[Full Text] President Yoon Suk-yeol's 2024 New Year's Address: "We Will Be an Active Government"

President Yoon Suk-yeol stated in his New Year's address on January 1, 2024, "The center of all state affairs is the people," and emphasized, "We will be a government that acts to solve problems, not just one that only reviews them." In particular, President Yoon stressed that for reforms benefiting the people, "We will definitely dismantle the factional cartels based on their own vested interests and ideologies," and added, "True reforms for the people are impossible without fighting against corrupt factional cartels."

On the morning of January 1st, New Year's Day, a citizen is watching President Yoon Suk-yeol's 2024 New Year's address broadcast in the waiting room of Seoul Station.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

The following is the full text of President Yoon's New Year's address.

Dear respected citizens and 7 million overseas Koreans, the year of the Blue Dragon, Gapjin year, has dawned. Happy New Year.

What hopes did you hold as you greeted the first morning of 2024?

While everyone’s wishes may differ, I believe we all share the hope for a better year than the last.

My government and I feel the same. In the new year, we will do our utmost to improve the lives of all our people and enable the Republic of Korea to leap forward once again.

Looking back, 2023 was a very difficult and challenging year. The economic environment both domestically and internationally was tough, and geopolitical conflicts continued. High interest rates, high prices, and high oil prices slowed the pace of our economic recovery, causing significant hardships for the people.

Dear citizens, how hard was it for you?

Every time I met you in the field and heard your difficulties firsthand, I felt a heavy sense of responsibility as president.

We did our best to care for the people’s livelihood and revive the economy, but I always felt it was insufficient and regrettable.

However, even in such difficult circumstances, our people showed greater strength.

Last year, most countries experienced ‘stagflation’ with high inflation and economic downturn. Especially, countries heavily dependent on specific nations, those that failed in energy transition policies, and those unable to adapt to the deepening digital era faced severe economic difficulties.

Amid this global complex crisis, our country was able to lay the foundation for a rapid leap forward thanks to

the sweat and efforts of our people and entrepreneurs. I deeply thank the citizens and businesspeople who trusted the government and worked together.

Dear respected citizens,

Amid the global complex crisis, our government has placed the people’s livelihood at the center of state affairs and made every effort. We secured fiscal capacity by adhering to sound fiscal principles while controlling inflation and maintaining national creditworthiness.

We normalized the real estate market by abolishing regulations that distorted the market, ensuring it operates according to economic principles rather than politics or ideology. In particular, we eased the burden of property taxes to reduce citizens’ financial load.

We provided world-class incentives for national strategic technologies including semiconductors, lowered corporate taxes to increase companies’ capacity for employment and investment, designated 15 national advanced industrial complexes and 7 specialized advanced strategic industrial complexes, and fostered industries and opened markets by abolishing killer regulations that did not meet global standards.

The year 2024 will be a critical turning point for Korea’s leap forward. Above all, as global trade recovers, the overall vitality of our economy will improve, and export growth will lead economic recovery and growth. Inflation will also stabilize further.

We will do our best to ensure that the warmth of economic recovery reaches vulnerable groups and socially disadvantaged people. In particular, the government and financial sector will join forces to reduce the financial burden on small business owners and self-employed individuals.

Risks that could threaten our economy, such as real estate project financing and household debt, were well managed last year and will continue to be strictly managed. In the new year, we will increase housing supply within cities so that people do not have to move to the outskirts to find new homes. We will especially review redevelopment and reconstruction procedures from the ground up to accelerate projects and expand the supply of small housing suitable for one- or two-person households.

To support economic vitality, we will continuously abolish killer regulations that hinder corporate investment and provide detailed support for advanced industries so that companies can freely exercise creativity and innovation.

Economic diplomacy and sales diplomacy are directly linked to creating jobs for our people. Since taking office, I have held 151 meetings with leaders of 96 countries, expanding the playing field so that our companies and citizens can fully demonstrate their capabilities.

We will devote all our efforts to job diplomacy in the new year as well.

Despite challenging domestic and international conditions last year, maintaining market economy principles and sound fiscal policies based on private sector vitality resulted in the highest employment rate and lowest unemployment rate ever recorded since statistics began. The employment rate of young people in their late 20s, a key employment age group, averaged 72.3% from January to November last year, marking an all-time high. Our efforts and achievements are highly regarded overseas as well.

The Economist, a globally authoritative economic magazine, comprehensively evaluated our economy and ranked Korea 2nd among 35 OECD countries.

This year, we will make it a year of livelihood recovery where economic achievements and the warmth of economic recovery reach every corner of the lives of our people.

Since its inception, the government has consistently eradicated corruption and illegality such as vested interest cartels, misuse of government subsidies, and monopolistic harms in specific industries. This year, we will continue efforts to expand citizens’ freedoms, improve welfare, and create a fair society. We will definitely dismantle factional cartels based on their own vested interests and ideologies. We will ensure that all citizens enjoy fair opportunities. Because true reforms for the people are impossible without fighting corrupt factional cartels.

