Lee will explain his shift on Sejong

President Lee Myung-bak will address the nation on TV Friday to make public his reasons for redrawing the development blueprint of Sejong City. Lee will also discuss other burning issues, including the four river restoration project, the Blue House said.

The 100-minute program, titled “Dialogue with the People,” will be hosted by MBC and air live at 10 p.m. on KBS, MBC, SBS, YTN and MBN.

“President Lee will provide honest and in-depth answers to the people’s questions on Sejong City and other key issues,” said Lee’s spokesman Park Sun-kyoo. “The president will not dodge any question.”

Lee will give a two-minute keynote address to open the program, and answer questions from expert and citizen panels.

Asked if Lee will apologize for shifting from supporting the initial plan of creating an administrative hub to overhauling the plan, Park said “nothing has been decided on this matter.” The president supported the administrative city plan during his presidential campaign, but has shied away from it in recent months.

A high-ranking Blue House official, however, said Lee will apologize for his flip-flop. “It’s also possible that Lee will give a personal introduction of the newly created development plan for Sejong City,” the official said.

The Sejong City development project has been embroiled in political tugs-of-war since it was first proposed by then-presidential candidate Roh Moo-hyun in 2002.

Even after it was approved by the National Assembly, Roh’s plan was ruled unconstitutional in 2004. The plan had been redesigned in 2006 to build an administrative hub city called Sejong, but the Lee administration made it official earlier this month that the plan to relocate most of the ministries to Sejong, with the aim of creating a self-sufficient city with a population of 500,000 people by 2030, would be revised.

By Ser Myo-ja [myoja@joongang.co.kr]