President Lee Jae Myung directed South Korean ministries Tuesday to review public-service eligibility and how rules are applied, amid a debate over priority benefits for multicultural families.
At a Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, Lee said public aid should focus on people facing social and economic hardship, with access decisions made on a fair and reasonable basis. KTV’s official recording shows him asking agencies to examine both the written requirements and their application, then correct practices the public might consider unfair.
Yonhap and Korea JoongAng Daily reported that the Ministry of Justice requested details of local multicultural-family programs and that Seoul was reviewing 26 initiatives. The reports followed Lee’s late-October social-media comments questioning whether local governments should offer these families additional priority beyond protecting them from disadvantage.
EconoTimes previously covered the debate over changing postpartum-care priority rules.
Seoul’s designated postpartum-care centers show how priority rules affect both access and cost. Mothers from multicultural families are in the second-priority group alongside several other categories. For a 13-night, 14-day stay at one of five centers in a pilot running from June 2026 to May 2027, the city lists a standard fee of 3.9 million won and a second-priority payment of 1.25 million won; general applicants pay 2.5 million won.
Seoul says rooms for some 2026 booking dates were limited because many mothers reserve well in advance. Second-priority applicants receive earlier consideration and a lower fee; third-priority and general applicants pay the same fee.
The Multicultural Families Support Act covers families that include an immigrant by marriage and people who acquired South Korean nationality, as well as certain families formed through naturalization. The Korea Times quoted Ko Gi-bok, operating committee chair of the Joint Committee with Migrants in Korea, as saying, “Those directly affected are highly sensitive to such remarks.”
Yonhap reported that the presidential office said postpartum-care priority criteria were established 10 years ago and should be reassessed as support programs expanded. The Korea Times reported that no final changes to the programs or rules had been announced as of Nov. 2.
