Lee Seok-yeon, chairman of the Presidential Committee for National Unity, delivers an opening address at the 2026 generational national dialogue forum for the Gyeongsang region, held at the Busan Port International Exhibition and Convention Center in Dong-gu, Busan, on July 21. [Yonhap]
Lee Seok-yeon, chairman of the Presidential Committee for National Unity, delivers an opening address at the 2026 generational national dialogue forum for the Gyeongsang region, held at the Busan Port International Exhibition and Convention Center in Dong-gu, Busan, on July 21. [Yonhap]

Lee Seok-yeon, chairman of the Presidential Committee for National Unity, has called on President Lee Jae Myung to leave the Democratic Party of Korea if he truly wants to become "a president for everyone" who unites the nation.

Appearing on MBC's "100-Minute Debate" on Tuesday, Lee said he wanted to make a public recommendation to the president. "The Democratic Party's leadership convention has just concluded," he said. "Now is the time to leave the Democratic Party."

"As chairman of the national unity committee, I am offering words that may be somewhat uncomfortable for the president to hear — and if that is a breach of etiquette, I will take responsibility for it," Lee said. "I believe the president must feel the heaviest sense of responsibility for the current policy failures and the severe division gripping the nation."

He acknowledged that the constitution does not require a president to leave a party, but added: "If national unity is to be the top priority of this administration, and if the president sincerely wishes to be a president for all people, I hope he will step out from behind the political fence of being one party's president."

Lee said the president must embrace not only those who supported him but also those who did not and those who opposed him. "I am concerned that politics is once again being drawn along factional lines centered on the president," he said.

He urged the president to leave the Democratic Party in the hands of its new leadership and return as "a president of the people, not a president of the Democratic Party." "He must govern from a nonpartisan position," Lee said. "Now is exactly the right time."


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