President Lee Jae Myung has ordered South Korean authorities to quickly establish whether artificial-intelligence agents helped power a recent wave of cyberattacks against the country’s banks — a warning that has heightened concern but remains short on technical specifics.

In the recent attacks, South Korean officials began examining whether AI was involved in hacking incidents targeting domestic banks. The government has not publicly identified those responsible, described the affected institutions or said what damage the intrusions caused.¹

On Tuesday, Lee told a cabinet meeting that “signs have emerged” that AI models were used in some of the attacks, a development he said was “causing considerable public concern and anxiety.”¹ His language placed the issue beyond a routine cybercrime investigation: the concern is not simply that banks were targeted, but that increasingly capable AI tools may have changed the scale or speed of the threat.

The presidential response, however, was focused on verification rather than a declaration that AI had definitively been used. Lee instructed officials to determine what happened “swiftly and clearly,” while deploying personnel and resources to limit any damage.¹

That distinction matters. For the government, the emerging signs justify an urgent investigation and protective action. For the public, the warning is likely to sharpen anxiety precisely because the central facts remain unresolved: whether AI played a role, how it was deployed, who carried out the attacks and whether further banking systems are at risk.¹