President Lee Jae-myung speaks at a senior secretaries' meeting held at Cheong Wa Dae Yeomin Hall on the 7th. [Photo=Yonhap News]

President Lee Jae-myung's remarks have crossed the line.

The President, on his social media on the 9th, referred to "judicial murder through fabricated indictments by the prosecution, murder with a weapon by mobilizing terrorists, and defamation through fabricated media" and called these "three major death threats."

He added, "The people, indeed Heaven, have saved me," and stated, "My life now belongs entirely to the people." He also said, "Heaven has entrusted me with a great mission beyond mere preservation of life."

A president can express their grievances. They can mention being a victim of an attack. They also have the right to refute investigations and reports against them. However, a president's language must differ from that of an ordinary politician.

Furthermore, grouping prosecution indictments, media reports, and a knife attack all into the single category of "death threats" is not a mere expression of emotion.

The moment actual physical violence, judicial procedures, and media scrutiny are placed on the same level, acts of criticizing, investigating, or reporting on the president are reframed not as checks and balances of democracy, but as acts of aggression threatening life.

President Lee did not directly call the prosecution and the media "murderers." However, the terms "judicial murder" and "defamation" effectively position the prosecution and the media as the perpetrators of death threats.

The prosecution becomes the perpetrator of judicial murder through fabricated indictments, and the media becomes the tool for defamation through fabricated reporting.

The institutions and media that investigated, scrutinized, and criticized the president are instantly placed on the same moral defendants' stand as the perpetrator of the knife attack.

What is more serious comes next. President Lee described himself as someone "the people, indeed Heaven" saved.

It is not inherently problematic for a politician to thank the people and say "the people are like Heaven." However, the context of this statement is different.

After grouping the prosecution, media, and the assailant as "three major death threats," he linked his survival from these threats to the will of the people and Heaven. He then stated, "My life now belongs entirely to the people."

Here, an individual's survival experience is transformed into a political mission. The president as an individual is repositioned not as a mere elected official, but as a being saved by the people and Heaven.

There is a reason why the term "Democratic People's Republic of South Korea" comes to mind at this point.

This is not to equate the South Korean system with the North Korean system. The issue is the grammar of the language.

The language of power in a democratic republic must stand on the pillars of popular sovereignty, the rule of law, separation of powers, and freedom of the press.

However, this statement links the leader, the people, Heaven, survival, and mission into one. Critics become death threats, and the leader becomes someone saved by the people and Heaven.

This evokes the style of power language of people's democracy, which presages leader worship, rather than the language of the Constitution of the Republic of Korea.

The moment the president speaks of himself as "someone saved by the people and Heaven" and groups the prosecution and media who criticized him as "death threats," the language of power in a democracy dangerously deteriorates.

It is not the language of responsibility of an elected official but language that presages leader worship. The president is an elected official, not a savior sent by Heaven.

The president's words are read as the direction of state power.

If the prosecution is framed as the perpetrator of judicial murder, discussions of prosecution reform or withdrawal of indictments can be framed not as political revenge but as 'correction of a death threat.'

If the media is described as a tool for defamation, media pressure and regulation can also be given the name of 'victim recovery.' In fact, the opposition party reacted to these remarks, implying they were preparatory work for the withdrawal of indictments.

What the president needs is not the anger of a victim but the restraint of the nation's highest leader. The president can be criticized, investigated, and be the subject of media scrutiny.

That is the basic order of a democratic republic. If the president begins to call criticism and scrutiny against himself "death threats," then power oversight becomes a crime, opponents become perpetrators, and supporters become subjects who must protect their leader.

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These remarks are therefore dangerous.

The language of the President of the Republic of Korea should be one of humility, serving the people as Heaven. However, this statement was closer to language that uses the people and Heaven to elevate himself as a person with a special mission.

The president of a democratic republic is a public official accountable under the constitution, not a surviving hero. The moment that line is forgotten, the president's language leans not towards unity but towards worship.

Before expressing his grievances, President Lee Jae-myung should first reflect on the power he currently wields.

Language that demonizes the prosecution and media as death threats and elevates himself as someone saved by the people and Heaven is not the language of a democratic republic. It is the language of deification, not responsibility.

A country where the president elected by the people speaks like a leader saved by Heaven is precisely the shadow of the "Democratic People's Republic of South Korea" that we must guard against.