The Four Major Rivers restoration policy, a significant promise from President Lee Jae-myung, is facing potential scaling back or cancellation, prompting environmental groups to hold Minister of Climate Kim Sung-hwan accountable. The groups, consisting of over 90 environmental, civic, and religious organizations, gathered for a press conference to demand Kim's resignation, asserting that he disregarded an agreement reached over several meetings with climate policy officials and environmental activists from September to December last year.

The stakeholders had initially collaborated for months, culminating in a detailed report on restoring the ecological health of the Four Major Rivers, which was presented to Minister Kim in January. However, during this meeting, Kim expressed unfamiliarity with the report's contents and rejected the notion of deciding on a management plan within the year. His sudden dismissal of previously agreed upon plans has left the future of the restoration efforts in limbo, as activists accused the minister of lacking commitment to the government's restoration agenda.

In their demands to the Lee Jae-myung administration, the environmental groups called for urgent action on several fronts: formalizing and executing the Four Major Rivers restoration plan, finalizing the management of 16 weirs by the year's end, setting a timeline for improving water intake systems in the Nakdong and Yeongsan rivers by 2028, and reinstating a commitment to ecological restoration within the National Water Management Basic Plan. The controversy underscores the ongoing tensions between government decisions and public advocacy efforts in environmental policy-making in South Korea.