Democratic Party of Korea Chair Chung Chung-rae said on Tuesday that his wife "is having a lot of fun with ETF investing" and that party lawmakers are flooding colleagues who are knowledgeable about stock markets with questions about "how to invest in ETFs."
"I'm also thinking I should start before it's too late," Chung said in a congratulatory speech at the 70th Anniversary Ceremony of the Korean Securities Market, hosted by Korea Exchange at Lotte Hotel Seoul in Jung-gu, Seoul.
"Under the policy principle that the economy is psychology, we have resolved the insurrection and put the nation back on track toward normalization," Chung said. "We have also eased inter-Korean tensions to address the security concerns at the core of the Korea Discount."
He added that the Commercial Act revision established a transparent trading order. "As a result, the price-to-book ratio has moved from 0.8 to the 2.0 era, and stocks are rising accordingly," he explained.
"When peace is shaken, the economy is shaken. When the economy is shaken, stock prices naturally fall. When investors feel their interests are not protected in an uncertain environment, they don't invest in stocks," Chung said. "That's why the Democratic Party and the Lee Jae-myung government have led capital market transparency through the Commercial Act revision, enabling many people to invest in stocks with confidence, which led to today's results."
Chung emphasized that these achievements are "evidence that the Korean economy's fundamentals are undergoing a fundamental transformation, beyond mere numerical gains."
"Stocks are a system where anyone can become a company owner and fairly share in the fruits of growth," he said. "This is the path of economic democratization we must pursue—a great leap forward where businesses and citizens thrive together."
Rep. Oh Ki-hyung, chairman of the Democratic Party's Korea Premium K-Capital Market Special Committee, reflected on the government's early days. "The starting point of our concerns when the Lee Jae-myung government launched was 'how to overcome the market's cynicism,'" he said.
"We boldly and swiftly pushed through the first and second Commercial Act revisions, and the market's response shifted from cynicism to curiosity," Oh said. "I felt expectations spreading that the Korea Discount could be resolved along with semiconductor earnings."
He pledged that the special committee would pursue institutional improvements to help the capital market consistently move toward "Korea Premium," beyond mere normalization.
Rep. Min Byung-duk said that "whether our country leads the global G2 digital market depends on how we handle the digital asset market."
Rep. Kim Hyun-jung also pledged to "prepare alternatives for capital market value-up and implement them one by one."