President Lee Jae Myung Orders Review of Scrapping Preferential Programs for Multicultural Families

President Lee Jae Myung said on the 28th that he would review whether preferential programs for multicultural families run by local governments such as the Seoul city government should be abolished, including consultations with local governments and amendments to enforcement decrees (detailed rules created by the government to implement laws). The president revealed this position while sharing on his X (formerly Twitter) account a post from the online community FMKorea, which argued that it was problematic for multicultural mothers and mothers who are national merit recipients to be classified in the same second-tier priority for reservations at Seoul-type postpartum care centers. The shared FMKorea post contained expressions demeaning multicultural families.

He wrote, "The preferential programs for multicultural families run by local governments such as Seoul are becoming an issue. I will deeply review, in consultation with local governments and including amendments to enforcement decrees, whether there is a strong need not only to ensure multicultural families suffer no harm but to extend preferential treatment to them, and whether these preferential programs should be abolished." The president also thanked the original poster, saying, "Thank you for the good point."

FMKorea is an online community whose users are mostly men in their 20s and 30s. The president also attended and spoke at the second plenary meeting of the National Life Safety Committee held at the presidential office in Jongno District, Seoul, that day.