Sudden Cancellation of Government-Party Meeting on 4th Disaster Relief Fund Discussion

Democrats Notified Deputy Prime Minister Hong Last Week
Party Official: "Postponed Due to Few Attendees"
Speculation of Unresolved Differences Between Party and Government

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jinyoung] On the 8th, members of the ruling party's Strategy and Finance Committee and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Hong Nam-ki scheduled a meeting to discuss disaster relief payment plans but suddenly canceled it on the same day. Both sides have been in conflict over the introduction of systems involving massive fiscal expenditures, such as disaster relief payments and loss compensation schemes. It appears they failed to narrow their differences right up until the meeting.

Originally, Yoon Hoo-duk, chairman of the Strategy and Finance Committee from the Democratic Party, and committee members planned to hold a private party-government consultation with Deputy Prime Minister Hong at 11 a.m. at the Export-Import Bank in Yeouido, Seoul. It is known that the Democratic Party side notified Deputy Prime Minister Hong’s team of the meeting schedule last Friday (the 5th). The agenda conveyed to Deputy Prime Minister Hong’s side included the 4th round of disaster relief payments and support measures for self-employed businesses such as the loss compensation system.

Regarding the reason for the meeting’s cancellation, a Democratic Party official said, "It was a gathering to prepare for the plenary session on the 16th, but since the number of attendees was small, it was naturally postponed," cautioning against overinterpretation. However, another Democratic Party official said, "The differences between the party and government were so large that they may have judged it was not yet time to hold consultations." The cancellation seems to have been decided abruptly. At the Democratic Party’s highest-level meeting that morning, leader Lee Nak-yeon, seemingly keeping in mind the party-government consultation scheduled for a few hours later, said, "We will soon begin discussions on the 4th disaster relief payments," and "We will expedite the party-government consultations."

The party and government have especially shown continuous disagreements over the selection of recipients for the disaster relief payments. Leader Lee mentioned a plan to provide both universal and selective support simultaneously in his policy speech. In response, Deputy Prime Minister Hong immediately posted a negative stance on his Facebook, saying, "The government and I want to provide the maximum possible support to as many people as possible, but the conditions are by no means easy." Within the party, there was a heated reaction, saying "The Ministry of Economy and Finance has rebelled."

The high-level party-government consultation, which involves senior officials every Sunday, was also canceled the day before (the 7th), raising concerns that there is still a tense atmosphere between the party and government. The cancellation of this party-government consultation is interpreted as being related to this ongoing tension.

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