781 People Who Refused Orders Under Yoon Suk Yeol Later Accepted Them Under Lee Jae Myung

According to The Financial News, more than 700 public officials, teachers, and military personnel who had declined to receive state decorations under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration have been decorated again under the Lee Jae Myung administration.

According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, from May 2022, when the Yoon Suk Yeol administration took office, until May 2025, just before the launch of the Lee Jae Myung administration, a total of 7,273 retired public officials who were eligible for government commendations did not submit consent forms and were classified as non-consenting candidates. In other words, more than 7,000 people chose not to submit consent and effectively gave up their awards under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration.
By occupation, teachers accounted for the largest share at 5,877, followed by 1,344 general public officials and 52 military personnel and civilian employees of the armed forces. Among them, 781 people were later found to have received orders again after screening, once the Lee Jae Myung administration took office.
The government confers state decorations on public servants who have served for a certain minimum period and whose records show no serious blemishes, timing the awards to coincide with their retirement. However, even if their agencies recommend them, the process cannot move forward without the candidates’ consent.
Before publicly disclosing a candidate’s name and achievements, the recommending agency must obtain a signed "Consent Form for Government Commendation" from the candidate. If the candidate does not submit this consent at that stage, they are classified as having not given consent and are excluded from the list of award recipients.
Some of those who refused decorations during the Yoon Suk Yeol administration are known to have done so because they objected to having the president’s name printed on the certificate. In 2022, as he approached mandatory retirement, Dongguk University professor Lee Cheol-gi refused a government commendation, saying, "I have no desire to receive an award in the name of the new president, Yoon Suk Yeol." In 2024, Incheon National University professor Kim Cheolhong also declined to apply for a government commendation, stating he did not want to receive an award "from a president who lacks the value and qualifications to properly represent the country."
In response, President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea instructed Minister of the Interior and Safety Yun Ho-jung at a State Council of South Korea meeting on July 29 last year to "conduct a full review of all cases in which people refused to receive orders during the Yoon Suk Yeol administration and examine whether they can be decorated again." Following this directive, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) sent official notices to each ministry between August and September last year, asking them to identify, among those who had not consented to awards under the previous administration, anyone who now wished to receive decorations.

The survey found that among the 5,877 teachers who had not agreed to receive awards, 1,057 expressed a desire to be decorated this time. Among general public officials, 172 out of 1,344 said they now wished to receive awards, and among military personnel and civilian employees of the armed forces, 18 out of 52 said they wanted to be decorated again.
However, not everyone who expressed this wish ultimately received an order. MOIS reviewed the applicants to see whether they met any exclusion criteria for government commendations, such as disciplinary records or ongoing criminal proceedings. During this process, 394 of the 1,057 teacher applicants were excluded due to disqualifying factors, failure to submit documents, or withdrawal of their own request. In the end, 663 teachers received orders at the end of last month.
Among general public officials, 107 people were decorated again, and among military personnel and civilian employees, 11 received awards. Their new decorations were conferred at the time of their mandatory retirement in December last year. A MOIS official explained, "This round of re-awarding was carried out by conducting a full survey of those who had not consented to retirement commendations under the previous administration, reconfirming whether they now wished to receive them, and then following the procedures set out in the relevant regulations," adding, "All those who were decorated again are retirees; no current public officials were included."
The official added, "However, the fact that someone did not consent to a government commendation does not necessarily mean they were explicitly refusing the award," noting that, "Some simply indicated a lukewarm stance, along the lines of 'I do not particularly feel the need to receive it.'"
bng@fnnews.com Kim Hee-sun Reporter