President Lee: 'Reforms Must Lead to Improved Lives for the People to Hold True Meaning'

President Lee Jae-myung urged officials, stating, "Since reforms hold true meaning only when they lead to actual improvements in the lives of the people, please pool your efforts into uninterrupted and continuous livelihood reforms."

During a meeting of senior secretaries and advisors held at the Blue House today (the 20th), President Lee said, "It is difficult for any policy to be effective if the perception is widespread that following the rules results in disadvantages while breaking them brings gains. That is why uninterrupted reforms to correct foul play, unfairness, and abnormalities are indispensable."

He further noted, "If the solidarity and trust of the community are solidified through this, the path toward becoming an 'irreplaceable Republic of Korea' will also become much more robust."

President Lee explained, "Rather than grand slogans or goals, it is important to create changes that the people can actually feel. For example, voice phishing crimes have noticeably decreased since the launch of the pan-governmental joint response team, and such achievements must be steadily expanded across all areas of society."

He then emphasized, "Economic disruption activities such as hoarding, price-fixing, stock manipulation, and fraudulent receipt of state funds, as well as digital sex crimes, drugs, serious industrial accidents, and official corruption, cause massive damage to the lives of the people and must be addressed intensively."

President Lee also remarked, "More than 440 days have passed since the launch of the administration. This means a little over 20 percent of the term has passed, and it feels to me like it has gone by very quickly."

He expressed his gratitude, saying, "Although there were various internal and external difficulties in the early part of the term, there were also major achievements in putting state affairs back on a normal track and laying the foundation for a great national leap forward, such as the three major mega-projects. This is thanks to public officials who have quietly dedicated themselves."

However, he also pointed out, "From the perspective of the public's expectations, there are still quite a few areas that are inadequate or need to pick up speed. There are also many cases where we failed to examine the realities of livelihood sites during the policy-making process or where the execution speed fell short of expectations."

President Lee emphasized, "In past administrations, cases where public trust was lost due to lax official discipline frequently occurred during periods when the tension of the early term loosened. We must take past examples as a lesson to avoid committing the same mistakes again."

He also urged, "With a renewed resolve to start our term anew, please tighten your shoelaces and concentrate all your efforts on accelerating state affairs. The Blue House must also take special responsibility, communicate with ministries, and support fast-paced state governance."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.