Please watch over the government’s reform efforts this year and offer your interest and encouragement.

Dear respected citizens, for the economy to grow sustainably, structural potential capacity must be increased. Especially, in a situation where potential capacity continues to decline due to low birth rates, structural reforms must raise productivity across society for livelihoods to revive and the economy to grow sustainably.

The three major structural reforms in labor, education, and pensions must be pursued unwaveringly. First, labor reform will support growth and job creation. The starting point of labor reform is the rule of law in labor relations. Labor movements within the law will be firmly guaranteed, but illegal acts will be strictly dealt with regardless of labor or management.

To respond to rapidly changing industrial demands, the labor market must be flexible. A flexible labor market increases corporate investment and creates more jobs. As a result, workers can enjoy richer employment opportunities and better treatment.

We will change the wage system to focus on job content and performance rather than seniority and improve the dual structure of the labor market. Various work styles such as flexible work hours, telecommuting, and hybrid work will be selectable by agreement between labor and management.

People are the future and competitiveness. Education reform is about nurturing talents who will lead our future and enhancing the competitiveness of future generations. The state will take responsibility for providing world-class education and care.

We will ensure children can be safely entrusted from morning to evening at elementary schools to reduce parents’ childcare and private education burdens, and children will enjoy fun and diverse educational programs. We will restore teachers’ authority to normalize education sites and enhance the competitiveness of public education. Handling of school violence will be entrusted to separate experts, not teachers.

We will provide bold financial support to innovative universities to nurture global talents. We will achieve proper pension reform. Pension reform has been neglected by all previous governments.

I promised the people through my presidential campaign pledges and state tasks to lay the foundation for pension reform. To keep that promise, we collected and organized vast data through thorough scientific actuarial analysis, public opinion surveys, and in-depth interviews, and submitted it to the National Assembly at the end of October last year.

Now, only national consensus building and the National Assembly’s choice and decision remain. The government will actively participate in the National Assembly’s public discussion process to help reach national consensus.

Equally important as the three major structural reforms in labor, education, and pensions is solving the low birth rate problem. Since time is limited,

a different level of approach is needed for the causes and measures of Korea’s low birth rate than before.

We must coldly identify the causes of low birth rates and find effective measures. Excellent education, care, welfare, housing, and employment policies may help solve the low birth rate problem but are not fundamental solutions, as we all know from over 20 years of experience.

Also, improving unnecessary excessive competition in our society, pointed out as a cause of low birth rates, is very important. To this end, we will firmly pursue the government’s important national goal of balanced regional development policy.

Dear respected citizens, since its inception, the government has fully restored the Korea-US alliance, the central axis of our diplomacy, and expanded it into a global comprehensive strategic alliance.

We normalized the neglected Korea-Japan relationship and resumed Korea-Japan shuttle diplomacy after 12 years. Using this as a stepping stone, we established a trilateral cooperation system among Korea, the US, and Japan at Camp David, leading peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region. Following the Korea-US Washington Declaration, we established the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) and newly built a Korea-US military alliance based on nuclear capabilities.

The Republic of Korea is firmly establishing true and lasting peace through strength, not submissive peace relying on the goodwill of others. Strong security will support free economic activities and worry-free daily life.

We will accelerate building the Korean-style three-axis system to counter North Korea’s nuclear missile threats. By the first half of this year, we will complete the enhanced Korea-US extended deterrence system to completely block North Korea’s nuclear missile threats.

We will transform our military into a science and technology-strong force based on artificial intelligence, unmanned-manned combined combat systems, and advanced science technology. At the same time, we will create a cyber environment that citizens can trust and protect key national institutions and critical private facilities from various cyber threats, including those from North Korea, without gaps.

On this solid security foundation, we will build a dense global economic security network and firmly establish response capabilities against supply chain disruptions of minerals, materials, and components directly related to core industries and livelihoods.

Since its inception, the government has achieved an average annual defense export performance exceeding 15 billion dollars. We will continue to nurture the defense industry as a national strategic industry, diversify export target countries and items, and elevate Korea to one of the top four defense export powers by 2027.

Recently, a prestigious American political commentary media evaluated that no country in the world has raised its international role and status as much as Korea in the past two years. Especially, as a key democracy in Northeast Asia, Korea is playing a leading role in security, economy, and culture from the Indo-Pacific region to the Atlantic.

Our government will continue to realize the vision of a global pivotal country that fulfills its responsibilities and contributions in the international community.

Dear respected citizens,

As the new year begins, I reread my inaugural address. I have worked tirelessly to keep promises to the people, but there is still much to do. In the new year, I will run with renewed determination and all my strength. Above all, I will enter the field of people’s livelihood, listen to even the smallest voices, and implement genuine livelihood policies that change the lives of the people.

The center of all state affairs is the people. We will be a government that acts to solve problems, not just one that only reviews them. For our future and our children, if someone must do it someday, I will do it now. In the new year, I hope all citizens achieve what they desire, and my government and I will do our best.

Thank you.