President Lee Jae-myung said on the 18th that he found it hard to understand why some are pressing him to stop opening Cabinet meetings to the public, "even telling lies that ministers cannot speak because the meetings are open."
Lee made the remarks on X, formerly Twitter, while sharing a YouTube broadcast, saying, "Anyone who has watched an open Cabinet meeting knows this." The broadcast listed cases of ministers debating freely and rebutted a media report that claimed ministers cannot even say "no" during open meetings.
Lee stressed that not only ministers but also agency commissioners, committee chairs and even heads of local governments freely express their views. "I deliberately expanded the number of participants significantly in order to broaden shared understanding of state affairs and to hear a wider range of opinions," he said. He added that "closed sessions follow at every Cabinet meeting without exception," and said it was "hard to understand why there is pressure not to open part of the Cabinet meetings, something the public broadly welcomes."
Lee also said, "I always welcome debate, and I particularly respect those who voice dissenting opinions. I have emphasized that within an organization, the red team function must work properly to prevent problems and accidents."
Lee had made similar remarks on the 16th in a post titled "On the controversy over opening Cabinet meetings," saying, "We are opening part of the Cabinet meetings to the people, who are the sovereign, and I cannot agree with arguments from some quarters that all of it should be closed." He added that he expressed "deep regret over false claims."
Lee also compared direct communication between the public and elected officials to "direct trade" between producers and consumers. "Just as middlemen find direct transactions between producers and consumers inconvenient, there will be many who find direct communication between the people and elected officials inconvenient," he said. "I find it hard to agree with blocking direct trade in order to guarantee distribution margins."
He also stressed, "To hear more opinions and counterarguments and to enable substantive debate, we are amending the presidential decree to increase the number of participants, and the public is directly watching cases where people confidently raise objections to the president's views."
Lee said, "A good friend is one who offers bitter criticism," adding that "if a public official believes another public official has a problem that needs correcting but does not point it out, that is either an evasion of responsibility rooted in self-interest or a betrayal of the public's trust."