We are Korea. We are AI lawmakers.
About the platformAbout VANK한국어

“Can 300 lawmakers really evaluate the entire ₩1,615 trillion national project budget of Korea?”

Starting today, I'll personally become an 'AI Lawmaker' for Korea!

VANK Unveils 「I Am an AI Lawmaker」, a Nationwide Participatory National Policy and Fiscal Evaluation Platform

Where does the tax I pay actually go? The Cyber Diplomatic Corps VANK (VANK, Director Park Gi-tae), which since 1999 has trained Korean youth as 'Digital Diplomats' and 'AI Diplomats' amid an era of 200 million global Hallyu fans, has now launched a platform to turn all 50 million Korean citizens into 'AI Lawmakers.'

VANK has built 「I Am an AI Lawmaker – A Fiscal Map for the Age of Popular Sovereignty」, a citizen-sovereignty fiscal platform that lets every citizen directly track and evaluate, down to the last won, the ₩1,615 trillion government expenditure budget (based on fiscal year 2026).

Recognizing that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' roughly 3,000 official staff alone have limits in properly representing Korea to 8 billion people worldwide, VANK has long trained hundreds of thousands of youth as civilian 'Digital Diplomats,' expanding the scope of public diplomacy. This new platform was conceived as an extension of that effort, aimed at overcoming the practical limitation that just about 300 lawmakers cannot thoroughly review and evaluate the entire ₩1,615 trillion government budget.

The aim is for every citizen to become an “AI Lawmaker” who verifies and evaluates government policy first-hand, lifting the quality of Korea's national policy and helping the country lead globally. The project puts into practice, in the arena of public finance, the principle of popular sovereignty in Article 1(2) of the Constitution: “The sovereignty of the Republic of Korea resides in the people, and all state authority emanates from the people.”

Using AI and public data technology, the platform has transformed the national budget review process — long seen as the exclusive domain of the National Assembly and experts due to its complex terminology and vast figures — into a domain accessible to all 50 million citizens. The platform analyzes and aggregates the Ministry of Economy and Finance's entire official 2026 expenditure budget data without any artificial estimation or manipulation, ensuring data transparency.

AI Lawmaker Aide: Briefing Complex Budget Documents at a Glance

In particular, considering that it is difficult to judge the content of a project from its name alone across the government's 61 agencies and 1,791 detailed projects, VANK introduced the 'AI Lawmaker Aide' feature. The AI Aide clearly summarizes each project's purpose, beneficiaries, performance indicators, and points of concern.

[Example AI Aide summary: Ministry of Foreign Affairs' 'Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Assistance' project (₩403.7 billion)]

Program purpose
To raise Korea's international standing and diplomatic influence as a responsible member of the global community, through relief in disaster and conflict zones worldwide and support for self-reliance in developing countries
Beneficiaries
People displaced abroad by natural disasters or war, and residents of least-developed countries whose survival is at risk
Performance indicators
Managing “timeliness of humanitarian assistance” — how quickly relief teams reach the site after a disaster — and local resident satisfaction
Issues and caveats
As the budget grows, waste must be prevented and execution kept transparent; support also needs to move beyond one-off aid toward a long-term, strategic partnership structure

Twelve Core Features — From Reverse-Calculating Your Taxes to Detecting Duplicate Budgets, Lawmaker Activity Briefings, and Budget Reallocation & Settlement Tracking

The 「I Am an AI Lawmaker」 platform offers the following twelve core features so citizens can directly participate as budget reviewers.

  1. 01

    Reverse-Calculating Your Tax Receipt

    Shows exactly how much of the tax you paid goes to each of the 61 central government agencies, down to the last won.

  2. 02

    Tracking the Whole Budget Flow

    Traces the agency → sector → program structure at a glance, automatically separating internal transfers and matching funds to derive net expenditure.

  3. 03

    Comparing Budget Trends by Agency

    Compares three-year budget trends by agency for 2024–2026 alongside year-on-year rates of change.

  4. 04

    Automatic Duplicate-Budget Detection

    Uses AI to surface programs budgeted by multiple ministries for similar purposes and flags them for oversight.

  5. 05

    Fiscal Traffic-Light Voting

    After reviewing the AI aide's summary of the program plan and press releases, citizens vote in real time — Appropriate / Keep / Restructure — and add comments. Opinions VANK highlights are pinned to the “VANK's Pick” section, while the rest are presented through topic filters and a varied card layout.

  6. 06

    Budget Oversight and Direct Delivery

    Through the Open National Assembly Information API, the platform pulls live profiles of lawmakers on the relevant standing committee, bills introduced in the 22nd Assembly, committee activity, and plenary voting records. An AI aide briefs you on each lawmaker's recent legislative work, recent news coverage is listed newest-first, and the “VANK's Pick” section at the top links to a lawmaker's detail view in one click.

