Stability in 2025 came at a structural cost as policy options narrow and economic pressure shifts to domestic firms
2025 narrowed South Korea’s economic and strategic options not through sudden crisis or collapse, but through a sequence of stabilizing choices that traded flexibility for credibility and left the country operating with materially thinner margins for error.
The year was defined less by discrete shocks than cumulative constraint. The aftershocks of the Dec. 2024 martial law decree, prolonged political uncertainty through the first half of the year and currency volatility amid global tightening and renewed U.S. trade pressure combined to force policymakers into a defensive posture.
2025 narrowed South Korea’s economic and strategic options not through sudden crisis or collapse, but through a sequence of stabilizing choices that traded flexibility for credibility and left the country operating with materially thinner margins for error.
The year was defined less by discrete shocks than cumulative constraint. The aftershocks of the Dec. 2024 martial law decree, prolonged political uncertainty through the first half of the year and currency volatility amid global tightening and renewed U.S. trade pressure combined to force policymakers into a defensive posture.
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