PPP lawmaker says Lee's press conference fell short of winning back public trust

People Power Party lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun criticized President Lee Jae Myung's press conference held Friday, saying it "fell short of winning back the public trust that has turned away."

Yoon wrote on his Facebook page that while Lee "answered questions on various issues at his Friday press conference, he failed to sufficiently address the public's anxieties and suspicions."

"The most disappointing part was the question of dropping charges," Yoon said. Lee had asked for the removal of provisions in the fabricated-indictment special prosecutor act that would transfer and dispose of existing indicted cases. "It may be a necessary step, but he ultimately did not say what the public actually wanted to hear," Yoon said.

Yoon said Lee could simply have declared, "I will not seek to have the charges dropped. I will stand trial." "Deleting a single clause from the special prosecutor act and stating the president's own position on his trial are entirely different matters," he added.

Yoon also said Lee "reserved judgment" on Kim Seung-won, the nominee for justice minister who has advocated dropping the charges against Lee, saying Lee had "not yet reached a final conclusion." "If he truly intends to put the charge-dropping controversy to rest, there is no reason to leave any room for ambiguity," Yoon said. "The special prosecutor should investigate the truth, and the president should make clear that he will stand trial without any special treatment or exception."

On Lee's remarks about a constitutional amendment allowing consecutive terms, Yoon said that while Lee claimed he had "absolutely no intention of seeking re-election," what the public wants is not his current thinking but an institutional guarantee. "He can simply promise that even if a constitutional amendment introducing consecutive terms is pursued, he will keep the relevant clause as is and not open a path for it to apply to himself," Yoon said. "Cutting off the controversy through the constitution and institutional mechanisms is more definitive than saying he has no such intention."

Yoon also said Lee "consistently blamed others for the real estate problem," arguing that Lee attributed the housing supply shortage to a decline in permits and ground-breakings since the Yoon Suk Yeol administration and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon took office. "Even if past supply reductions have had an impact, housing problems should be answered not by pointing fingers but with concrete supply figures and timelines," he said.

On the jeonse issue, Yoon said Lee emphasized a distinction in his words — claiming he had never said jeonse "should disappear," only that it "would disappear." "What the public wants to hear is not a clarification of wording but how the government plans to respond to the decline in jeonse and the rising burden of monthly rent," Yoon said.

He said the same applied to diplomacy and security. "The troop deployment question is a critical matter involving the South Korea-US alliance, public safety and energy security," Yoon said. "It should no longer be left vague — the president must clearly explain what he intends to do and to what extent."

"From personnel and judicial affairs to diplomacy, security and real estate, what the public demands is not rhetorical skill but accountability," Yoon said. "The banner of reform must not become a shield for power. If the president truly wishes to be president for everyone, he must show the public a willingness to take responsibility and see things through to the end."