President Lee: "Reward and Punishment for Public Officials Is Fundamental... Both Overcoming Rebellion and Proactive Administration Are Necessary"

Yonhap News Agency

On November 16, President Lee Jaemyung stated, "Both overcoming rebellion and encouraging proactive administration are necessary tasks."

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) that day, President Lee wrote, "Rewarding and punishing appropriately is the most fundamental principle of organizational management," expressing this view.

The post included a news article highlighting that the public sector is experiencing confusion as the government has simultaneously begun investigating whether public officials were involved in the December 3 Martial Law Incident and is also working to boost morale among public servants.

President Lee rhetorically asked, "Surely, no one is suggesting that we should only punish or only reward?"

This is interpreted as clarifying that investigating the December 3 Martial Law Incident to prevent a recurrence of a constitutional crisis and improving administrative efficiency in government are not contradictory, and that the government intends to continue pursuing both objectives.

On November 11, the government launched the "Constitutional Respect Government Innovation Task Force" to investigate whether public officials participated in illegal activities during the Martial Law Incident.

The following day, Chief Presidential Secretary Kang Hoonshik held a briefing to directly introduce the agenda of the "Public Sector Vitalization Task Force," which was launched in July. He announced plans to institutionalize the abolition of policy audits by the first half of next year and to pursue amendments to the law to strictly apply the charge of abuse of authority against public officials.

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