‘1 Year in Office’ Lee Jun-seok Predicts Changed Leadership... "I Will Try Proper Self-Politics" (Comprehensive)

Successful Evaluation Over the Past Year... "Striving to Uphold Reform Tasks"
Reiterated Negative Stance on Mindulle
"Lost Momentum Due to Early Party Division in Lee Myung-bak Government"
Discussed Censorship and Ukraine Issues at High-Level Party-Government Meeting
"Creating Internal Communication Structure Is Important"
"Hope Police Investigation and Ethics Committee Proceed Quickly"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Hyun-ji] On the occasion of his first anniversary in office, Lee Jun-seok, leader of the People Power Party, announced on the 12th that he will show new leadership for the remainder of his term, saying, "Now I will properly engage in my own politics."

At a press conference held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on the same day, Lee said, "I will reflect my opinions more to create a world, policies, and party that I believe are right," adding, "The process will be democratic, and my colors will become stronger. I will confidently debate and make efforts to change the world in the right direction." He also said, "There are still many things I want to do. Until now, what I have done was to win elections, but what I will do in my own politics will be completely different."

Lee described his first year in office as 'successful.' He explained, "I believe I have already successfully fulfilled the role given to me over the past year," and added, "When I became party leader, I knew that many party members and the public expected regime change, and I thought that was the top priority and have been running toward it. I think I have been running tirelessly, aiming to maintain the regime's momentum through local election victories. Meanwhile, I have also worked hard to keep various reform tasks and pledges made during the party convention." Representative examples include selecting party spokespersons through debate battles and requiring public office candidates to pass the Basic Qualification Assessment (PPAT).

Along with this, Lee stated, "I firmly say that the past year, when I acted as an election commander for the victory of the people and party members, and the coming year will be very different," adding, "Leadership during wartime and peacetime is different. Until now, we have established our party system through conflicts and fights with other parties externally, but now the task ahead is how to provide stable support for state affairs as the ruling party."

Regarding the intra-party pro-Yoon (pro-Yoon Seok-yeol) lawmakers' group called ‘Mindeulle’ (tentative name), he reiterated a negative stance. He said, "I had to criticize it because it was a politically bad choice," and added, "I hope actions that could cause misunderstandings or bring embarrassment to the president would be planned more cautiously."

He continued, "Inviting the prime minister and ministers to give lectures at party-led meetings can be seen as establishing a hierarchical relationship depending on the perspective and may cause discord." Referring to the early days of the Lee Myung-bak administration's internal party division, he expressed concern, saying, "It is true that the momentum of the Lee Myung-bak government was greatly weakened due to early factionalism for reasons known to many, including the late former lawmaker Jeong Du-eon, who contributed greatly to the election of President Lee Myung-bak, as well as standing advisor Lee Jae-oh and former lawmaker Lee Sang-deuk, and that the government went through a very difficult period during the mad cow disease incident."

When asked about his role as party leader at the first high-level party-government-presidential meeting of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration scheduled for the 29th, he said, "Since the presidential transition committee period, I have had opportunities to meet the president one-on-one and have discussed policy directions many times," adding, "At the high-level party-government-presidential meeting, I will say that we need to realize policies that concretize freedom."

He cited the ‘censorship issue’ as a representative example. He said, "During the presidential election period, I raised objections to the KakaoTalk censorship initiated by the Moon Jae-in government. It is also true that we are having concrete discussions on how to policy it differently." In addition, he presented foreign policy issues such as the Ukraine situation as agenda items.

Regarding the ‘systematic nomination’ promoted by the Innovation Committee, he said, "I don't know who will be the next party leader, but we might overhaul the nomination system; however, that doesn't mean we can't create a system thinking about it," and clarified his intention to push it forward by saying, "In the recent local elections, we used a combination of primaries and single-candidate nominations in various forms, but the winning rate in areas with single-candidate nominations was not that high."

He also emphasized the importance of the party's democratic system. Lee said, "There were cases where the party's high-level information was not shared with party members, and the discourse production space was with YouTubers rather than the party," adding, "It is important to create a communication structure for 800,000 to 1 million party members." He also said, "The idea of giving preferential treatment not based on party membership fees but to those who actively participate in party-hosted events, propose policies, express opinions in communication spaces designated by the party, and actively express their opinions in party surveys is an unprecedented attempt worldwide."

Regarding the party ethics committee that will decide on disciplinary action concerning the allegations of ‘sexual bribery’ against Lee, he said, "There are no answers. The ethics committee date keeps being postponed, but I hope it will be held soon, whether it is a police investigation or the ethics committee." Lee had proposed holding the party ethics committee as a public meeting on the 3rd.

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