President Lee Jae-myung holds a meeting with press corps reporters at the Chunchugwan of the Blue House on the 15th. Blue House Press Photographers Group
President Lee Jae-myung called for stronger discipline among public officials on the 15th, saying, “Drinking and having fun is all fine, but don’t seat a young person of the opposite sex beside you and do that kind of thing.”
Lee made the remarks in his closing statement at the second round of government ministry briefings held at the Blue House that day, adding sharply, “That is exactly when accidents happen. There still seem to be such cases. Young colleagues of the opposite sex are not playthings, are they?”
He continued, “Being treated that way is itself something that would provoke tremendous outrage.” “In the past, people accepted and endured it all. But now, that kind of attitude, that kind of mindset itself is an insult to a person’s dignity,” he said. He stressed, “It is treating someone as if they were not an equal human being,” adding, “The very idea of treating someone as an object or a means must now be gone.”
“I’m saying this because there have recently been quite a few such incidents,” Lee said. “In the old days there were no such problems, but these days it won’t do. These days it becomes a serious matter.” He added, “For the sake of your own life, and for the happy lives of your families — it may seem trivial to you, but the world doesn’t see it that way.” He went on, “It is a cruelly serious problem. Whether I treat someone as an equal human subject, or speak of them as beneath me, or as a means or an object — there is a very fundamental difference.”
“If it is expressed in any form, it becomes a serious problem,” Lee said. “I offer this as a recommendation that we must change our very way of thinking.” Earlier, in October last year, a female firefighter with the rank of fire sergeant belonging to Gwangsan Fire Station in Gwangju was found dead in South Jeolla Province. An investigation by the Office for Government Policy Coordination found that during her lifetime she had suffered frequent coercion to attend drinking sessions at work and workplace harassment. The investigation found that her superiors had forced her to drink at company gatherings.
Meanwhile, after conducting the second round of briefings for economic ministries over about two hours and 40 minutes, Lee made a surprise visit to the Chunchugwan press center and spent time engaging with reporters.