Yongin mayor echoes Lee Jae Myung's SNS politics playbook

President Lee Jae Myung built his political brand on SNS engagement during his time as Seongnam mayor. Refining an approach he learned from the late Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, Lee drew wide public support by turning social media into a direct channel for constituent services. When a citizen posted a complaint on his Facebook page, he would immediately instruct the relevant civil servant to address it — and required that the outcome be posted on the same page. More than 5,000 Seongnam city civil servants had little choice but to monitor the mayor's Facebook feed, weekends included. His insistence that civil servants exist to serve citizens, and that citizens are the true owners of government, became recognized as the first "citizen sovereignty" doctrine by a local government head in the country. That, he argued, was what real politics looked like.

Now People Power Party Yongin Mayor Lee Sang-il has drawn attention by launching his own brand of SNS politics.

On Thursday morning, Lee visited the intersection near the Korea Folk Village entrance in Bora-dong, Giheung-gu, for an on-site inspection.

The visit came after a citizen reached out to Lee through SNS asking for help with a stretch of road that repeatedly floods.

The section running from Bora Bridge intersection to the Korea Folk Village entrance intersection sits at a relative low point — the surrounding road level rose during construction of an underpass on Provincial Road 315, leaving this stretch prone to flooding during heavy downpours.

Heavy rain that lashed the Yongin area Tuesday and Wednesday submerged part of the road.

"Every time it rains, the road floods and water rises high enough to swallow car tires, making it dangerous to drive and threatening the safety of pedestrians as well," a citizen wrote on SNS. "Please put in place a fundamental solution."

After seeing the post, Lee visited the scene Thursday to assess conditions firsthand and ordered officials from the Giheung District Office and other relevant departments to draw up improvement measures.

Giheung-gu has already installed additional storm drains on the affected road as an immediate step. Officials plan to conduct a detailed analysis of the flooding causes and improve the drainage system, including expanding public sewer lines.