Sim Jae-cheol "Already met with Lee In-young... Stop blaming us anymore"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporters Lee Ji-eun and Kim Hye-min] Shim Jae-cheol, Acting Leader of the United Future Party, stated, "The ruling party is blaming the United Future Party for the disaster relief funds," and added, "Our consistent position is that the support payments should be made to the public promptly."

Acting Leader Shim said on the morning of the 22nd, after the Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly main building, "Yesterday evening, Lee In-young, Floor Leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, came to meet me," and made these remarks.

He said, "Considering the financial situation and the possibility of additional expenditures in the future, I clearly stated that issuing deficit bonds is not acceptable," and added, "I told them to agree on the payment amount between the party and the government, and then we would accept it as is."

This was a criticism of the discord between the government and the ruling party over the payment amount. Acting Leader Shim said, "They say the failure of the floor leaders' meeting is delaying the supplementary budget approval, but that is nonsense and illogical," and added, "The problem is that the government, which holds the budget formulation authority, and the ruling party responsible for state affairs are out of sync."

He continued, "Additional issuance of deficit bonds should not be used for funding," and said, "We proposed to reorganize the unused budget due to the COVID-19 pandemic to secure 100 trillion won for the support payments, but the ruling party insists on issuing government bonds for the payments and claims that the United Future Party changed its stance."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.