President Lee Jae Myung. [Yonhap]
President Lee Jae Myung. [Yonhap]

President Lee Jae Myung said Sunday he finds it difficult to understand why some are pressuring him — even resorting to "lies" — to stop the partial public broadcast of Cabinet meetings, when the public broadly welcomes the practice.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Lee said anyone who has watched an open Cabinet meeting knows the reality. "Not only Cabinet ministers, but also agency heads, commission chairs and even local government leaders all speak their minds freely," he said, adding that he cannot understand why there is pressure to end the broadcasts through what he called falsehoods.

The remarks appeared to be a rebuttal of recent media reports that some Cabinet ministers had conveyed concerns to Prime Minister Han Seong-sook about opening the meetings to the public.

Lee went on to say that he had deliberately expanded the number of participants in order to broaden policy communication and hear a wider range of views.

He added that he has always valued debate and particularly respects those who voice dissenting opinions. "I emphasize that a red-team function must work well within an organization to prevent problems and accidents," he said.

Earlier, Lee had also posted on X on Friday, expressing "deep regret" over what he called false claims that opening Cabinet meetings was silencing ministers. "I cannot agree with calls from some quarters to make the entire meeting closed," he wrote. "We are already opening part of the Cabinet meeting to the people, who are the sovereign."


sang@heraldcorp.com