Nearly 150,000 Complaints to Presidential Secretariat Over 4 Years... 45% Say "Life is Hard, Please Help"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] "It's not for any other reason, but because my eyesight is poor, I don't want to live. Mr. President, I want to die. Please help me."

"I am a 65-year-old ○○○ living day by day with difficulty as a basic livelihood security recipient. I have had a level 3 physical disability for over 20 years. I have thought about dying because of how hard life is, but with my last hope, I am writing a letter to the President."

Including such written petitions, it has been revealed that nearly 150,000 petitions were received by the Presidential Secretariat over the past four years. About half of these were classified as 'requests for relief from daily hardships.'

The Blue House announced on the 11th through the 'Status and Major Cases of Petitions Received by the Presidential Secretariat during the 4 Years of the Moon Jae-in Administration' that a total of 146,926 petitions were received by the Presidential Secretariat during the four years since President Moon took office.

Analyzing the petitions by type, requests for relief from daily hardships were the most common at 65,534 cases (44.6%), followed by requests for investigation, audit, or inquiry (19.0%, 27,950 cases), policy proposals (8.7%, 12,729 cases), wishes for selection (7.0%), and objections to judgments (2.5%).

In terms of delivery method, written petitions accounted for 98%, making up the vast majority. This is believed to be because socially vulnerable groups such as the elderly and disabled, as well as those who have difficulty using the internet, mainly use written petitions. In particular, petitions for 'requests for relief from daily hardships' raised by socially vulnerable groups like the elderly and disabled consistently accounted for about 43-47% throughout the term.

By region, the Seoul metropolitan area accounted for the largest share at 39.8%, followed by Yeongnam (18.6%), Honam (10.2%), Chungcheong (7.1%), overseas (6.7%), Gangwon (2.9%), and Jeju (0.8%).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.