President Lee Jae Myung said 2026 must mark the beginning of a significant leap forward, led by reforms in six areas.

Presiding over a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Seoul's Yongsan District on Tuesday, Lee said achievements in state affairs should lead to happiness and be felt in daily life.

At a senior secretaries’ meeting last month, the president had pledged to push for structural reforms in finance, the public sector, the national pension, education and labor, and to set the nation's potential growth rate as the government's most urgent task for next year.

Lee said there will always be a divide between those who profit and those who incur damage from change and reform, and that some resistance and discord over change is inevitable as society improves and normalizes.

He then thanked the rival parties for approving the 2026 budget plan before the deadline, with the National Assembly's regular session set to end Tuesday.

The president said that though the parties are often at odds during the legislative process, he is confident that such differences can be resolved through common sense, principles and respect for the will of the people.