Kim Min-seok says President Lee frustrated by 'irrational' attacks from within ruling camp

Democratic Party of Korea leader Kim Min-seok said Monday that a social media post by President Lee Jae Myung on Sunday, apparently aimed at critics within the ruling camp, reflected "a general sense of frustration with people expressing poorly reasoned views in inappropriate ways." Kim said the post appeared to capture the president's exasperation at critics who kept shifting their targets and arguments throughout the prosecution reform process and the appointment of the head of the new Serious Crimes Investigation Agency.

Speaking on the YouTube program "Minty07" that morning, Kim addressed the president's post on X, formerly Twitter, in which Lee wrote that while "pure radicalism" was problematic, it was even more troubling when people lacking the ability demanded prominent positions, tried to bend personnel decisions and state policy to their will, and then attacked from within under the banner of principle when they failed to get their way. Kim said "only the president himself would know" whether any specific person or issue was in mind, but offered his interpretation nonetheless.

"The president is broadly a rationalist who places great value on reason," Kim said. "He strongly emphasizes red-team thinking and always keeps the door open to opposition and criticism in debate — I think he is continuing to express his concern about a lack of rationality."

Kim then said, "Looking at everything from the recent prosecution reform push to the appointment process for the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency chief, there have been cases where people kept shifting their targets or changing their logic while criticizing relentlessly. The logic and the targets keep changing, and there have been — and still appear to be — cases of attacking the president and the party leadership."

"I think there is a basic underlying frustration that such behavior is not rational," Kim added. "I think he was expressing his concern about people who use reform only as a pretext."

On the controversy surrounding Im Eun-jeong — which escalated after Ministry of Interior and Safety Minister Yun Ho-jung ordered an internal audit — Kim said those within the ruling party who have something to say "can raise the issue internally through internal channels, and in some cases can convey their views directly to the president." He added that public officials "would do well to focus on their own duties and, if they have something on their mind, express it through appropriate means."

"I think the interior minister was also making the point that his role is not that of a politician," Kim said. "I myself receive an overwhelming number of messages asking why I am staying quiet and why I am letting this go on."

Kim said he had been "communicating in various ways — directly or through people close to the situation — and sending appropriate public messages," and that "many people feel we are reaching a tipping point in those efforts. I think there have already been many such signals in the case of Agency Chief Im as well."

Kim also said the government and ruling party should focus their energy on economic growth and reducing inequality rather than internal conflict.

"Our economy is in a state that could be called 'K-economy' or 'K-growth,'" he said, "but the problem of polarization — in housing, youth employment and jobs — is also very real."

"Driving growth decisively on one hand, and managing the shadows of that growth on the other, is the top priority of state affairs," Kim said. "The government, the ruling party and public officials all need to pull their energy together around that focus. Going beyond the bounds of rational criticism, or doing so in inappropriate ways, does not help in gathering that collective energy."