"I will take responsibility for the people's lives"... Lee Jae-myung's Democratic Party puts 'livelihood' at the forefront

First Supreme Council Meeting
Policy Keyword: 'Minsheng' (People's Livelihood)
Promotion of Common Presidential Election Pledges
Opposition to Privatization and Corporate Tax Cuts

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] Lee Jae-myung, the new leader of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), is putting "livelihood" at the forefront and is revealing specific plans for policy cooperation with the government and ruling party. While easing the burden on ordinary citizens through measures such as interest rate cuts, he is expected to clearly oppose corporate tax cuts, framing them as tax breaks for the wealthy.

At the first Supreme Council meeting on the 29th, Lee stated, "As my first directive after taking office, I ordered the establishment of a task force under the party leader to address the livelihood economic crisis and another to tackle the crisis of democracy." This showed his determination to prioritize the livelihood crisis. He added, "The path for the Democratic Party is one of practical livelihood reform," and said, "In the face of difficult economic realities and crises, including inflation, exchange rates, and interest rates, we will do our utmost to improve the livelihood of the people." A backdrop reading "The Democratic Party takes responsibility for the lives of the people" was also displayed on the wall of the DPK leader’s office.

In a meeting with reporters the previous day, Lee said, "The current economic and livelihood crises are truly severe," and "The most urgent task is to overcome the difficulties in livelihood and the economy." The DPK plans to prioritize advancing policy agreements shared with the government and ruling party. Lee said, "There are many pledges similar or identical to those of President Yoon Seok-yeol’s campaign," and added, "I would like to request the swift joint implementation of policies that help resolve the livelihood and economic crises."

After the presidential election, the DPK is expected to decide on policy cooperation based on 12 common pledges agreed upon with the People Power Party (PPP). At that time, the DPK announced plans to promote △Youth Hope Accounts supporting young people in building lump sums △Relaxation of redevelopment and reconstruction regulations and a special law for remodeling first-generation new towns △Postponement of capital gains tax surcharges △Monitoring illegal short selling and improving the short selling system △Legislation on virtual assets and tax exemption on virtual asset income up to 50 million won.

△Raising the basic pension for those aged 65 and older to 400,000 won per month △Increasing soldiers’ monthly pay to 2 million won △Introducing sickness benefits △Expanding digital sex crime support centers are also positions similarly held by the Yoon Seok-yeol administration, making it likely that the DPK will respond positively.

Regarding the promotion of bipartisan common pledges, Kim Seong-hwan, chairman of the DPK Policy Committee who has been in charge of negotiations, said in a call, "There has been no special progress," and added, "The DPK has continued to make demands, but the ruling party has not responded."

Legislation proposed by Lee is also likely to advance. The bill includes provisions to nullify interest contract clauses in cases where the legal maximum interest rate is exceeded, effectively invalidating contracts that violate the statutory maximum interest rate. The bill focuses on protecting financially vulnerable groups and ordinary citizens.

It is expected to clash with the Yoon administration’s push to secure profitability for public institutions. Lee previously introduced the Public Institution Privatization Prevention Act (Public Institution Operation Act) as his first bill. It requires prior reporting to the National Assembly during the process of consolidating, reorganizing, or privatizing public institution functions, and obtaining parliamentary consent when selling shares. The Yoon administration has established a plan to sell at least 16 trillion won worth of idle and underutilized state-owned assets to the private sector over the next five years.

Lee has repeatedly criticized the current government’s corporate tax cut policy as a "tax cut for the super-rich and mega-corporations." This signals a direct confrontation between the ruling and opposition parties over corporate tax cuts in this year’s regular National Assembly session.

Regarding bills that temporarily exempt comprehensive real estate tax (CRET) up to 1.4 billion won for one household with one home, the DPK and PPP show differing views. Jang Kyung-tae, a DPK Supreme Council member, said in a radio interview, "If they wanted to amend the CRET law, discussions should have started earlier," and added, "Because this concerns taxing the people, it should be properly discussed even if it takes time."

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