Park Wan-joo: "Disaster relief funds for the bottom 80% income bracket, in the range of 250,000 to 300,000 KRW... Excluding those with annual income over 100 million KRW"

Park Wan-joo, Chairman of the Policy Committee of the Democratic Party of Korea, is attending the floor strategy meeting held at the National Assembly on the 29th and delivering opening remarks. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jinyoung] As the scope of the 5th disaster relief fund payment has been decided as the ‘bottom 80% of income earners,’ Park Wanju, the Policy Committee Chair of the Democratic Party of Korea, stated on the 29th, “The amount received per person is within the range of 250,000 to 300,000 won.”

At a press briefing held at the National Assembly on the same day, Chair Park said, “About 4.4 million households fall into the excluded 20%. The income level for the top 20% is roughly around 100 million won.”

Regarding the decision to limit the disaster relief fund to the bottom 80% of income earners, he explained, “The government argued that it is more appropriate to give substantial support to those who are more in need rather than giving relief funds to everyone including high-income earners. The party has been negotiating with the logic that everyone who pays taxes should receive benefits. Therefore, it was decided to exclude the top 20% high-income earners, those in the 5th income quintile, as proposed by the government.”

The ruling party and government agreed to support the top 20% with an annual income of 100 million won or more through a ‘win-win consumption support fund,’ which provides cashback on credit card spending exceeding a certain amount. Chair Park anticipated that the cashback limit would be about 300,000 won per person, similar to the disaster relief fund. He added, “Since the 10% cashback limit is 1 trillion won, it will stimulate consumption of about 10 trillion won. If the funds are not exhausted within three months, the program will be extended until the end of the year.”

Regarding the party’s proposal for ‘universal support,’ he said, “There is room for modification through the National Assembly’s discussion process,” and added, “So far, the 4th supplementary budget has never passed without being amended.”

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