"Economy is hard... "The budget alone is over 1 trillion won. We need to think about it" Oh Se-hoon's "Great Han River."

YTN Radio (FM 94.5) [YTN News FM Wise Radio Life]

□ Broadcast date and time: January 6, 2025 (Monday)
□ Host: Announcer Park Gui-bin
□ Castor: Lee Min-ok, Vice Chairman of the Planning and Economic Committee of the Seoul Metropolitan Council

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information.

◆ Announcer Park Gui-bin (hereinafter referred to as Park Gui-bin): It is a wise special citizen's life time with the Seoul Metropolitan Council, a legislative body that represents the voices of 10 million Seoul citizens. Today, I will be with Lee Min-ok, a member of the Seoul Metropolitan Council, vice chairman of the Planning and Economy Committee. Hello, Senator.

◇ Lee Min-ok, Vice Chairman of the Planning and Economic Committee of the Seoul Metropolitan Council (hereinafter referred to as Lee Min-ok): Yes, hello.

◆ Park Gui-bin: There's a camera in front of us. Can you say hello?

◇ Lee Min-ok: Yes, hello. I'm Lee Min-ok, a member of the Seoul Metropolitan Council. Dear listeners of wise radio life and Seoul citizens, I wish you a happy new year in 2025. I hope you have a healthy and happy year.

◆ Park Gui-bin: Yes, welcome. Happy New Year to you, too. After the new year of 2025, we became the first interviewee among the members of the Seoul Metropolitan Council. How are you spending your New Year?

◇ Lee Min-ok: In fact, it's all over the place.That's right. Since the end of last year, it has been an environment in a very difficult country, and I am also doing a lot of activities together to correct a little difficult country, and in the meantime, I am meeting many citizens. I hope many citizens will overcome the chaos of the state affairs quickly and ask them to play a role in it, and I am also determined to see the day when these situations are sorted out quickly and we can political our lives by listening to the voices of the citizens.

◆ Park Gui Bin: Yes. It's been a week since it's been a new year. Do you have any special plans for the new year?

◇ Lee Min-ok: It's not a special plan, but actually our jobs don't go as planned. There are many variables depending on the political situation and the big and small things that happen in the region, so I think the first thing to do is to sort out the country's situation quickly. For the rest, I plan to do small life politics by meeting local residents.

◆ Park Gui-bin: Yes, especially today, it's very cold, so you walked like this.

◇ Lee Min-ok: I made a plan to drive less and walk more to meet more people during this year's legislative activities. So I'm still practicing it well.

◆ Park Gui-bin: I will talk to Lee Min-ok, a Seoul Metropolitan Council member who has been keeping his pledge to meet citizens for a week while walking in early January when the cold weather is raging, and he served as vice chairman of the Planning and Economic Committee in the second half of the year.

◇ Lee Min-ok: The Planning and Economic Committee, which is not important to the 10 committees of Seoul, is a committee that deals with the city's budget and important economic policies. Therefore, especially in economic difficulties such as these days, the budget needs to be carefully considered and the economic policy needs to be examined more closely, so I think the importance of it is more prominent than other committees. One of the departments under the jurisdiction of our Planning and Economy Committee is the Bureau of Public Welfare and Labor. Then, we are in charge of policies for self-employed people, small business owners, and workers, so our shoulders are heavier.

◆ [Park Gwibin] Yes, you're right. All right. In the meantime, when the economic situation is as difficult as it is now, you are the vice chairman of the Planning and Economic Committee, and there are various economic issues. I have a lot of homework to do now, and I think your shoulders must be really heavy.

◇ Lee Min-ok: Even if you go to the region, self-employed and small business owners say it's harder than during COVID-19. So, the Seoul Metropolitan Government is implementing various policies for small business owners and self-employed people, but there are some areas that need to be examined more closely.

◆ Park Gui-bin: When lawmakers come out of the Seoul Metropolitan Council, we will proceed with a small corner. Today, it will be a section titled Seoul Metropolitan Councilman Lee Min-ok's Citizen Report. You can report three key things in your usual legislative activities with the intention of submitting approval to the citizens, but you can do more, but I don't think you have enough time. Because when I saw the lawmakers, they were doing so many things. First of all, what would you like to report to our citizens?

