President Lee: "Those Who Damage the National Interest for Personal Gain Are Traitors... Respect for Universal Human Rights Is Common Sense"

According to The Financial News, President Lee Jae-myung on the 12th sharply criticized, saying, "We call those who damage the national interest for their own selfish gain traitors."
Posting on X (formerly Twitter) the same day, the president wrote, "There are many people who, even while engaging in acts that betray the nation, do not realize that harming the national interest for personal gain is wrong. Or perhaps they do know and still go ahead with it."
The president did not specify exactly which issue he was referring to. However, his remarks were widely seen as a rebuttal after the People Power Party (PPP), the broader opposition bloc, and some media outlets denounced as a "diplomatic disaster" a video of alleged Israeli war crimes that he posted on X on the 10th.
Lee stated, "Even in politics and the media, whose mission is to pursue the public interest, including the national interest, acts that betray the nation are openly committed," adding, "Ultimately, this too is a national task we must tackle together—restoring normalcy where things have gone wrong."
He went on, "The sovereignty of each country and universal human rights must be respected, and wars of aggression must be rejected. That is the spirit of our Constitution and a matter of international common sense," and added, "The idea that you should understand others’ circumstances as if they were your own applies not only to individuals but also to relations between states."
Lee further wrote, "Other people’s lives and property are as precious as my own. Only by showing respect can we expect to be respected."

Earlier, on the 10th, the president posted a video of alleged war crimes by the Israeli military and criticized, "International humanitarian law must be observed under any circumstances, and human dignity must be upheld as a non-negotiable, top priority value."
When the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel publicly pushed back, Lee responded again on the 11th, saying he was "disappointed" that Israel had not taken to heart "the constant criticism from people around the world who suffer and struggle because of its repeated anti-human-rights and anti-international-law actions."
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea also stated, "We find it regrettable that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel misunderstood the intent of the president’s post, which expressed a belief in universal human rights rather than an opinion on a specific issue, and chose to refute it."
cjk@fnnews.com Reporter Choi Jong-geun Reporter