Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Students flood president’s TikTok with playful pleas as followers surpass 110,000
President Lee Jae Myung’s TikTok account page is shown in screen captures from the platform. Screen captured from TikTok
By Bahk Eun-ji
President Lee Jae Myung’s newly launched TikTok account has quickly drawn attention from young users, with students flooding the comment section with playful requests as the new school term began across Korea.
As of Wednesday morning, Lee’s official TikTok account, @jaemyung_lee, had 111,300 followers and about 248,600 cumulative likes.
The account was launched Saturday, marking Lee’s entry into the short-form video platform as he expands online communication beyond Facebook and X, formerly called Twitter.
The first video posted on the account has already surpassed 2.6 million views, drawing strong engagement from younger users.
In the clip, Lee is seen pressing a “join TikTok” button on a document handed to him by an aide before making a hand-heart gesture toward the camera.
“Follow, like and comment — you know the drill,” Lee says in the video.
The comment section has since turned into an unexpected outlet for students as most schools across the country resumed classes this week.
Many comments appear to come from teenagers or elementary school students, with messages such as “Please delay the start of school,” “Let us skip school” and “Could you push back the school start time by an hour?”
Some went further, jokingly asking the president to “extend the vacation,” “abolish private cram schools” and even “get rid of math classes.”
Several users also expressed surprise at seeing the president on the platform, posting remarks such as “Is this really the president’s account?” and “I downloaded TikTok just to see the president.”
Lee has also used the platform to share short clips from his overseas travel, including a video filmed during his recent visit to Singapore.
The presidential office said the launch of the TikTok account is part of efforts to strengthen digital communication channels and reach younger audiences who are more accustomed to short-form video platforms.