To Those Who Say We Should “Wait and See” President Lee Jae-myung, Six and a Half Months In

2025-12-22 최보식

[Choice Times=Joo-hyun Park, CEO of Jaedam Entertainment ]

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The views expressed below do not represent the position of this publication. They are presented to offer diverse perspectives. (Editor’s note)

When you write columns, you often receive polite admonitions. “The administration has just changed — it wouldn’t hurt to wait a year before criticizing,” people say. At first glance, it sounds reasonable and gentlemanly.

But this argument contains a fatal flaw. We have not just begun experiencing President Lee Jae-myung. In practical terms, we have been living under his influence for nearly four years now, from May 10, 2022, to the present.

Let us revisit the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. There were certainly policy failures under former President Yoon, but to be blunt, he was a “lame-duck president.” From the outset, the opposition held 169 seats in the National Assembly, later approaching 180 — an overwhelming majority controlling both legislation and the budget. Was there even a single Yoon-branded policy, appointment, or budget that passed intact? There was none. The Democratic Party blocked him at every turn, paralyzing state affairs through special prosecutor demands and impeachment threats.

For several years, Korea lived in a distorted arrangement where a “scarecrow in Yongsan” coexisted with the real power holder in Yeouido.

The keys to state affairs were already in the hands of Lee Jae-myung, then party leader. That is why the argument “this is just the beginning, let’s wait and see” misses the point entirely. We have already experienced more than enough of the disorder in a world led by him.

What is even more staggering is his view of the economy.

In 2016, then-Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung wrote the following on social media: “Printing money devalues currency and empties the pockets of the people. It is a form of tax increase on ordinary citizens.”

This was an accurate insight. He clearly understood a basic principle of economics: that excessive money issuance causes inflation, and that the burden ultimately falls on ordinary people without assets. But what about President Lee Jae-myung in 2025? As the country reels from financial instability caused by a surge in money supply, he continues to insist on pumping more liquidity into the system.

The contradiction points to a chilling truth. He is not an “ignorant fool” who does not understand economics. He is a “bad actor” who understands it and proceeds anyway. He knows full well that flooding the economy with money drains the treasury, fuels inflation, and crushes ordinary citizens — yet he sacrifices the economy to maintain short-term approval ratings and votes, and to preserve the power needed to shield himself from legal risks.

Mistakes made out of ignorance can be corrected. But deliberate destruction carried out with full awareness cannot be stopped. For the sake of his own security, he is using and discarding the nation’s economy, security, and freedom like toilet paper.

And people are asking that we grant such a person more time. After just six months, he has driven the exchange rate and the national system to this state. If you give this president more time, can you not calculate what will happen to the country?

What would the Lee Jae-myung of the past say if he were to look at the Lee Jae-myung of today? He would likely point a finger and call him a “technocrat of taxation who empties the pockets of ordinary people.” At least the Lee of 2016 was not brazen. The Lee of 2025 pretends to suffer from amnesia while pulling out the very pillars of the nation. The time for waiting is over. We have already endured far too much.