'President for all': Lee vows unity

"I will become a president who puts an end to the politics of division. I will overcome the crisis by harnessing national unity as the driving force,” Lee said Wednesday in his inauguration speech in the presence of around 300 attendees, including lawmakers from either side of the aisle, at the Rotunda Hall at the National Assembly.

Clad in a necktie woven with blue and red — the emblematic colours of his own Democratic Party of Korea and its rival conservative People Power Party, respectively — Lee underscored at the pared-down inauguration, “I will become a ‘president for all,’ embracing and serving every citizen.”

“The newly launched Democratic Party's government under Lee Jae-myung will be a just and unified government, as well as a flexible and pragmatic government," Lee said. "Let us consign outdated ideologies to the annals of history."

Lee shed light on his top priority: “We will begin by restoring people’s livelihoods and revitalising the economy,” dedicating a considerable part of his inaugural address to tackling economic challenges and referencing the word “growth” 22 times and “economy” 12 times.

Lee promised to "immediately launch an emergency economic review task force with a resolve to battle the recession head-on." He later ordered to set up the task force in his first executive order on inauguration day, according to presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung during an afternoon briefing. Lee also ordered Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Lee Ju-ho to muster up officials dedicated to the economic contingency plan on Wednesday evening, including working-level civil servants.

In his speech, Lee underscored, "It is time to build a tomorrow where everyone is happy by reviving livelihoods pushed to the edge of the cliff and recovering growth."

To that end, Lee laid out his overriding economic goal: to build a nation that grows and develops vigorously with new growth engines and where everyone prospers together equally.

"As low growth reduces opportunities, only a war remains where you must die for me to live, replacing competition for the sake of coexistence," Lee said.

Highlighting a market-friendly policy, Lee said, “The Lee Jae-myung administration will be a government of pragmatic market principles.”

“It will be a government that supports and encourages, not one that controls and manages,” he added.

Lee pledged to shift regulations toward a negative-list approach — a regulatory framework that prohibits only explicitly listed activities, allowing others to "ensure creative and proactive business activities."

At the same time, Lee warned he would never tolerate those who threaten people’s lives and safety, violate workers’ legitimate rights, oppress the vulnerable unfairly or disrupt market order through unfair acts and trades.

On the diplomatic front, Lee ventured, “We will expand the Republic of Korea’s economic territory by broadening the horizons of diplomacy and enhancing international standing,” referring to South Korea by its official name.

Lee further highlighted the salience of “pragmatic diplomacy centred on national interests” to “turn the crisis of a major transformation in the global economic and security environment into an opportunity to maximise national interests.”

The president reaffirmed his approach to relations with neighbouring countries, including China and Russia, “from the perspective of national interest and pragmatism,” while emphasising the Korea-US alliance as the cornerstone of foreign policy.

“Democracy” and “peace” were also key themes, as Lee was elected following disgraced former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s Dec. 3 botched martial law declaration, which the Constitutional Court ruled as an act overstepping constitutional powers.

“It is time to rebuild security and peace, which have been reduced to tools of political strife; people’s livelihoods and the economy, which have collapsed due to indifference, incompetence and irresponsibility; and democracy, which has been shattered by armoured vehicles and automatic rifles,” Lee said.

Vocally denouncing Yoon’s martial law decree as “insurrection that usurps popular sovereignty with the sword and gun entrusted by the people,” Lee pledged that such actions would never recur again.

“We will hold appropriate responsibility through thorough fact-finding and firmly establish measures to prevent a recurrence.”

On Day 1

Lee's presidential term officially took effect at 6:21 a.m. Wednesday, upon the National Election Committee's declaration of Lee's victory in the presidential election. Lee received 17.28 million votes, the most for any candidate in South Korea's democratic history.

Under ordinary conditions, a president-elect would be afforded a two-month transition period before inauguration. However, Lee took the oath of office just a day after the presidential election without any transition period, because Tuesday's election was a by-election necessitated by Yoon's removal from office.

At around 8:07 a.m. Wednesday, Lee held phone talks with Adm. Kim Myung-soo, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who briefed Lee about the transfer of military command, as Lee became commander-in-chief with his electoral victory.

Lee stressed the importance of an “airtight military readiness posture” to monitor developments in North Korea, while expressing gratitude to South Korean soldiers for their restraint in the face of unjust orders issued by former President Yoon during his martial law declaration, according to Lee’s office.

Departing his home in Incheon at around 9:30 a.m., Lee visited the Seoul National Cemetery at 10:10 a.m. to pay respects in flower-laying and incense-burning ceremonies.

"The world in which we live together," Lee wrote in the visitors' book at the Seoul National Cemetery. "I will make a country where people have the power to govern, a country where people are happy, together with people."

Later in the morning, just before Lee delivered his acceptance speech, he offered his resignation from his position as a lawmaker upon arrival at the National Assembly in Seoul. National Assembly Speaker Rep. Woo Won-shik said that he "happily accepted (Lee's) resignation" in a Facebook post.

After giving his inaugural speech, Lee had bibimbap for lunch at the Assembly with leaders of political parties, then moved to the presidential office in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, where Yoon had relocated the office from Cheong Wa Dae, which had been the presidential office and residence for decades, three years ago.

Lee entered the office six hours after flags with the presidential seal were raised for the first time in two months. There, Lee announced his nominations for the first batch of key positions in the government and the presidential secretariat.

Later in the day, Lee inspected the military readiness posture by visiting the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s command and control centre at around 2:30 p.m., located directly across from the presidential office within the Defence Ministry compound.

The first day as president had begun a few hours after Lee gave a victory speech before dawn on Wednesday. Speaking to cheering supporters, he said he would tackle the aftermath of Yoon's martial law and the economic downturn, while pledging the peaceful coexistence of the two Koreas and national unity in South Korea.

"Since the night of the Dec. 3 insurrection until now ... I tried to prove that all power exercised by the president comes from the people ... not for the personal benefit of the president," Lee said, soon after major television networks called the presidential race in his favour late Tuesday night. "Now, after six months have passed, you have finally proven with your vote that we hold the political power in this country."

Ji Da-gyum

Son Ji-hyoung

The Korea Herald

Asia News Network