President Lee makes surprise visit to Sachang Market in Cheongju, calls 1,000-won hotteok “a welcome price”

[The Financial News] President Lee Jae-myung visited Sachang Market in Cheongju on the afternoon of the 13th to assess the vitality of everyday economic life and spent time in candid conversation with local residents and merchants.
Jeon Eun-soo, Deputy Spokesperson for Cheong Wa Dae, announced this in a written briefing the same day.
Sachang Market in Cheongju is a historic marketplace whose origins trace back to the Joseon Dynasty, when it was used to store grain. Since taking on the form of a modern market in the 1980s, it has served as a comprehensive market and a central hub of the local economy.
Guided by the head of the market merchants association, President Lee toured various parts of the market and warmly greeted shoppers. Citizens visiting Sachang Market welcomed the president with loud applause and cheers, and merchants expressed their delight, saying he was “the first president to visit Sachang Market.” They held President Lee’s hand and offered words of encouragement such as “Please make this country an even better place to live” and “Please take good care of your health while you work,” and some shared warm hugs with him.
President Lee then stopped by a tofu shop in the market, where he carefully observed the process of making tofu from domestically grown soybeans. Sitting side by side on a wooden platform inside the shop with the head of the merchants association and the shop-owning couple, he sampled freshly made tofu and chatted with them. When President Lee asked which was more popular, tofu made from domestic soybeans or imported ones, the owner replied, “Tofu made from domestic soybeans is nearly twice as expensive, but far more customers choose our locally grown produce.”
According to the Deputy Spokesperson, President Lee also tried the market’s famous 1,000-won hotteok, smiling as he remarked that it was “a welcome price I haven’t seen in a long time.”
Merchants additionally requested that, in line with the growing use of the Onnuri Gift Certificate, the Digital Onnuri Gift Certificate be further promoted so it can inject new energy into traditional markets. In response, President Lee expressed his deep affection for traditional markets and pledged that the government would continue to carefully review ways to provide practical support that merchants can truly feel.
On the same day, President Lee also visited a restaurant inside the market, where he shared a simple and homely lunch of barley rice, fresh young radish kimchi, doenjang stew, and grilled mackerel.

cjk@fnnews.com Reporter Choi Jong-geun Reporter