Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, revealed the "Gold Button" received on the 4th during a YouTube broadcast. The Gold Button is given when a YouTube channel reaches one million subscribers.
On this day, the candidate uploaded an unboxing video of the Gold Button to his YouTube channel. He achieved one million subscribers in July of last year and had already received the Gold Button, but the disclosure was delayed.
The candidate expressed his feelings about receiving the Gold Button, saying, "It's an honor," and noted, "It may seem insignificant, but it is actually very important."
He explained, "In a democracy, the judgment of each individual is important, and to make a judgment, information is needed," adding, "There are cases where information is distorted, so I started communicating directly through social media, and one of those is YouTube."
The candidate has been actively using social media, such as X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook, since his time in Seongnam. His current YouTube channel subscriber count is 1.31 million.
Through the video released on this day, the candidate also took time to answer questions received through the "Ask Anything" corner.
In response to the question, "Wherever you go, you take notes; what do you write about?" he said, "I originally had a good memory, but these days, with too much 'input,' I can't remember everything. I take notes to confirm it once more."
He added, "These days, that's not enough," and explained, "I take a lot of notes, but they don't last. I've been searched too frequently, so I make sure to erase all my records, which means there's hardly anything left."
When asked, "If you had not pursued politics, what career would you have chosen?" he said, "I was interested in research, so I wanted to do something like nuclear physics or microbiology, breaking it down and analyzing it."
He continued, "In the end, I went to law school, which has the highest cutoff line, became a lawyer and a legal expert, and then thought that true human rights activism is politics, which is why I entered politics, where I am experiencing human rights violations."
The candidate also remarked, "I want to try being a travel YouTuber," and said, "I want to visit places like the Arctic and Antarctica."
He replied that the happiest moment in his political career was during his time as the mayor of Seongnam.
He stated, "Not only during my political career but throughout my life, the time I was mayor of Seongnam was the happiest because I saw people being happy because of what I did."
When asked about his thoughts on conservative parties, he claimed, "Normal conservatism needs to be rebuilt, and the current conservatism in our society is not real, but fake."
The candidate pointed out, "The core value of conservatism is to uphold the constitution, yet they are destroying the constitution and attacking those who want to uphold it; that's not conservatism."
The candidate said, "People evaluate me as progressive, but if you look closely, I'm not progressive; I'm a very conservative person."
He added, "True progressivism seeks a new path, while conservatism aims to uphold evident social principles such as 'let's follow the rules, restore common sense, maintain balance, and act fairly.'"
He specified that his first message to the people if he becomes president would be, "A country where the people are the masters, a country where the people are happy, please become the masters."