President Lee Jae-myung said Friday that he has no intention whatsoever of seeking reelection, addressing directly the question that has trailed his push to revise the constitution to allow presidents to serve consecutive terms.
Lee framed the current constitution itself as the problem, describing it as clothes that no longer fit today's Korea, language that positions his proposed changes as modernization rather than a vehicle for extending his own time in office. He dismissed opposition demands that he issue an explicit no-reelection pledge, calling the request a political offensive rather than a good-faith ask.
What the Revision Would Actually Change
The constitutional proposals Lee is pushing go well beyond the single-term question. They would add the May 18 Gwangju Democratic Movement and the Busan-Masan Democratic Protests to the constitution's preamble, strengthen basic rights protections, and shift some presidential powers toward the National Assembly and local governments, alongside the change that would allow consecutive presidential terms for future officeholders.
A Rare Moment of Self-Criticism
Lee paired his reelection denial with an unusually candid assessment of his own performance, saying he lacked consideration, attention to detail and communication, an admission that arrived alongside polling showing his approval rating at 37 percent, down a point from the previous week and the lowest recorded since he took office. Disapproval climbed to 56 percent, up five points, according to the survey of 1,002 adults conducted from Tuesday to Thursday, which carried a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.
A Divided Political Reaction
The response split along party lines. People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok criticized Lee for stopping short of an explicit, formal no-reelection pledge, suggesting his verbal denial alone was not enough to settle the question. Democratic Party of Korea spokesperson Jeon Eun-su took the opposite view, arguing that Lee's statement removed the opposition's justification for rejecting the constitutional revision altogether, framing the denial as clearing the last obstacle to moving the proposal forward.