SEOUL: After an unprecedented rally put South Korea’s stock market back on global investors’ radar, the market is facing a new test.
A correction has brought volatility back to the forefront, turning attention to the semiconductor heavyweights that fuelled much of the rally and raised questions over how long the momentum can continue.
Yet for policymakers and investors, the bigger question goes beyond the next semiconductor cycle: Has South Korea simply enjoyed another cyclical upswing, or is its capital market finally undergoing the structural re-rating long promised by efforts to erase the “South Korea discount”?
That question was at the heart of The Korea Herald’s 2026 HIT Forum, held on Tuesday at the South Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in central Seoul.
Under the theme Korea Premium: Connecting Korean Opportunities with Global Capital, the annual forum brought together senior government officials, financial and industry executives and global investors to explore what South Korea must do to turn a powerful rally into a sustainable premium.
Opening the forum, Herald Media Group chief executive officer Choi Jin-young said a lasting re-rating would require transparent governance, consistent shareholder returns, predictable rules and a fair market. An emphasis on trust ran throughout the forum.
Prime Minister Han Seong-sook, delivering congratulatory remarks by video, highlighted government efforts to strengthen investor protections and market credibility, including revisions to the Commercial Act and measures to combat stock manipulation.
“The South Korean government will continue working to establish a fair and transparent market order and promote a corporate culture that respects shareholder value,” she said.
“The government will make all-out efforts to move past the ‘Korea premium’ and build an ‘irreplaceable Korea’.”
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said South Korea needs a capital market that better connects competitive companies with capital and talent, reaching a level commensurate with the country’s economic standing.
“Corporate innovation may begin with ideas and technology, but it can truly grow when companies meet investors who recognise their potential and gain access to capital when they need it,” Oh said.
“A virtuous cycle in which good companies are properly valued and their success leads back to innovation and investment, that is the South Korea premium we need to build.”
Korea Exchange chair and CEO, Jeong Eun-bo, said the market had reached a critical juncture, calling for South Korea to move beyond its long-standing focus on eliminating the discount and begin building a sustainable premium.
“To achieve that, we need a trusted market environment where South Korean companies are properly valued and global investors can participate more easily,” Jeong said.
For foreign businesses, however, the ultimate test is how those reforms are experienced in practice.
“Global investors do not measure reform by what is announced. They measure it by what they experience,” said James Kim, chair and CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in South Korea.
“South Korea already has the firms, the technology and the talent. The next step is to build a regulatory and investment environment that fully reflects those strengths.”
The distinction between a rally and a genuine re-rating was also central to the forum’s keynote speeches.
Lee In-hyung, vice-president of the Korea Capital Market Institute, argued that a premium cannot simply be declared by policymakers or the market itself.
“A premium is not a status a market can assign to itself,” Lee said.
“It is a price that investors are willing to pay, and they pay when they are satisfied that the cash earnings of the company will eventually reach them.”
Lee identified corporate governance as an important factor behind South Korea’s persistent valuation gap, saying recent reforms have strengthened shareholder rights and contributed to increases in dividends, buybacks and share cancellations. — The Korea Herald/ANN
