Professor Park Soo-yong, Graduate School of Software, Sogang University — As the world economy is reshaped around digital technology, an era has arrived in which the countries that seize advanced technology first lead the global order. Technological hegemony competition between the United States and China is intensifying, and Japan and Europe too are concentrating national capacity on securing advanced technology supply chains and core source technologies. This is an age in which a single semiconductor design technology, AI algorithm or core robotics component can determine the fate of a national economy. Competition to seize technology in advanced industries grows ever fiercer, and economic security is emerging not as a choice but as a matter of national survival. The essence of economic security lies in defending the national interest through global technology cooperation and supply chain management. This requires an intelligence-gathering capability that can precisely grasp the industrial strategies, technology trends and supply chain shifts of countries around the world. With growing concern that Claude Mythos, the next-generation AI model of the U.S. AI company Anthropic, could be misused in attacks on infrastructure such as financial and power networks, economic security work is urgently needed. The problem is that threats to economic security cannot be countered effectively by private companies alone. Because global supply chains move at the level of nations, there are clear limits to a company building its own overseas intelligence network or preparing for state-level threats on its own. In the end, a national system is essential in which government authorities actively carry out economic security duties and systematically support private economic activity. For the sake of economic security, national intelligence agencies must lend a hand in grasping global trends and formulating medium- to long-term policy. The United States offers a good example. It gathers overseas strategic intelligence through the CIA and organically connects advanced technology companies with the national security apparatus through strategic venture investment bodies such as In-Q-Tel. It has built a system in which state agencies provide active support, treating advanced technology not as a mere industrial domain but as a core axis of national security. Korea too must have government bodies such as the National Intelligence Service take a more proactive role in advancing the national interest, in order to maximize national competitiveness in future industries such as semiconductors, AI, robotics, shipbuilding and blockchain, and to maintain stable supply chains in areas of high external dependence. In this context, the amendment now being pursued by the government and the National Assembly to write a legal basis for economic security duties into the National Intelligence Service Act is the right direction. Compared with the United States, which has assigned economic security duties to its own intelligence agencies, the CIA and FBI, by statute for the past twelve years, it comes somewhat late — but with public–private cooperation the gap can certainly be narrowed. Ultimately, protecting advanced technology, securing supply chains and gathering global industrial intelligence must be institutionalized as core national missions, and a system built in which government, business and research institutions cooperate closely. Competition in future industries is no longer a fight for companies alone. This is an age that calls for an all-out national response. Now is precisely the time for Korea to comprehensively reinforce its economic security system in order to rise as a powerhouse in advanced industries. Amid compound global crises, stabilizing the national economy and securing technological superiority are not optional but essential tasks.