Amending Constitution, reforming prosecution among policy tasks under Lee administration

President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the government complex in Sejong, Tuesday. Yonhap

An amendment to the Constitution that could change the nation's single-term presidency and reforming the prosecutorial service were confirmed among key policy tasks under President Lee Jae Myung's five-year term, officials said Tuesday.

The Constitution was last amended in 1987 for a single, five-year presidency, and the ruling Democratic Party has pushed to strip the prosecution of its power of initiating criminal investigations.

Such tasks were among a set of 123 major policies confirmed by a Cabinet meeting presided over by Lee earlier in the day.

The top priority is amending the Constitution. During his presidential campaign, Lee proposed replacing the current single five-year presidency with a four-year, two-term system and introducing a runoff voting system.

Reform efforts will also target decentralizing state power, including prosecutorial reform, preventing military involvement in politics and improving governance at public broadcasters.

On inter-Korean policy, the government plans to strengthen deterrence against North Korea while seeking dialogue to ease security risks and attract foreign investment.

It reiterated plans to complete the long-delayed plan to regain wartime operational control from the United States under Lee's term, which is set to run until June 2030.

In the economic field, the government aims to foster new growth engines in artificial intelligence and biotechnology, proposing a private-public fund worth over 100 trillion won ($72.3 billion) for strategic industries.

To advance balanced regional growth, it pledged to relocate the presidential office and the National Assembly in Seoul to the administrative city of Sejong.

Other pledges include creating a "Korean-style discovery system" to curb technology theft targeting small firms and startups, boosting annual cultural exports to 50 trillion won and attracting 30 million inbound visitors by expanding tourism content and modernizing the industry.