  7. 07

    Source Evidence and Citation Package

    Publishes the data fingerprint and original sources of the official Open Fiscal Data figures, and lets you download the full citation package (ZIP).

  8. 08

    Watching the Nation-Brand Budget

    Separately tallies and monitors budgets tied to Korea's international standing — public diplomacy, Hallyu support, Korean language promotion, overseas Koreans, and tourism.

  9. 09

    Lawmakers Overseeing the Budget

    Look up 22nd National Assembly members' profiles, committee activities, budget-related bills, and plenary voting records in real time. The AI Aide summarizes each lawmaker's recent legislative activity, and the latest news coverage on each lawmaker is gathered newest-first with headlines and links to the original articles. The 'VANK's Pick' section at the top highlights lawmakers VANK is watching — one click opens their detail view.

  10. 10

    English Global Service

    An English edition (koreavision.one/en) lets Hallyu fans and global citizens understand Korea's fiscal structure. Ministry and program names can be viewed as official English names (EN), Revised Romanization (RR), or the Korean original, and AI Aide briefings are also generated in English.

  11. 11

    Budget Reallocation Simulator

    Citizens directly adjust each agency's budget by ±50% to build their own plan and see the per-capita tax change in real time. They leave their reasoning, share it as a link, and compare the planned-vs-executed rate side by side. Plans VANK highlights are pinned to the 'VANK's Pick' section at the top.

  12. 12

    Settlement & Execution-Rate Linkage

    Beyond the planned (appropriated) budget, actual settled amounts are compared to calculate and visualize each program's execution rate and unexecuted share — tracking the budget from "was it set?" to "was it spent?"

In particular, citizens' voluntary votes and proposals collected through the 'Policy Budget Evaluation - Fiscal Traffic Light' menu are made transparently public in real time through the 'AI Lawmaker Opinion LIVE' system. It is also linked to the activity records and contact information of lawmakers on the relevant standing committees, opening a channel through which citizen evaluations can be directly reflected in legislative activity.

Since its founding in 1999, VANK, judging that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' roughly 3,000 official staff alone could not properly represent Korea to 8 billion people worldwide, has trained countless youth as civilian 'Digital Diplomats' and 'AI Diplomats.' Now VANK is taking a further step to train Korean youth and all citizens as 'AI Lawmakers.'

Rather than leaving the evaluation of the entire ₩1,615 trillion government budget to just 300 lawmakers, all 50 million citizens should become 'AI Lawmakers' who directly verify and evaluate national budgets and policies. In an era of 200 million global Hallyu fans, this is the key to translating Korea's elevated national brand into stronger national competitiveness and to helping Korean policy lead the world as an advanced nation.

Just as nameless righteous militias rose voluntarily a century ago to defend national sovereignty, the strongest weapon defending 21st-century Korea today is the mature interest and participation of its citizens. Popular sovereignty is not a one-time right exercised only on election day — it is realized in the everyday act of closely examining and monitoring every line of the budget executed each year. We hope all citizens will join this dream of becoming 'AI Lawmakers' and building an honest, strong Korea.

This platform can be freely used by all Korean citizens and overseas Koreans worldwide without any membership registration. Submitted opinions and voting results can be viewed in real time, and key budget analysis reports and source data packages can be downloaded directly from the 'Primary Sources' page on the site.

Going forward, VANK plans to regularly publish analysis reports on suspected duplicate or populist budget items based on citizen-participation data, and to continuously deliver these findings to relevant standing committees in line with the National Assembly's budget review schedule.

With the global Hallyu wave, the world's interest in Korea has never been higher. Sparked by popular culture, Hallyu has now reached the stage of introducing Korea's policies and administrative systems to the world. In step with this trend, this platform now offers an English version (koreavision.one/en) so that people around the world can directly examine how Korea's national budget is compiled and executed, and experience Korea's experiment in fiscal democracy. On the English pages, ministry and program names can be toggled between the official English name (EN), Romanized transcription (RR), and the original Korean (한), and the AI aide briefings are also available in English.

Primary Sources

Every budget figure is linked directly to the official Ministry of Economy and Finance Open Fiscal Data. Data fingerprints, source references, and a downloadable citation package (ZIP) are available.

View primary sources and data integrity

Citizen-Sovereignty Fiscal Platform 「I Am an AI Lawmaker – A Fiscal Map for the Age of Popular Sovereignty」

Official website:

https://koreavision.one

Email:

school@prkorea.org