President Lee Jae-myung urged citizens to take active part in reform, saying that "reform also needs momentum, and that momentum comes from the people." He stressed that leaving a comment that spreads hidden truths or clicking "like" on someone else's post also counts as an important act of reform.
Lee made the remarks on the 27th in a post on X, formerly Twitter, titled "Participation and Small Actions Create a World of Reform," writing that "building a better world is something we must take on ourselves, and something we are fully capable of taking on."
"Democracy is neither created on its own nor defended on its own," Lee wrote. "Reform that builds a better world does not happen on its own either."
He added, "Impeaching an anti-people president and electing a new one does not automatically bring about the reform that creates a new world." He argued that "impeachment only stopped regression and collapse, and electing a new president is not the end of reform but barely its beginning."
Lee also said that "sustained reform is possible only when the will to reform is not distorted, when reform is not abused for private gain, when the results of reform are properly communicated to the people, and when the work of reform is carried out with the people and with their support." He argued that "it is hard to expect those who use reform as a means of pursuing private gain, or groups that stand to lose vested interests through reform, to help reform or to back those driving it."
"Just as we have forged ahead ourselves, we must forge ahead ourselves," he continued. He said that "in daily life, through comments, messages, phone calls and social media posts, spreading the hidden truths and facts that the press ignores and YouTubers manipulate — and even clicking 'like' once on someone else's post or news comment — is a necessary and important action at that moment for building the world we wanted."
Lee called for responding to "lies, abusive language and smears with confidence, but with dignified and reasonable criticism." He said that "paying them back in kind may feel satisfying, but it carries no persuasive power and only invites being lumped together as 'the same kind of person.'"
He added that "there are also forces that deliberately try to draw us into a gutter fight," saying, "Let us take the high road even if they stoop low, so that they come to feel ashamed themselves and so that the people watching can judge."
Lee said, "Through the "revolution of light" — the candlelit mass protests that led to the impeachment of the previous president — we dreamed of a new world, and I have become the Republic of Korea's chief public servant, responsible for turning that dream into reality." He pledged to "devote everything to making that dream real by making the fullest use of the authority entrusted to me."
