President Lee Jae-myung reviews documents during a Cabinet meeting held at the Government Complex in Sejong on the 11th. News1
President Lee Jae-myung on the 11th instructed his government to work at full capacity toward opening a presidential office in Sejong within his term, saying it should aim to hold the final Cabinet meeting of his presidency there.
“Sejong is a city born of a historic decision for South Korea’s balanced development,” Lee said at a Cabinet meeting he chaired at the Government Complex Sejong. He called for speeding up construction of the presidential office in Sejong and a National Assembly annex there, and for infrastructure improvements to proceed without setbacks. “Legal and institutional support for the substantive and final completion of Sejong as the administrative capital must continue without interruption,” he said.
Lee said the concentration of resources in the greater Seoul area, a system he described as already at its limit, is the starting point for all the major problems facing Korean society today, including housing, education, youth issues and extreme polarization. Balanced national development, he said, is the key to curing these chronic ills and opening an era of growth for all, in which the entire country enjoys growth opportunities evenly. He noted in particular that this year marks the 20th anniversary of Sejong receiving its official name after starting out as a “multifunctional administrative city,” and called for the relocation of the state’s core functions to proceed without disruption.
“If balanced national development is the soil for sustained growth, then fostering cutting-edge industries with a wide lead is the seed for a great economic leap,” Lee said, referring to a public-private review meeting on three mega-projects that he had chaired the previous day.
“We are gathering the nation’s capabilities behind three mega-projects — semiconductors, AI and data centers, and physical AI,” he said. As these are the largest projects since the founding of the government, he called for boldly cutting outdated practices and unnecessary procedures, and for proactive administration that seeks ways to get things done rather than reasons they cannot be.
He also cited small modular reactors (SMRs), renewable energy, quantum computers, aerospace and advanced bio as key fields that will determine dominance in the world’s future industries. “Strategic investment in these fields must also proceed as meticulously and intensively as the three mega-projects,” Lee stressed.
Finally, on managing the civil service, Lee said, “Loyal, capable public officials who deliver results should be thoroughly rewarded and compensated, while punishment or audits should be excluded for mistakes or bad outcomes that occur in the course of working with drive — only then can public officials work according to their convictions.” By contrast, he ordered strict accountability for irresponsibility, incompetence and corruption.