South Korea's manufacturing sector is world-class. The semiconductor, automotive, and battery industries lead global markets. Yet the reality of the root industries that form their foundation is entirely different. Basic manufacturing areas — casting, mold-making, heat treatment, surface treatment, and fasteners — are quietly collapsing at this very moment.
World-class on the surface, on the verge of collapse within. This is the true state of Korean manufacturing today.
Root industries are the "physical stamina" of industry. No matter how excellent the design or how sophisticated the system, the entire industrial base cannot be sustained if the foundational processes that realize them crumble. Nevertheless, this sector has long been treated as a low-value-added industry, pushed to the back of the line in policy and investment.
The consequences are already visible on the ground. Closures of root industry firms continue to rise, centered on regional industrial complexes. Skilled workers are rapidly leaving due to aging. The inflow of new workers has virtually stopped. Processing know-how and production techniques once accumulated over decades are no longer being passed down — they are being severed. Companies are holding on, but the industry is gradually losing its foundation.
The fastener industry illustrates this reality most starkly. A single bolt is small, but it is used in every industry — automobiles, shipbuilding, defense, and semiconductor equipment without exception. Yet even this critical component remains trapped in a price-driven supply structure domestically, with almost no technological innovation taking place. What is even more serious is that fastening standards themselves have remained at the level of decades ago.
On the factory floor, these limitations are already surfacing repeatedly. Even in identical fastening processes, quality varies depending on worker skill levels. In automated equipment, processes frequently halt due to micro-slips and alignment errors. Fastening defects lead directly to increased rework and inspection costs, which translates into lower productivity. The situation repeats itself — problems are recognized, but the structure cannot be changed.
Why does this happen? The reason is simple. Root industries lack the "power to change standards." Under the current structure, no matter how good a technology an individual company develops, it cannot transform the industry as a whole. As long as standards remain unchanged, new technologies cannot be adopted and are ultimately excluded from the market. In other words, this is not a technology problem — it is a structural problem. Changing this structure requires active effort not only from the market but also from the government.
Other countries are already moving differently. The United States links technical standards directly to industrial strategy at the national level. When new technologies emerge, frameworks and criteria are established promptly and positioned as de facto standards in the market. Europe designs technology and specifications simultaneously through industry alliances and standards bodies. China leverages standards as a core tool of its export strategy under state leadership. These countries share a common view: standards are not a "result of technology" but a "means of industrial dominance."
In South Korea, however, the roles of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards remain limited. They stay at the level of following international standards and organizing existing ones. It is no exaggeration to say that an "offensive standards strategy" capable of transforming industry is virtually absent.
