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Structured register of government actions in the geoeconomic space — export controls, tariffs, sanctions, FDI screening, subsidies, industrial-policy laws — cross-referenced into the country, minerals, and ETF surface. Charter: docs/IPTM_CHARTER.md.
Severity 1-5 is the qualitative impact rating (1=minor, 5=structural). The bilateral-trade-grounded quant scorer is the next IPTM milestone. RBI (Register Breadth Index) is a complementary structural-breadth indicator from scripts/py/iptm/breadth.py; divergence between RBI and severity is itself informative (high-sev / low-RBI = strategic chokepoint; low-sev / high-RBI = broad but shallow). Every action has at least one primary source URL. Verify-or-don't-file. See also themes, timeline, graph, sankey, map, country exposure, sector exposure, material exposure (+ graph), weekly briefs, portfolio scan, escalation monitor, trans-shipment hubs. Internal triage tools (RSS-poller candidate feed, source-feed health) live under /admin/candidates + /admin/sources. Subscribe via Atom feed (accepts ?country=CN, ?material=lithium, ?issuer=BIS, ?type=export_control, ?etf=SOXX, ?company=NVDA, ?minSeverity=4, ?year=2026, ?q=…) or pull /api/iptm/actions.
On 22 August 2025 South Korea's National R&D Program Evaluation Steering Committee, convened by MOTIE, finalized an exemption from the mandatory preliminary feasibility study (예비타당성조사 면제) for the "K-On-Device AI Semiconductor Technology Development" project, clearing the roughly KRW 689.15 billion (approx. USD 496 million) program to proceed toward FY2026 budget allocation without the standard multi-year vetting delay. The project funds full-stack development — custom AI chip design, software, and modules — across four demand-anchored industries: automotive (Hyundai Motor), IoT/home appliances (LG Electronics), machinery/robotics (Doosan Robotics, Daedong), and defense (Korea Aerospace Industries). MOTIE structured the program so end-user demand companies participated directly in project planning, pairing them with domestic fabless design and foundry manufacturing firms to build a domestic on-device AI semiconductor ecosystem, ahead of full budget confirmation and formal program launch.
Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-SURE), a Korean government export-credit agency, announced on 4 August 2025 a US$1bn (~KRW 1.4tn) financial guarantee backing LG Chem's construction of a cathode material plant in Clarksville, Montgomery County, Tennessee. The facility is being built in a first phase for roughly KRW 2tn, with 60,000 tons/year of NCMA (nickel-cobalt-manganese- aluminum) cathode capacity — described by K-SURE as the largest cathode material production line in the United States, sufficient for around 600,000 electric vehicles. K-SURE stated this is the first US investment guarantee issued following the Korea-US tariff negotiation, under which Seoul agreed to channel a large bilateral investment package into the United States; the guarantee lets LG Chem access lower-cost, longer-tenor financing from global banks for the project.
The Korean National Assembly passed an amendment to the Restriction of Special Taxation Act (조세특례제한법, Act No. 19234) on 30 March 2023, promulgated 31 March 2023 and retroactive to 1 January 2023. The amendment enhanced the investment tax credit (ITC) for "national strategic technology" (국가전략기술) semiconductor facility investment: large companies receive a 15% ITC on qualifying capital expenditure (up from 8% in the December 2022 base version); small and medium enterprises receive 25%. An additional temporary 10% incremental credit applies for annual investment exceeding the prior 3-year average (effective 2023-2025). Internationally termed the "K-Chips Act," the measure directly mirrors the US CHIPS Act's 25% advanced- manufacturing investment tax credit. Principal beneficiaries are Samsung Electronics (Samsung Foundry plus DRAM/NAND capex of KRW 20-30 trillion per year) and SK Hynix (memory fabs at Icheon and Cheongju, HBM expansion). In the same session the National Assembly passed companion legislation on secondary-battery (EV) investment with equivalent credit rates. The Korean government projected annual tax savings for the semiconductor sector of approximately KRW 1-2 trillion.