President Lee Jae-myung said he cannot accept arguments that Cabinet meetings should be closed entirely, signaling he will keep the current practice of broadcasting the sessions live. He also denied reports that some Cabinet members had asked for the scope of the live coverage to be narrowed, citing constraints on their remarks. Still, unease persists among government officials, who say it is difficult to voice disagreement with the president during a live broadcast and that off-the-cuff instructions can lead to policy confusion.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, titled "On the controversy over disclosing Cabinet meetings," Lee said on the 16th that he deeply regrets "false claims that opening up Cabinet meetings is silencing Cabinet members." The post was a rebuttal to a report a day earlier that about a dozen ministers had gathered opinions calling for a narrower scope of the live broadcasts and asked Prime Minister Han Seong-sook to convey them to Lee.
Lee first denied that such a request had been made at all. "Apart from one minister saying at a dinner hosted by the prime minister that the disclosure of Cabinet meetings is difficult, reports that there was a request not to make them public, or anything about social media, appear not to be true," he said.
He also said claims that Cabinet members cannot speak freely because the meetings are broadcast live do not match the facts. "There is always a closed-door session that follows, so anything that cannot be said in public can be said there," Lee said. "If there is something that is hard to say even in the closed session, I have been encouraging them to call or send a message individually, and they can say as much as they want at individual lunches or meetings." He dismissed the argument that "people cannot speak because the meeting is public" as "a wish of those who want to block the disclosure of the meetings."
He also addressed his pointed questioning during the broadcasts. "As the minister in charge, it is only natural to know your own work like the back of your hand," Lee said. "Since you may not know detailed figures, I have said repeatedly that it is fine to say you do not know what you do not know." Responding to a user who asked under his post whether such remarks were appropriate from someone who "attacks those who offer criticism by branding them as irresponsible extremists," Lee pushed back, saying it is "not desirable to mislead the public with forced arguments based on falsehoods for private gain."
Despite Lee's lengthy post, the view that the live broadcasts are problematic runs deep among government officials. "It is not easy to push back when the president happens to say something that is wrong," one senior official said, suggesting that whether a session is broadcast live could be adjusted more flexibly depending on the topic. Another senior official said, "The burden for civil servants is less the live broadcast itself than the fact that the public takes at face value the remarks the president suddenly throws out without prior coordination."
Criticism that instructions the president gives on the spot lead to policy confusion has been raised repeatedly. One prominent example involves lowering the age threshold for juvenile offenders exempt from criminal punishment. In July this year, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family reported a plan to lower the upper age limit by one year, from under 14 to under 13, for violent, serious and repeat offenses. Lee called the plan "far too weak" at the time and ordered further discussion. But the plan already reflected the results of a public deliberation survey the ministry had conducted with a citizens' participation panel.
A review of insurance coverage for hair-loss drugs is a similar case. At a policy briefing last December, Lee instructed the Ministry of Health and Welfare to consider covering hair-loss treatment under the national health insurance, saying, "Hair loss used to be seen as a cosmetic issue, but these days it is a matter of survival." That drew criticism that it could deepen concerns about the depletion of health insurance finances.
Even so, the presidential office and the government stressed their determination to stick with the live broadcasts. Prime Minister Han Seong-sook said on X the same day that she deeply regrets "that reporting is being done and spread without accurate verification of the facts," referring to the report that some ministers had asked for the broadcasts to be scaled back. She defended the practice, saying that "broadcasting Cabinet meetings live is intended to transparently disclose the conduct of state affairs to the public and to actively reflect public opinion in government policy."
Sung Ki-hong, senior presidential secretary for public relations and communication, also said in a media interview that "the live broadcast itself is a principle" and that it "is not an obstacle to free debate."