President Lee: "If reforms move too fast, they will face a backlash"... Targeting Rhyu Si-min?
- Input
- 2026-09-25 10:42:45
- Updated
- 2026-09-25 10:42:45

At a dinner meeting with Korean residents held in Mexico City that day, President Lee explained the difficulties of pursuing reforms, saying, "I once mentioned the French Revolution, and when a situation becomes revolutionary, there is a tendency to go overboard."
He continued, "We should exercise appropriate restraint on the path we have been following, but when we think the situation has changed, we end up charging ahead even faster. We are unable to restrain ourselves. We go too far, too fast, and too urgently, only to face a backlash."
In this context, President Lee brought up the debate over abolishing the National Security Act during the Roh Moo-hyun administration. He said, "In the past, there were books designated as banned books, with people searching homes and saying, 'You must not read this.' People were punished merely for possessing them. But those provisions of the law are still in force. The National Security Act."
He continued, "But there was an opportunity to get rid of it. The ruling and opposition parties reached an agreement, saying, 'Let's abolish this. Since abolishing the National Security Act in its entirety would be too much, let's at least delete several of these toxic provisions.' The parties had nearly reached an agreement. But someone suddenly began opposing it. 'We should abolish it; where in the world does it make sense to abolish only half of it?' It sounds good."
President Lee explained, "So because the other side opposed it, saying, 'The National Security Act cannot be abolished in its entirety,' it ultimately could not be done."
Some interpreted the remarks as targeting writer Rhyu Si-min, who strongly advocated abolishing the National Security Act at the time. The remarks have drawn attention because Cheong Wa Dae criticized Rhyu's recent comments the previous day, saying, "We regret that the president's commitment to prosecutorial reform is being distorted in a way that does not reflect the facts."
President Lee said, "So that provision remains in force, and recently someone was subjected to a search and seizure because of it. Similar situations still occur today. People make excessive claims to demonstrate how uncompromising they are." He added, "It may look impressive because it is so unequivocal, but it is not easy to produce good results in practice."
[email protected] Choi Jong-geun Reporter