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President Lee Jae Myung presides over a Cupboard assembly held on the presidential workplace in Seoul on Nov. 11, 2025. (Yonhap)
President Lee Jae Myung ordered Korean authorities companies to aggressively crack down on hate speech, instructing the Justice Ministry and related authorities departments to pursue the modification of the nation’s prison code to that finish.
“Inside our society, there may be anachronistic discrimination and hatred towards sure individuals of sure races, origin and nationality,” Lee stated throughout a Cupboard assembly on the presidential workplace in Seoul’s Yongsan District on Tuesday.
“We have to dedicate all our vitality to shortly making a disciplinary framework to crack down on hate speech and to strictly punish and root out all faux information dissemination at its supply,” he added.
The orders seem as a follow-up to feedback Lee made throughout a Cupboard assembly on Sept. 9, when he addressed the rise of Sinophobic rallies within the nation.
“That’s not freedom of speech. That’s simply rabble-rousing,” he stated on the time, calling for authorities to aggressively reply to rallies and protests that fan hatred.
After that September assembly, Prime Minister Kim Min-seok ordered police to carefully monitor rallies and protests, authorizing them to invoke the Meeting and Demonstration Act and the Act on the Efficiency of Duties by Police Officers if obligatory when responding forcefully.
Tuesday’s Cupboard assembly additionally concerned discussions of laws designed to forestall hate speech.
Justice Minister Jung Sung-ho proposed amending the Meeting and Demonstration Act because the quickest and handiest technique to curb the hate speech and obscenities proliferating at rallies.
Lee urged that the related authorities “act shortly” and discuss with legislative precedents from Germany and different nations in regard to amendments to meeting laws and the prison code.
“If we do amend the Felony Act, we should always take the chance to assessment abolishing the crime of defamation by factual assertion. If defamation does happen by means of factual statements, it must be a civil case. It shouldn’t be a prison offense,” the president stated.
Tschoe Dong-seok, the minister of personnel administration, stated that, no matter prison punishment, he would “maintain civil servants who use hate speech sternly accountable, relying on the severity of their statements.”
“That appears completely obligatory. Get on it instantly,” Lee responded.
“Lately, the pinnacle of 1 establishment made feedback about ‘white faces’ and ‘darkish faces,’ which is unacceptable,” Lee stated, referring to Korean Crimson Cross chief Kim Chul-soo, who has expressed intentions to resign amid controversy over earlier racist remarks.
Civic teams applauded Lee’s efforts to root out hate speech, however say that it’s inconceivable to resolve the problem with out enacting a broader anti-discrimination legislation first.
“There are actions to enact laws that will ban hate speech, however I don’t perceive why legislators are pushing the band-aid of hate speech legal guidelines when the elemental measure of an anti-discrimination legislation is already on the desk,” stated Park Dong-chan, the pinnacle of the Third Voice Institute, which has led counterprotests to anti-China rallies occurring in Seoul’s Daerim neighborhood.
An activist generally known as Mong, who’s co-chair of the Coalition for Anti-discrimination Laws, stated, “Earlier than enacting laws that particularly offers with hate speech, we have to lay the groundwork with an anti-discrimination legislation.”
“Anti-hate speech legal guidelines gained’t do something with out an anti-discrimination legislation,” they stated.
By Shin Hyeong-cheol, workers reporter
Please direct questions or feedback to [english@hani.co.kr]
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