This paper investigates the extent to which initial conditions in the labor market influence the progress of job polarization in Korea. In particular, we compare the following two competing hypotheses: a specialization hypothesis and an inter-industry wage differentials hypothesis. Our findings indicate that job polarization is pronounced in industries that have historically relied on routine tasks and have experienced a significant increase in ICT capital intensity between 2000 and 2019. By contrast, initial inter-industry wage differentials are not associated with job polarization in Korea during the same period.