Lee Jae-myung: "Government Will Approve This Supplementary Budget... Separate Budget Planning from Ministry of Economy and Finance to Blue House Direct Control"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] On the 2nd, Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, said regarding the supplementary budget bill for COVID-19 loss compensation, "If the government opposes it until the end, there is no way. In that case, it can only be done after the presidential election or after taking office."

Appearing on SBS News in the evening, Lee was asked what he would do if the government continued to oppose the supplementary budget. He replied, "If it is done after the election, there will be a gap of several months, and the suffering the people endure during that time is too great, so I believe the government will agree this time."

He added, "The government has already used up all the available budget for this year, so it has to secure the budget anyway," and said, "People Power Party candidate Yoon Seok-youl mentioned 50 trillion won, and Kim Jong-in, the general election committee chairman, mentioned 100 trillion won in support, so I believe large-scale preemptive support is possible without much difficulty."

Regarding the plan to separate the budget function of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, he said, "The appointment power is constitutionally and legally subject to the command of the elected power," and added, "There is a need to change the budget function to be directly under the Blue House or the Prime Minister's Office."

On the special prosecutor for the Daejang-dong development scandal, he said, "The opposition party actually has no intention of conducting a special prosecutor. They are only making unreasonable claims that the Democratic Party cannot accept," and questioned, "They say, 'If there is no special prosecutor, there will be no debate.' It seems like a strategy to avoid both."

When asked about his thoughts on recent public opinion polls showing him leading Yoon Seok-youl beyond the margin of error, he said, "It happened in less than a week, so there is a somewhat bewildering aspect," and added, "We cannot do well in just a few days; rather, it is time to be cautious." He further explained, "It is not because we did something well, but because the opponent made some mistakes, so I think we need to be more careful."

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