South Korean President Lee Jae-myung held a press conference on July 3, elaborating his administration’s policy aims. The press conference was held a month after his victory in the presidential election on June 3.
During his address in the press conference, Lee said he has been running the emergency economic task force launched soon after his election to find ways to revive the economy. He emphasized the necessity of passing the supplementary budget bill worth 3.5 billion won ($2.5 million) in the National Assembly to boost spending. With this, he also vowed to reinvigorate the country’s undervalued stock markets by supporting businesses and enacting a law to prevent stock manipulation. Lee repeated his intention to handle the economy as a top priority.
Lee aims to “rebuild” the country which was severely affected by his predecessor’s declaration of martial law in December. He clearly expects the special counsels tasked with investigating cases connected with the martial law declaration to fulfill the public’s demands to eradicate the “insurrection” forces completely.
Under his “pragmatic” leadership, Lee has shown interest in cooperating with the opposition parties, especially the People Power Party (PPP). It took nearly two years for Yoon Suk-yeol, Lee’s predecessor, to have a meeting with Lee, at that time the leader of the opposition Democratic Party (DP). Despite Lee’s friendly gestures toward PPP lawmakers, they did not participate in the vote on Thursday to approve the appointment of Kim Min-seok, a senior lawmaker of the DP, as the first prime minister of the Lee administration. Nevertheless, Kim was appointed as prime minister by Lee on Friday. The DP holds a majority in the National Assembly, meaning the president’s party can pass any bills it wants by itself.
As a liberal president, Lee’s policy on North Korea is centered on dialogue. However, as the United States is South Korea’s most important ally, he once again stated his intentions to make sure that any negotiations with North Korea will be conducted in consultation with Washington.
“I think we need to cope with [North Korea issues] in a thoroughly reasonable and rational manner,” Lee said when asked about his North Korea policy during the press conference. “I think we need to restore the relations with North Korea under the reassured consultation between South Korea and the United States,” Lee said.
Implying that he will strengthen the country’s military capabilities while strengthening ties with Washington, Lee reiterated the need to restore the stalled dialogue between the two Koreas and to create “a path of co-existence and peace on the Korean Peninsula.” Such remarks match his repeated vow to make the Korean Peninsula a place where the two Koreas do not have to fight against each other.
According to local news reports, the South Korean Army in the previous administration attempted to provoke North Korea months before Yoon declared martial law. To defuse tensions on the Korean Peninsula, Lee ordered his military to suspend the loudspeaker broadcasting near the inter-Korean border. Within a day after his order, North Korea also suspended their broadcasts.
Given the strengthened military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, the ongoing Ukraine War, and other international security issues including the Israel-Iran war, however, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is unlikely to respond to Lee’s dialogue approach for a while and it would be up to Lee’s capability on whether to make some progress in enticing Kim to dismantle his nuclear arsenal or to halt nuclear development.
