President Lee: "You Should Not Judge Stock and Housing Prices on the Same Basis... It Is Wrong for Social Leaders to Agitate"

Order to expand rewards and praise for high-performing public officials
On prosecution’s crackdown on livelihood-related crimes: "You have done really well"

On February 3, President Lee Jaemyung said, "Stock prices and housing prices are somewhat different," adding, "You should not judge housing prices and stock prices on the same basis." Referring to the sharp drop in the KOSPI the previous day, he also pointed out, "There are people who like it. I do not know why they do that."

Yonhap News Agency

At a Cabinet meeting held at the presidential office, President Lee stated, "Stock prices help corporate activities. When stock prices rise, there is no one who suffers damage, whereas when housing prices rise, investment assets are tied up in real estate and cannot flow into productive sectors, which distorts the socio-economic structure," adding, "When housing prices rise unfairly, people without homes suffer immensely."

In particular, President Lee said, "If you do not know, you might think that way, but it is not right for someone in a leading position in society to speak like that or to agitate in that way." He went on, "When the social environment improves, it is the role of the community to celebrate, encourage, and join forces to make things go well," criticizing the atmosphere in which people welcome falling stock prices.

President Lee also ordered each ministry to expand rewards and praise for public officials who have delivered results. Referring to a case in which the Ministry of Science and ICT gave special awards to high-performing employees, he said, "Other ministries should do this a lot as well. If possible, do it in a very visible way."

He continued, "If the public sector is too rigid and only scolds people, there are cases where motivation does not come easily," adding, "Society develops when public officials work proactively and actively." He then said, "The most powerful group in our society is the public sector," and added, "If you do nothing beyond your bare obligations, that is absolutely unacceptable."

In relation to a briefing from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, President Lee also mentioned practices that abuse monopolistic or oligopolistic positions to set excessively high prices, identifying them as a factor burdening inflation. Regarding the prosecution's achievements in cracking down on crimes affecting people's livelihoods, he said, "You have done really well," and evaluated the prosecution as "an organization that is originally supposed to do this work and has the capability to do so." He then requested, "I ask you to carry out thorough crackdowns on crimes that affect people's livelihoods."

The previous day, the Fair Trade Investigation Department of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (headed by Senior Prosecutor Na Heeseok) announced that, from September last year to last month, it had conducted intensive investigations into price-fixing cases involving essential consumer goods that disrupted market order and pushed up prices, thereby threatening the livelihoods of ordinary people, and had brought 52 people to trial. The prosecution investigated a collusion case involving flour milling companies that oligopolize the domestic flour market, and indicted without detention 20 people, including the CEOs of six flour milling companies: Daehan Flour Mills, Sajo Dongawon, Samyang Corporation, Daesun Flour Mills, Samhwa Flour Mills, and Hantop.