Lee backs conservative forum post on multicultural family benefits, drawing fresh criticism

President Lee Jae Myung sparked fresh controversy Wednesday after sharing a post from a conservative-leaning online community and questioning benefits for multicultural families, amid mounting criticism over his remarks about foreign workers.

"Preferential treatment for multicultural families by local governments, including the Seoul Metropolitan Government, has become an issue," Lee wrote on X on Wednesday. "I will thoroughly review whether there is a strong need to go beyond ensuring that multicultural families are not disadvantaged and provide them with preferential treatment, and whether such preferential treatment should be abolished, including consultations with local governments and possible revisions to enforcement decrees."

Lee made the remarks while sharing a post from the online community FM Korea about reservations at Seoul's public postpartum care centers.

"I really don't understand why mothers from multicultural families are given the same priority for admission to public postpartum care centers as national merit recipients and families with multiple children," the post read. "They get a 70 percent discount funded by taxpayers."

The post also included an image of a table showing that mothers from multicultural families were placed in the second-highest priority category for reservations, alongside national merit recipients, North Korean defectors eligible for government protection, people with disabilities, mothers from single-parent families and women giving birth to their third or subsequent child.

Lee's decision to share a post from FM Korea also sparked controversy. The online community is known to be primarily used by conservative-leaning men in their 20s and 30s, and posts criticizing Lee frequently appear on the platform.

One X user questioned why Lee had described the FM Korea post as making "a good point," suggesting that the president was willing to listen to people who would not support him while engaging in arguments with his own supporters.

"Whether they support or oppose the president, everyone is a sovereign citizen of Korea," Lee responded to the post. "A good point is a good point regardless of who makes it, and wrongs must be corrected regardless of whose side someone is on."

Lee also faced controversy over remarks about foreign workers made during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday.

Lee made the remarks while discussing ways to expand publicly funded jobs, including government wage subsidies for agricultural workers.

"Even if we bring in foreign workers to do the jobs, they don't contribute as much to the national economy because they send all their wages back home," Lee said.

Migrant workers' rights groups criticized the remarks as hate speech that ignores reality, with Rebuilding Korea Party's labor committee chair Lee Hyuk-jin also saying Lee's words are "outrageous remarks rooted in ignorance and prejudice" in a statement Wednesday.

The Progressive Party called the president's remarks "hate speech against migrant workers," while the Justice Party demanded that Lee "apologize for his cowardly remarks toward migrant workers."

As criticism mounted, Kim Kyoung-ja, the presidential secretary for social affairs, posted two messages on X on Wednesday highlighting the protection of foreign workers' rights.

In a post titled "President Lee's respect for labor without discrimination based on nationality," Kim emphasized that Lee had "ordered the preparation of support measures for foreign workers subjected to unfair treatment, including unpaid wages."

In another post, Kim wrote, "Leaders of countries including Mongolia, Laos, the Philippines and Cambodia have also recognized President Lee's commitment to 'workplaces without discrimination.'"

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) also issued a statement Wednesday criticizing Lee's remarks.

"The economic value created by migrant workers amounts to tens of trillions of won, and a substantial portion of their wages is spent in Korea on food, housing and other living expenses, supporting struggling local economies," KCTU said. "It is deeply distressing and almost impossible to believe that such views came from the president."

"Labeling migrant workers as people who do not contribute to the national economy simply because they send home a portion of the money they legitimately earn through their labor is clearly an inappropriate remark that reveals discriminatory attitudes toward migrant workers," KCTU added.

The union also criticized Lee for claiming that media reports had distorted his remarks. Lee had also posted on X to denounce an article that ran with a headline saying he was being criticized over remarks that foreign workers do not contribute to the national economy. He clarified that he said foreign workers do not contribute as much to the economy as Korean workers, and did not say foreign workers do not contribute at all.

"The government's task is to eliminate structural discrimination and human rights violations against migrant workers and guarantee their labor rights," the union added, calling for measures to ensure workers' freedom to change workplaces, address unpaid wages and deaths from workplace accidents and protect their housing rights.

BY KIM BO-REUM, HYEON YE-SEUL [[email protected]]