Economic Security and Technological Sovereignty: Global Policy Trends and Strategic Implications for South Korea

International competition over technological dominance is expected to grow only more intense, expanding beyond today’s core and leading industrial technologies to encompass the advanced technologies that will shape future high-potential industries. Leading economies worldwide have already established institutional frameworks to protect critical technologies and are refining their approaches by distinguishing between different types of technologies, including intangible assets such as software and data. At the same time, they are introducing detailed guidelines to reduce the risks of technology leakage through capital flight and brain rain, while also steadily clamping down on violations and making penalties more severe. South Korea must also move beyond simply designating national core technologies or strategic items. A comprehensive legal and institutional framework is needed to reduce uncertainty in the private sector and ensure effective responses to regulatory demands. This requires a strategic approach that not only fosters and protects core technologies but also uses export controls across advanced and strategic sectors to respond flexibly to developments in a wide range of technologies and items. In doing so, it will be critical to improve coordination across ministries and adopt a flexible legal framework, given that each ministry currently defines and manages core and strategic technologies independently.