Asks senior secretaries to stabilize living conditions

Presidential Spokesperson Lee Dong-kwan made the following remarks in a briefing this afternoon.

President Lee Myung-bak is scheduled to visit Japan from July 8 to 9 to attend the Major Economies Leaders Meeting of the G8 Summit to be held in Toyako, Hokkaido.

President Lee will be the first Korean President to attend the expanded G8 Summit meeting. He was invited by Japan, the chair of the summit this year.

At the meeting, the Korean Head of State is expected to stress the necessity to urgently deal with global climate change. He will also introduce the policy direction of his new Administration intended to turn the crisis of climate change into an opportunity to find new growth engines, thus setting a milestone for green growth.

Now, I will brief you on what was discussed in the senior secretaries’ meeting presided over by the President at Cheong Wa Dae today.

At the meeting, President Lee urged the senior secretaries to find ways to stabilize the everyday lives of ordinary citizens.

The President said, “Ordinary citizens are suffering more now than at any time before because of such problems as high oil prices. The top priority of state affairs should be to solve the problems faced by ordinary people in their day-to-day lives.”

In connection with follow-up measures to be taken after the recent strike by the Korea Cargo Transport Workers Union, the President instructed the participants saying, “You need to step up efforts to come up with fundamental measures to prevent any recurrence of the same problem, rather than reacting to things after they have already happened, just like calling the doctor after the patient has died.”

The following are the major points that were agreed on at the meeting.

Recently, there have been some media reports that the reform-oriented platform of the Administration has shifted to stability. Regarding this issue, the secretaries reached a consensus that the Government needed to set priorities for reform tasks in order to implement them in a consistent and thoroughgoing manner. By doing so, we can avoid becoming overtaxed by pushing ahead with numerous reform tasks all at once. However, they stressed that there must not be any steps backward in the Government reform drive.

With regard to the Government plans to sternly deal with illegal demonstrations, some media organizations and opposition parties charged that the Government is trying to maintain public security by resorting to force. However, the President’s remarks on illegal rallies yesterday should be clearly understood as emphasizing the necessity of distinguishing between lawful demonstrations and illegal and violent ones.

In particular, many people point out that the Government should not sit idly by when unlawful demonstrations undermine public authority, cause inconvenience to the everyday lives of ordinary citizens and do serious harm to small shop owners. Against this backdrop, the President has unveiled his determination to restore law and order to address public apprehension concerning acts of violence and unlawfulness.

In this era of democratization when the rights of assembly and demonstration are fully guaranteed, it doesn’t make any sense to bring up the “maintenance of public safety by force” or “suppression of the public.” Such remarks reflect an obsolete way of thinking dating back to the 1980s.

In conclusion, lawful demonstrations will be protected under all circumstances. Meanwhile, illegal and violent anti-administration or anti-government demonstrations should be stopped.