Teatime with the head of state
President Lee Jae Myung speaks with reporters in an impromptu meeting at the presidential press center at the Blue House in central Seoul on Oct. 19.
President Lee Jae Myung, center, speaks with reporters during an impromptu teatime at the presidential press center of the Blue House in central Seoul on Oct. 19. Lee earlier had lunch with journalists and held a surprise press briefing to mark his 500th day in office.
JOINT PRESS CORPS
President Lee Jae Myung held an impromptu teatime with reporters at the presidential press center at the Blue House in central Seoul on Oct. 19.
Lee discussed a range of domestic and foreign policy issues as he held the surprise press briefing at the Blue House Chunchugwan to mark his 500th day in office. He earlier had lunch with journalists at the cafeteria.
He again stressed that wartime operational control (Opcon) should be transferred to South Korea from the United States “at an early date,” noting that Opcon “can’t be entrusted to another country.”
"A state is composed of a people, territory and sovereignty and military sovereignty is one of the core aspects of that sovereignty,” Lee said.
"Given Korea’s economic, cultural and military standing, a situation where we entrust our wartime Opcon to another nation and remain dependent on them is simply not something that can be left as it is," Lee said. "To ensure that Korea fulfills the minimum requirements of a sovereign state, wartime Opcon must be reclaimed, and it must be done as soon as possible."
He also reflected that he “may have possessed a certain excess of confidence while carrying out my reform agenda.”
Lee pointed to his own “lack of preparation and inadequate management of the process” as the primary obstacles to reform.
“I think I held a strong, perhaps overly simplistic, belief that because I was trying to do the right thing, making progress, and the outcome would ultimately be positive, people should simply bear with it for the time being,” Lee said. “I realize now that I may have lacked the capacity for empathy, the ability to persuade those who stood to lose something and the willingness to offer comfort.”
He also defended his frequent use of X and the impromptu meeting with reporters as part of his self-reflection, “a recognition that I may have become too detached from the reality on the ground.”
Lee said he has come to reflect that he may have “possessed a certain ‘excess of confidence’ while carrying out my reform agenda.”
