President Lee Jae-myung reaffirmed on the 27th that the heads of investigative agencies, including the Major Crimes Investigation Agency and the Public Prosecution Agency, should attend Cabinet meetings, despite controversy over the practice. He maintained that the arrangement amounts to "normalizing the abnormal" by correcting a past practice of treating investigative bodies as a special case. He did allow flexibility on how often they attend, however, saying they "don't have to come if they're busy."
At the Cabinet meeting held at the Blue House that day, Lee said that "under the Constitution and the law, all central administrative agencies are subject to the direct direction and supervision of the president," and asked, "What does attending a public meeting have to do with political neutrality?" He added that it is "better to share things in an open setting — doing it separately is stranger."
The remarks made clear that he will not withdraw the attendance policy despite concerns that it could undermine the political neutrality of investigative agencies. Kim Ji-yong, head of the Major Crimes Investigation Agency, attended the meeting for the second time since taking office. Lee Jung-hyun, acting prosecutor general and deputy chief prosecutor of the Public Prosecution Agency, and Kim Jong-cheol, acting commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency, also attended.
Noting that the newly established Major Crimes Investigation Agency is still short of staff and facilities, Lee said, "You don't have to come if it isn't really necessary." Still, he added, "Come about once a month." He also called for fairness in investigations, saying it is "important to thoroughly eliminate the notion that the rich go free while the poor go to prison."
Turning to the large-scale protests in European countries, Lee pointed to low growth as the root cause. "We should take Europe's situation as a cautionary lesson," he said, stressing that the country "should use its expanded fiscal capacity to increase investment in advanced industries and nurture domestic demand." On expanding housing supply, he emphasized the need to revive a sluggish construction sector, saying the government "should consider fiscal support as well as credit support."
To stamp out bid-rigging in public procurement, he called for raising bid bonds on small contracts to at least 10% of the bid amount and ordered a full review of all cases, "even if it means hiring short-term staff." He also called for a sharp increase in staff handling delinquent local taxes, saying "local governments need at least 10,000 people."
He proposed subsidizing wages for domestic workers during the summer to ease labor shortages in rural areas, asking officials to "look into how much would have to be paid for people to take on farm work." To acting prosecutor general Lee Jung-hyun, he said, "Some even say that if you pull off a fraud worth hundreds of billions of won and serve a few years in prison, you can live much better afterward," and instructed him to review and report on the personnel and budget needed to recover criminal proceeds.
Lee will host senior Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers for dinner at the Blue House on the 28th. All party lawmakers serving a fifth term or more will attend, including six-term Rep. Song Young-gil and five-term Reps. Kim Tae-nyeon, Park Jie-won, Ahn Gyu-back, Woo Won-shik, Yun Ho-jung, Lee In-young, Chung Dong-young and Chung Sung-ho. Lee is expected to stress unity within the governing bloc and hear views on the overall conduct of state affairs.