President Lee Jae Myung receives a ministry briefing at the Government Sejong Convention Center in Sejong in December last year. [Yonhap]
President Lee Jae Myung receives a ministry briefing at the Government Sejong Convention Center in Sejong in December last year. [Yonhap]

Government ministries are struggling to contain their nerves ahead of President Lee Jae Myung's second round of ministry briefings since taking office, set to begin Wednesday.

The entire briefing process will again be broadcast live, as it was last year, while a 200-member citizen observer panel will participate for the first time and the president is expected to fire off impromptu questions — leaving ministers, vice ministers and even division-level officials scrambling through last-minute preparations.

The briefings will run from Wednesday through July 21 across nine sessions, the government said Sunday. A total of 140 public institutions will take part, including the Office for Government Policy Coordination, 19 ministries, six agencies and 18 offices.

On the opening day Wednesday, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Planning and Budget, the Financial Services Commission and the Korea Customs Service are among those scheduled to present. The final day, July 21, will feature briefings from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of Climate, Environment and Energy, the Korea Fair Trade Commission, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Ministry of Employment and Labor.

The most distinctive features of this round are the live broadcast and the citizen observer panel. Live streaming, introduced for the first time last year, will continue. A new element has also been added: 200 members of the general public will attend and ask questions directly about government policy.

President Lee's pointed, probing questions are also what ministries fear most. During last year's first round of briefings, Lee reviewed reports closely and then posed unexpected questions — not only to ministers and vice ministers but also to heads of affiliated agencies and division-level officials — pressing them on specific policies and figures.

"Since there is a real possibility that questions could be directed at division directors themselves, we are going back through our work in fine detail," an official at one economic ministry said. "The atmosphere is one of making sure anyone who gets a question can answer it."

Inside and outside the government, officials are also recalling the so-called "Bean GPT director" episode from last year's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs briefing, in which a director drew attention for answering questions fluently — only for some of his responses to later spark controversy. The episode has made everyone more careful about accuracy and precise wording, officials say.

Economic ministries, presenting at what amounts to the new administration's first major showcase for its core economic policies, are focused on preparing briefing materials and anticipated questions and answers. The Ministry of Planning and Budget is moving away from conventional presentation-heavy formats, working instead on incorporating video and other visual aids to improve how policy is communicated.

Some officials say the burden of the live broadcast itself has eased somewhat, given last year's experience. "Ministers have been holding Cabinet meetings on live broadcast every week, so there is a degree of familiarity compared to last year," a senior official at one economic ministry said. "But with the citizen panel joining and the president's impromptu questions always a possibility, we cannot afford to let our guard down."

Many officials are also voicing fatigue over the shift from one to two rounds of briefings per year. "In the second half of the year we already have budget drafting and national audit preparations lined up, and now ministry briefings fall right in the middle of the July-August vacation season — there is effectively no time to rest," an official at one social affairs ministry said. "As soon as these briefings are over, we have to go straight into preparing for the national audit."


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