Debt Strikes Back...The Economy Is Running Out of Options
As South Korea’s total debt has, for the first time, exceeded 6,500 trillion won, the government has formalized a 25 trillion won supplementary budget framed as a “wartime” measure. While intended to address immediate livelihood challenges, debt has long since become a heavy burden. At its core, debt is a transaction across time—bringing future consumption and investment into the present. However, as this pattern repeats, the economy may gain time for growth, but it also loses the flexibility to respond effectively to crises.
The problems of the Korean economy are most clearly reflected in household debt.
The ratio of household debt to GDP has already surpassed dangerous levels, with significant structural vulnerabilities. The high share of variable-rate loans has turned the base interest rate into a politically sensitive factor rather than a purely economic tool, as rate hikes directly increase household repayment burdens and suppress consumption. As a result, delayed policy responses have contributed to rising exchange rate volatility and inflation—effectively “interest on delay.”
Click here to read the full article
Professor Linda Kim in the Fashion Business Management Department at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) at SUNY Korea participated as an exhibiting artist at the 2026 International Fashion Art Biennale, held from September 21 to October 31, 2026, at Youngwol Y Park in Gangwon Province, South Korea. Organized by the Korea Fashion & Culture Association, the ninth biennale brought together 74 artists from 10 countries under the theme “Sculpturing Space: Fashion.&rdqu
Professors Francois Rameau and Zhoulai Fu of the Department of Computer Science at SUNY Korea have been selected to participate in strategic R&D planning initiatives focused on next-generation robotics and energy-efficient AI. Through collaboration with leading Korean research institutes, the initiatives provide opportunities to develop their research concepts and establish pathways toward future national and international R&D projects. SUNY Korea has launched two strategic R&
Professor Yoon Seok Yang of the Department of Computer Science at SUNY Korea is participating in a KRW 4.5 billion government-funded R&D project to develop an AI-powered wearable system for personalized epilepsy seizure detection, classification, and prediction. Running from July 2026 through December 2030, the project has allocated KRW 500 million to SUNY Korea. Led by Oceansbio, the multidisciplinary consortium includes Samsung Medical Center, the Korea Electronics Technology Instit
Professor Mario Rüttgers of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at SUNY Korea has contributed as a co-author to a new study published in Nature. The work introduces HydroGym, a computational platform that brings together reinforcement learning and computational fluid dynamics to develop intelligent strategies for controlling fluid flows. One of the study’s key findings is that reinforcement-learning agents can learn flow-control strategies in one computational environment
Professor Younggeun Lee in the Department of Business Management at SUNY Korea has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Emerging Scholar Award by the Management History Division of the Academy of Management (AOM). The Academy of Management is the premier global professional association for management and organization scholars worldwide. Its Emerging Scholar Award is a highly competitive honor bestowed upon early-career scholars who have demonstrated exceptional research excellence,