President Lee Jae-myung returned home on the 27th after a seven-day, five-night trip to the United States and Mexico. Lee, who visited the U.S. to attend the United Nations General Assembly, held a summit with President Donald Trump on the 22nd and agreed to continue follow-up discussions on nuclear submarine fuel, uranium enrichment and reprocessing, and shipbuilding cooperation, all of which were agreed upon last November. During the first state visit to Mexico in 16 years, the two sides concluded negotiations to revise their investment protection agreement, talks that had dragged on for seven years. With the groundwork laid for economic and advanced-industry cooperation between the two countries, what remains is translating these agreements into actual investment results.
A pile of domestic policy issues awaits Lee. A reshuffle of the presidential office staff is urgent, including whether to accept the resignation of Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik and the selection of a successor to former Policy Chief Kim Yong-beom. The conflict that erupted during the trip — when Supreme Court Chief Justice Jo Hee-de refused to renominate a Supreme Court justice candidate, prompting a rebuttal from the presidential office — also remains unresolved. In addition, with the revised Criminal Procedure Act taking effect on the 2nd of next month, the prosecution service's investigative authority will be abolished after 78 years, raising serious concerns about a gap in investigative authority. The confirmation hearing process for Kim Ji-yong, the nominee to head the newly created Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, has been delayed, and the search for a new justice minister must begin again. If the new criminal justice system launches without adequate preparation, the public could end up bearing the damage.
Conditions in the real economy, including housing, are even more severe. The average jeonse (lump-sum deposit lease) price for a Seoul apartment last month was 636.62 million won, up about 82.68 million won, or 14.9%, from two years earlier. Amid a shortage of jeonse listings, units of the most common size — 84 square meters of exclusive floor area — are trading at around 1 billion won even outside the Gangnam area. Forecasts for economic growth in the 3% range continue on the strength of semiconductor exports, but low- and middle-income households and small and medium-sized businesses are being squeezed by high prices and high interest rates.
Lee must devote all his efforts to resolving the domestic issues in front of him. Without stable governance to back them up, the achievements of the overseas trip will inevitably fade. In a Gallup Korea survey just before the Chuseok holiday, 37% of respondents approved of Lee's performance in office, while 56% disapproved. Among reasons for disapproval, housing policy was cited most often at 20%, followed by personnel appointments at 16%. He would do well to remember that genuine results in governance depend on the ability to appoint competent, qualified people and to resolve pressing issues in the economy and daily life.
