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Lee Jae-myung, president of South Korea, answers questions from reporters during his 100th-day press conference titled “100 Days for Recovery, Growth for the Future” at the presidential guesthouse in Seoul on September 11. / Source: Yonhap

At his 100th-day press conference on September 11, President Lee Jae-myung said the threshold for stock capital gains tax liability will remain at the current 5 billion won, effectively scrapping a government plan to lower it to 1 billion won.

Lee strongly criticized a bipartisan deal struck a day earlier to forgo extending three special prosecutor mandates — covering the insurrection, First Lady Kim Keon-hee, and a Marine’s death — in exchange for cooperation on reorganizing government ministries. “How can we trade reform of the Government Organization Act for uncovering the truth of an insurrection and holding people accountable?” he said, stressing that “cooperation and collusion are different,” and there would be no compromise on investigating the insurrection.

Rejecting opposition claims that establishing a special insurrection tribunal would be unconstitutional, Lee responded, “How is that unconstitutional?” He argued the legislature’s expression of the people’s sovereignty should be respected, and that he, too, had a right to state his position if disputes arose between parliament and the judiciary.

On prosecutorial reform, Lee backed retaining supplementary investigative authority, remarking, “You don’t throw away the entire jar just because you dislike the maggots.”

Asked about the timing of a final deal on reciprocal tariff negotiations with the United States, Lee reiterated, “One thing is clear: I will never make a decision that harms Korea’s national interest. I will not enter into any negotiation that departs from rationality and fairness.”

On real estate policy, he cautioned, “It is nearly impossible to resolve the issue with just one or two measures. We must constantly curb excess or speculative demand while ensuring effective supply.”

Addressing controversy over proposed commercial law amendments, Lee said the intent was not to “strangle corporations” but to rein in “malicious executives and some dominant shareholders,” so that share prices can be properly valued and corporate governance normalized. On fiscal policy, he described expansionary spending as an “unavoidable step to create a turning point.”