September 17, 2025
SEOUL – The Cabinet on Tuesday confirmed plans to allow South Korean presidents to serve two four-year terms, placing the proposal for the constitutional amendment at the top of the Lee Jae Myung administration’s 123-item policy agenda.
Under the blueprint, presidents would be able to serve two four-year terms, with an incumbent only being eligible to run for reelection immediately after their first term. Since 1987, South Korea’s democratically elected presidents have been allowed to serve a single five-year term.
The blueprint, however, did not clarify whether Lee himself, as incumbent president, would become the first to be eligible to serve two terms. Article 128 of the Constitution stipulates that an amendment to extend the presidential term shall not be effective for the sitting president. But given that the article could also be subject to the amendment, the main opposition People Power Party has suggested that the proposal potentially lays the foundation for the liberal bloc to extend its rule.
The amendment would also introduce a two-round system for presidential elections, in which the presidency goes to the candidate receiving the most votes in a runoff between the top two contenders from the first round. South Korea currently uses a single-round system.
The National Assembly, where the liberal Democratic Party of Korea holds a majority, would seek legislation through a newly established special committee, and the government would submit its opinion to the legislative body. Passing a constitutional amendment requires the backing of two-thirds of all lawmakers.
An amendment also requires a referendum, which would take place alongside either the 2026 local elections or the 2028 legislative election. Under the current Constitution, Lee’s presidential term is set to end in 2030.
South Korea has not amended its Constitution since 1987. For an amendment to pass, it get more than 50 percent support in a national referendum in which at least half of eligible voters participate.
The blueprint also proposed ways to curtail the power of the South Korean president. The presidential power to veto bills passed by the legislature would be reduced, and the National Assembly would have the power to recommend candidates for prime minister and to approve appointees to positions that require political neutrality.
The policy blueprint, proposed in August by the president’s de facto transition team, the State Affairs Planning Committee, was reported to the Cabinet meeting presided over by Lee on Tuesday. The liberal government had yet to unveil the proposed timeframe for the amendment until Tuesday’s meeting.
The Cabinet also confirmed a blueprint for the transfer of the wartime operational control of South Korea’s military, economic cooperation and reconciliation between the two Koreas to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula, as well as advancement of South Korea’s ties with major countries such as the United States, Japan, China and Russia before Lee’s 5-year term ends.
At the meeting, Lee said the policy blueprint would serve as a “compass to change the lives of the people.”
It was the first Cabinet meeting Lee presided over in the de facto administrative capital, Sejong, about 120 kilometers south of Seoul.
Another key measure in the constitutional amendment proposal is the official designation of Sejong as the administrative capital and a newly established body to ensure greater local autonomy and regional growth.
At the Cabinet meeting, Lee stressed that the foundation for sustainable national growth is the rebalancing of national development through a so-called “quintpolar system,” in which growth is buttressed by metropolitan areas surrounding major cities in five key regions, including Seoul.
South Korea will no longer concentrate its scarce resources in Greater Seoul area comprising the capital, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, Lee said.
“This strategy was indeed quite efficient, but (the strategy) is now reaching its limits,” Lee said.
“For the sustainable growth and development of South Korea, balanced national development is no longer a choice but a destiny,” he also said.