owners. The demand turned justice on its head, yet Haiti had little choice but to comply.

People once exploited as slaves were forced to compensate the descendants of those who had enslaved them. The first payment alone amounted to nearly six times the Haitian government's annual revenue, forcing the country to borrow from French banks at steep interest rates. According to The New York Times, Haiti paid the equivalent of $21 billion over 122 years before retiring the debt in 1947. Including interest, the economic burden has been estimated at about $200 billion. That history, the paper argues, helps explain how Haiti became one of the world's poorest countries, where children have at times resorted to eating mud cakes to survive.

The commission's findings are also expected to renew scrutiny of France's postcolonial monetary system in 14 African countries, which critics describe as a form of continuing financial exploitation.

Japan also sought compensation from Korea after liberation. Its argument rested on the claim that, as of August 1945, 80 to 85 percent of Korea's national wealth belonged to Japan or Japanese nationals. About 700,000 Japanese settlers returned home after liberation, many facing severe hardship. In 1962, roughly 460,000 repatriated households filed compensation claims totaling 1.0888 trillion yen — equivalent to roughly $35 billion when adjusted for inflation — against the Japanese government, according to Lee Yeon-sik's "Leaving Joseon."

The U.S. military government in Korea, however, confiscated Japanese state and private assets and later transferred ownership to the newly established Korean government in 1948. Japan protested, arguing that the seizure of private property violated Article 46 of the 1907 Hague Regulations. The United States rejected that argument and backed Korea's position. Article 4(b) of the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty formally recognized the arrangement.

Had Korea failed to secure that provision, it might have faced economic dependence similar to Haiti's. Even as the Korean War forced the government to relocate to Busan, determined negotiations led by Hong Jin-ki, then director-general of legal affairs at the Justice Ministry, helped preserve Korea's position. When Seoul and Tokyo normalized diplomatic relations in 1965 after 14 years of negotiations, Korea paid no compensation. Instead, it received $300 million in grants and $200 million in loans, which became important resources for economic development.

Today, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are global leaders in semiconductors, the foundation of the AI era. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently declared that "Korea's golden age of AI has begun." Such success would have been unimaginable had Korea accepted the logic imposed on Haiti.

Samsung founder Lee Byung-chull and Hyundai founder Chung Ju-yung each made bold semiconductor investments in the early 1980s despite enormous financial risks, demonstrating what economist John Maynard Keynes famously described as "animal spirits." The government complemented those efforts with its 1981 semiconductor development plan, supporting research, talent and tax incentives.

That cooperation now faces new challenges. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won recently warned that geopolitical tensions surrounding semiconductors would inevitably hit Korean companies, just as Japan had experienced in the past. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has declared that countries seeking to produce memory chips face two choices: Pay a 100 percent tariff or manufacture in the United States. Chey responded that SK would build production facilities "wherever we can." His remarks reflected the urgency of the moment.

If Korea hopes to sustain its AI leadership, the government must respond quickly to risks that business leaders already recognize. Expanding the scope of labor disputes under the proposed "Yellow Envelope" act to include management decisions affecting working conditions could encourage greater union intervention in corporate management. President Lee Jae Myung recently dismissed such concerns as "groundless." That is welcome, but having previously championed the legislation, he should now revise it. Maintaining Korea's technological edge requires greater labor flexibility, including changes to the 52-hour workweek system.

Korea overcame the burdens imposed by colonial rule to become a semiconductor powerhouse. That achievement should not be taken for granted. I hope President Lee's apparent shift signals a willingness to adopt policies that will preserve the country's technological competitiveness rather than undermine it.