As the South Korean government rolls up its sleeves again for overseas resource development to stabilize critical mineral supply chains, concerns are being raised about whether the Korea Mine Reclamation Corporation (KORES), which will lead the charge, has sufficient personnel and expertise to pursue overseas projects.
On Sunday, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced through its "Comprehensive Rare Earth Supply Chain Measures" that it would nurture KORES as the dedicated agency overseeing overseas resource development, attaching "organizational reform" as a precondition. This acknowledgment suggests there are many issues to resolve before elevating KORES to a central role in critical mineral supply chain management.
Industry insiders are questioning whether KORES has the capability to properly execute overseas projects. Resource development requires considerable expertise, but KORES has virtually no experience with overseas projects.
Although related personnel were transferred when KORES absorbed the Korea Resources Corporation in 2021, these employees have gained no experience since the failure of the Lee Myung-bak administration's "resource diplomacy." Criticism is also being raised about the lack of expertise among KORES's management. This is because KORES President Hwang Young-sik is a former journalist with no ties to the industry—an unusual background for the head of a resource sector public corporation. In fact, KORES received the lowest E grade in the 2025 public enterprise management evaluation conducted by the Ministry of Economy and Finance last year.
"Resource development not only takes well over a decade per project but also requires astronomical capital investment while bearing high risks," an industry official said. "Korea lacks capability in resource development not only in private and public enterprises but also in academia."
MOTIE says it will pursue overseas resource development cautiously in consideration of such concerns. "We plan to legislate procedures for thorough pre-investment screening to avoid repeating past failures," a MOTIE official said. "We will reference Japan's case, where the government took on significant liabilities from public enterprises and succeeded in reform."