◇ Lee Min-ok: There are many things, but the first ordinance I proposed when I became a Seoul Metropolitan Council member was the revision of the ordinance to protect the rights of domestic workers and improve their treatment. So we routinely encounter domestic workers. But in fact, they haven't even been properly investigated. Various policies are coming out, but I saw that it was difficult to establish proper policies because the actual conditions were not properly investigated. Recently, the problem of foreign domestic workers in the Philippines has also been raised. I'm not fundamentally opposed to the policy, but I know that we have to make up for the shortcomings after the fact-finding survey and policy on domestic workers in Korea is done properly, but I'm experiencing a lot of difficulties because we brought it in without such institutional concerns. So, what I revised is that if you look at the Act on the Improvement of Employment of Domestic Workers under the Act, policy support is provided only to domestic workers registered with certified domestic service providers. As a result, the fact-finding survey is conducted mainly by those registered with the provider organization. However, when we actually see that domestic workers are much more often than those who are registered with providers like that. If you do it individually online or receive an introduction through an acquaintance, you can think of it as a revision that can include them in the survey because you think it is right to lead the policy direction after a certain fact-finding survey on those who are introduced and provide labor.

◆ Park Gui-bin: Yes, this is an ordinance passed on December 22, 2022, to promote policies and to improve the rights and treatment of domestic workers.

◇ Lee Min-ok: After that was passed, the Seoul Metropolitan Government secured a budget and conducted a survey last year. It's done and it's on the Workers Rights Commission in January. Among the workers' rights and interests committee, I belong to the domestic worker division. A meeting is scheduled in January, and there is an opportunity to review the policy based on the survey. I'll check it carefully again.

◆ Park Gui-bin: Based on the actual ordinance passed, the fact-finding survey is connected and is being implemented now. In fact, there are many people in the blind spot of the labor right, so there are so many domestic workers and other workers in certain occupations. If you pay attention to them, the treatment will be improved one by one, so it would be great if lawmakers did this. Especially, I think our lawmaker has been interested in domestic workers since a long time ago.

◇ Lee Min-ok: Seongdong-gu enacted the first ordinance related to essential workers in the country. In the case of domestic workers, I started as a district councilor in 2018, and I met many subjects. Among them, I met social cooperatives called Happy Care in Seongdong, and they were housekeepers or postpartum care, and they were social cooperatives that cared for children. While talking to them a lot, I heard a lot of difficulties while working as a domestic worker, so I naturally became interested in domestic workers as I exchanged ways to help them. When I became a member of the Seoul Metropolitan Council, I thought that I would need a fact-finding survey, so I revised the ordinance.

◆ Park Gui-bin: Yes, we also need policy protection and support policy support, and in a way, what we actually need is to improve awareness.

◇ Lee Min-ok: Yes, usually a housekeeper is just a little higher than an aunt who helps out with the housework, but when the Ministry of Employment and Labor recognized this profession as a professional, I started to recommend the name of housekeeper. It can be seen that the actual domestic workers are a kind of profession that provides labor based on their own skills and experience, from cleaning, washing, preparing food, and caring for children. I think it is necessary to improve such awareness, and policies and support measures are needed accordingly.

◆ Park Gui-bin: Yes, so as the first report, he informed us about the implementation of the current policy to protect the rights of domestic workers and improve their treatment. The second content is also the story of Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon's representative pledge, which is connected. I heard there was a meeting to diagnose the Great Han River project yourself and discuss ways to improve it.

◇ Lee Min-ok: Yes, the Great Han River project is a very representative pledge of Mayor Oh Se-hoon. However, there is no positive part, but I am a little concerned that it takes an excessive development-oriented approach. Isn't the Han River the largest shelter and asset for Seoul citizens that everyone recognizes? So I have concerns about the reckless implementation of a development-oriented policy. Especially, it's not a small budget. If you look at the hundreds of billions of won and the entire project, it is a big project that costs more than 1 trillion won, so I am thinking about how about considering it a little more and proceeding. I am the representative member of a research group called the Seoul Forest Forum. So in 23, I looked at the Great Han River project centered on Seoul Port and looked at it a lot with the lawmakers. In 24, a large part of this Great Han River project is often undertaken by SH Corporation, or Seoul Housing Corporation. So in 2024, we looked at the Great Han River project, focusing on SH Corporation's research on publicity. So I can't tell you all the details here, but I'll tell you that there were a lot of concerns.

◆ Park Gui-bin: The Han River means a lot in Seoul, but if the Great Han River project is completed, there will be a big change.

◇ Lee Min-ok: Yes, I'm not against the idea of making good use of the Han River in any economic or cultural or environmental aspects of citizens.

◆ Park Gwi-bin: Because some citizens are looking forward to this.

