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President Lee Jae Myung and the national anthem wallpaper

Published: 24 Dec. 2025, 00:02

Ahn Hai-ri

The author is an editorial writer at the JoongAng Ilbo.

“Where did the materials I organized go? I sorted them separately on the plane. Why were they mixed together?”

President Lee Jae Myung had already finished his opening remarks during a livestreamed Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the final day of ministerial briefings in the first year of his administration. The meeting, held at the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries building in Busan, was broadcast nationwide.

Calling the live broadcasts unprecedented, Lee said they had strengthened transparency and accountability in state affairs and reinforced public awareness of sovereignty. Reflecting the will of the people in daily governance, he added, was the spirit of the times and the path his administration would pursue.

Moments later, as Prime Minister Kim Min-seok began to introduce the ministry’s briefing, Lee interrupted, saying he had something to add before the presentation. He searched for documents with visible urgency. What followed, however, was not a pressing policy matter but a recollection from a luncheon the previous day with senior members of the Korea Senior Citizens Association.

President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries building in Dong District, Busan, on Dec. 23. [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]

One attendee, Lee explained, had suggested that the background image used during the national anthem was outdated and should be replaced with visuals reflecting Korea’s development and international standing. Lee said he had long shared that view and asked which ministry oversaw the issue, instructing the prime minister to look into it. When the documents arrived, Lee continued in a similar vein, mentioning a proposal for a "K-certification" system to endorse Korean products and citing survey figures on how citizens envision the country’s future.

The scene was puzzling. Every word spoken by a president carries weight, especially during a Cabinet meeting broadcast live to the public. Many viewers would reasonably expect such interruptions to address matters of urgency or clear national importance. Reviewing the national anthem’s background imagery hardly meets that standard. Nor did it bear any direct connection to a ministerial briefing in Busan.

It is easy to imagine officials at ministries such as culture or interior affairs scrambling to respond to an unexpected presidential instruction that emerged mid-meeting. The contrast was all the more striking given the grim headlines dominating the morning papers before the broadcast.

Those papers focused on sobering economic indicators. Data from the Bank of Korea showed that soaring home prices since Lee took office had pushed the average size of new mortgage loans in the third quarter to a record high. Statistics from the Ministry of Data and Statistics showed delinquency rates on loans to self-employed business owners had more than doubled from pandemic levels, also hitting a record.

The exchange rate, a core measure of economic fundamentals, looked even worse. The won’s value against the dollar had returned almost exactly to levels seen during the martial law crisis, when Lee, then the opposition leader, accused the previous administration of eroding household wealth by 7 percent through currency instability. On Monday, the won closed at 1,483.6 per dollar, weaker than the day before.

Critics note that even strong-handed measures, such as summoning executives from global firms like Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor or urging restraint from overseas investors, have failed to halt the slide. The currency’s weakness has driven up import prices, squeezing household budgets and adding pressure on export-driven companies.

Against this backdrop, frustration is growing over what some see as misplaced priorities. Rather than urging the president to focus on economic anxiety spreading across households and small businesses, figures in the ruling camp have praised the live broadcasts as entertaining, likening them to a streaming series. Such flattery has drawn criticism.

On Dec. 16, Lee Joon-gu, an emeritus professor of economics at Seoul National University, argued that a president should set the broad direction for the government, not delve into operational details better left to working-level officials. Tuesday’s meeting marked a further step in the wrong direction.

Live broadcasts may offer transparency, but they also magnify every misjudgment. If such moments become routine, questions will only grow about whether the administration is addressing the country’s most urgent challenges.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.