He convinced legislators to let foreigners mount hostile takeovers. He persuaded chaebol to give minority shareholders the right to scrutinize company accounts. The law allowing foreign takeovers, passed Feb. 14, won't take effect for 10 months. And the unions still resist redundancies. In coming months, Kim will become ever more intimately familiar with the forces of change and the vested interests against them.
Some challenges are clear.
He must disengage the government from business decision-making while increasing its role as a regulator acting in society's interest. That means, on one hand, allowing banks the autonomy to make loans based on market forces and profit, and at the same time scrutinizing institutions to ensure soundness. The president must rein in the chaebol's seemingly insatiable appetite for growth, often with little regard for risk, wisdom or basic laws of supply and demand. And he must allow bottom-line failure to have real consequences. Difficult as these reforms will be, they are just the tip of the iceberg.