Yoon Hoo-duk, Head of Policy Headquarters of the Democratic Party's Election Committee, "Lee's Pledge Budget Set at 350 Trillion Won"

-"Creating responsible pledges based on the fiscal total limit benchmark"
-"Pension reform involves conflicts of interest, so variables must be considered for agreement"

Yoon Hoo-duk, Head of the Policy Headquarters of the Democratic Party of Korea's Election Countermeasures Committee (photo), recently stated in an interview with Asia Economy, "We are creating responsible pledges based on conscientious standards." / Photo by Yoon Dong-ju doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporters Baek Kyunghwan and Gu Chae-eun] The Democratic Party of Korea has allocated a budget of 350 trillion won for presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung's campaign pledges. Candidate Lee had previously stated that the total budget required for his pledges would be managed so as not to exceed the available fiscal capacity, and now the specific scale has been revealed.

Yoon Hoo-duk, head of the policy headquarters of the Democratic Party's election committee, stated in an interview with Asia Economy ahead of the publication of Lee's pledge booklet, calling it the "upper limit of total fiscal volume." He added, "We regard this as a conscientious benchmark and are creating responsible pledges."

In a previous one-on-one debate with Kim Dong-yeon, presidential candidate of the New Wave party, Lee was asked by Kim, "You have over 600 pledges; have you calculated how much money they will require?" Lee responded, "I told the policy headquarters of the campaign not to exceed the budget availability." At that time, he did not disclose the specific total amount, but it is interpreted that he revealed it now due to rising concerns over fiscal deterioration related to basic income pledges and others.

Regarding the background for setting the budget at 350 trillion won, Yoon said it took into account the funding for Moon Jae-in administration's national tasks. He explained, "The current administration additionally spent a total budget of 245 trillion won on presidential tasks," and added, "We precisely calculated the total expenditure scale, expenditure growth rate, and tax revenue for the next five years to set the upper limit of total fiscal volume." He emphasized, "The pledges were structured according to that formula."

On the pension reform proposed by Ahn Cheol-soo, candidate of the People’s Party, Yoon expressed a cautious stance, saying, "There are conflicts of interest, so an agreement must be reached considering various variables." Currently, there are conflicting interests among those paying pension premiums, those receiving pensions, and those who will have to pay in the future, and variables such as economic and demographic forecasts also need to be considered. Yoon explained, "The national fiscal management plan is discussed every six years, and the cycle comes around in 2023," adding, "Discussions will start six months in advance, and we will prepare with enough time to reach an agreement."

Regarding government reorganization issues such as the separation of the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s budget functions and the reform of the financial supervisory system, which candidate Lee emphasized, Yoon said, "These will be discussed in earnest by the presidential transition committee formed after the election."

The Democratic Party will release the pledge booklet on the 14th, one day before the official election campaign starts on the 15th. Yoon said that considering additional pledges will be announced, the pledge booklet will be published in revised, expanded, and supplementary editions to meet public demands.

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