◇ Lee Min-ok: Of course, and I think it is essential and valuable to take good care of our precious assets by utilizing the Han River. However, there's a comprehensive plan for the Han River. Let's consider and proceed with the plan. That's why I'm raising the question of whether it would be better to consider it and proceed step by step rather than making a plan within a year or two and producing tangible results right away. Changes to the Han River I think we need to be careful. It's good to benchmark the cases of other countries and bring in good things and apply them well, but wouldn't the meaning, role, and environment of the river be very different from country to country? That's why it's necessary to benchmark some good policies of other countries around the Han River, but I'm giving you the opinion that we should have time to consider rather than just bring them in indiscriminately. Once you start, isn't it actually hard to reverse and hard to reverse? So, rather than a simple development or preservation issue, let's make good use of the natural resources of the Han River, which I agree with fundamentally. However, isn't our Han River a very important transportation road on both sides, such as Gangbyeonbuk-ro and Olympic Boulevard? As a result, the accessibility of rivers in other countries is actually very low compared to the large rivers. So, when you make a development plan for the Han River, you can't ignore traffic problems and environmental problems. Don't you need to think a lot more about what's invisible when you're setting up visible things? I'll think about those concerns in depth.

◆ Park Gui-bin: Are you being careful about the budget?

◇ Lee Min-ok: That's right. The same goes for the budget.

◆ Park Gui-bin: The Great Han River Project is Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon's representative pledge. So, I'm talking about the Seoul Metropolitan Government's project to expand cultural and tourism infrastructure around the Han River. The Han River bus, Ferris wheel Seoul Ring, and gondola are all included. You told me a little bit about the business that could be pointed out and about the areas to improve. Let's move on to the third citizen report. It's a small library story. What kind of story is this?

◇ Lee Min-ok: When we say a small library, it's easy to think about whether it's a small library, but we use a small library together. So it's not just a small library. Under the Library Act, it is a library that aims to cultivate a life-friendly library culture in the community based on the participation and autonomy of residents. It is written this hard, but the purpose is difficult. To put it simply, in the past, we used to communicate and talk at the well under the Jeongja tree or in the laundry area, and sometimes play in the guest room in the alley and enjoy this culture, didn't we? So one of the things that plays that role is a small library. That's what I'm thinking. It was in the early 2000s that a small library activity culture movement took place. And the corporation created this small library law about 10 years ago in 2012. So you can think of it as a small library in life that we can easily find around our lives and easily access by anyone.

◆ Park Gui-bin: I heard there was also a policy forum related to this.

◇ Lee Min-ok: I recently held a small library policy forum at the Children's Early Childhood Library, a arts and arts corporation, and I also attended as a debater. There were a lot of stories. Although it is not a situation in Seoul, there have been cases in which local governments have closed several public small libraries at the same time without collecting opinions from residents, and there have been other local governments that have prevented such closures. In addition, small libraries are small in size, making it difficult to operate in various ways. So there were suggestions such as buying and applying. As I attended as a member of the Seoul Metropolitan Government, I told you some stories about certain systems and policies for small libraries in Seoul, but unfortunately, there are no ordinances related to small libraries in Seoul yet. Right. So many people were surprised by it, and I received a heavy homework because they suggested that we take this opportunity to consider it together and enact an ordinance related to the small library ordinance of Seoul.

◆ Park Gui Bin: Okay. It's not just a place to borrow books, it's not a small library, it's a small library, so it's a cultural love room in our neighborhood and a place where you can learn for life.

◇ Lee Min-ok: A space that can be used by various classes within a walking distance of 5 minutes and 10 minutes

◆ Park Gui-bin: We should also look forward to the relevant ordinances. Finally, when the members of the Seoul Metropolitan Council come out, I have a question to ask. Lee Min-ok, a member of the Seoul Metropolitan Council, is a parliamentary icon. What if you fill in the blank?

◇ Lee Min-ok: The icon of my parliamentary activities is to listen carefully. I always think about policyizing and institutionalizing it after hearing the voices of citizens in the field. So, lawmakers play such a big role and look at the whole thing, and local lawmakers, especially Seoul Metropolitan Council members, think that they are in the position of creating life-oriented policies, and I think creating such life-oriented policies starts with listening to various opinions of residents.

◆ Park Gui-bin: Yes, let's listen carefully to Seoul Metropolitan Councilman Lee Min-ok's legislative icon. That's why she put her hair behind her ears today. Lee Min-ok, vice chairman of the Seoul Metropolitan Council's Planning and Economy Committee, who came with a hairstyle that matched well. Thank you for your words today.

◇ Lee Min-ok: Yes, thank you. Happy New Year.