'It is an honor to serve as president alongside the people'

First lady Kim Hye-kyung wishes nation happiness with loved ones

President Lee Jae Myung and first lady Kim Hye-kyung wave to well-wishers from Air Force One at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Wednesday (local time), as they depart for a state visit to Mexico after completing their US schedule. [Yonhap]
President Lee Jae Myung and first lady Kim Hye-kyung wave to well-wishers from Air Force One at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Wednesday (local time), as they depart for a state visit to Mexico after completing their US schedule. [Yonhap]

President Lee Jae Myung and first lady Kim Hye-kyung marked chuseok on Friday with a message of deep gratitude to citizens and overseas Koreans, pledging to "run harder so that bright light shines equally on the life of every single citizen."

In a holiday greeting video released Friday morning, the couple addressed "our respected and beloved citizens, and Koreans living abroad," noting that the harvest holiday had arrived after "an unusually grueling summer of unprecedented heat waves."

Lee said the season naturally brings to mind "faces we have missed and gratitude we never quite managed to express." He added that he wished to use the occasion to convey "deep thanks and respect to every citizen quietly getting through each day in their own place."

He singled out workers and uniformed civil servants who remain on duty through the holiday. Lee named "those who take to the streets before dawn to keep them clean, farmers and fishermen who toil for our tables, soldiers, police officers, firefighters and medical workers who guard the lives and safety of the people around the clock, and our proud overseas Koreans who uphold the name of Korea even from distant lands."

He went on to say that while people may live in different places, do different work and walk different paths, "the love for this country will be one." He said he was "truly grateful and honored, as president, to stand alongside the great people of the Republic of Korea — those who have built today and are opening tomorrow."

Lee then pledged that he would "run harder so that bright light shines equally on the life of every single citizen — regardless of any qualification or condition, and without regard to differences in opinion or thought." He added that chuseok is a time when "wherever you are in the world, you can look up at the same full moon."

First lady Kim offered her own warm wishes, saying she hoped everyone would "send greetings to those they miss and share happiness with those they love during this precious chuseok." The couple then bowed together, saying, "Thank you, people of Korea."


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