Yu had called for full abolition of the law in 2004

Cheong Wa Dae criticized Yu on Thursday; Lee follows with second straight day of apparent jabs

President Lee Jae Myung delivers remarks at a dinner meeting with Korean diaspora members at a hotel in Mexico City on Thursday (local time). [Yonhap]
President Lee Jae Myung delivers remarks at a dinner meeting with Korean diaspora members at a hotel in Mexico City on Thursday (local time). [Yonhap]

President Lee Jae Myung, on a state visit to Mexico, said Thursday (local time) that moving too fast on reform invites a backlash, as he reflected on the difficulties of the changes his administration is pursuing.

"Someone suddenly started opposing it," Lee said, describing how efforts to remove several toxic clauses from the National Security Law had nearly reached a bipartisan agreement. "They said, 'Why only abolish half of it? It should be abolished entirely.' That sounds good. But then the other side opposed scrapping the National Security Law altogether, and so we couldn't even get the toxic clauses removed."

The unnamed "someone" and "other side" in Lee's remarks are widely believed to refer to writer Yu Si-min, who as a lawmaker of the Uri Party in 2004 had pushed for the full abolition of the National Security Law.

Lee made the remarks at a dinner meeting with Korean diaspora members in Mexico City, using the French Revolution as an example. "When things reach a revolutionary moment, there is a tendency to overshoot," he said.

The comments appeared to mark the second consecutive day Lee has taken aim at Yu, who recently accused Lee of having "deceived the public all along" over the direction of his prosecution reform drive.

On Thursday, Cheong Wa Dae criticized Yu's recent remarks, saying it expressed "regret over the distortion of the president's resolve for prosecution reform in a manner inconsistent with the facts."

In December 2004, the Uri Party leadership reached a tentative agreement with Park Geun-hye, then chairwoman of the Grand National Party, to abolish Article 9 of the National Security Law.

The deal collapsed, however, after hardliners within the Uri Party — including Yu — mounted fierce opposition.

Lee said the same dynamic plays out today. "Some people make excessive demands to show how principled they are," he said. "But in practice, while that may look bold and admirable, it is not easy to produce good results."

He added that the same holds true across all areas of public life. "It would be great to just get things done loudly and all at once. But that's not easy," he said. "I think it is better to minimize resistance, minimize backlash, and produce real, practical results in an effective and pragmatic way."

Meanwhile, Lee offered words of comfort to the Korean diaspora community in Mexico, saying the spirit of their forebears — who 121 years ago voluntarily pooled funds for the independence movement despite receiving meager wages on harsh henequen plantations — lives on to this day, according to Cheong Wa Dae communications chief Seong Gi-hong.


sang@heraldcorp.com