How South Korea's silicon belt is changing its society
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By Anthony Kuhn

Thursday, July 9, 2026 • 4:59 AM EDT

Heard on Morning Edition Transcript
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

The construction of artificial intelligence infrastructure is revolutionizing industries around the world. In South Korea, for example, some factory workers who make semiconductors essential to AI are paid like executives. Instead of calling these workers blue-collar or white-collar, South Koreans describe them as silicon-collar. NPR's Anthony Kuhn takes us to South Korea's silicon belt to observe the chip boom's impact on South Korean society.

(CROSSTALK)

ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: Young couples pushing babies in strollers are shopping at the Lotte department store in the Dongtan district of Hwaseong City, half an hour by train from Seoul. Sung Min Kim is the general manager of the store's sales planning team. He says sales were up 20% in the first five months of this year, especially luxury goods, home appliances and furniture.

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