Lee Jae-myung "Cutting Special Activity Expenses Means the Country Can't Manage Finances? ... Absurd Story"

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, stated that the '2025 Budget Amendment,' which cuts 4.1 trillion won from the government proposal, is a reduction of "special activity expenses (teukhwalbi) whose usage is unknown."

On the morning of the 2nd, at the on-site Supreme Council meeting held at the Democratic Party Daegu City Office in Jung-gu, Daegu, Lee said, "It is truly absurd to say that the problem is that the budget was not increased or that negotiations were not made. If the government needed it, they should have submitted the (amended) budget."

Lee explained, "Next year's budget includes a contingency fund of 4.8 trillion won, which can be used anytime for any purpose. Rather, half of this, 2.4 trillion won, was cut with the intention of repaying the national debt, which constitutes most of this budget cut."

He added, "While government policies are important for balanced regional development, isn't finance the real issue? The Korean government reportedly decided to lend nearly 3 trillion won to Ukraine. How much help would 3 trillion won be to the South Korean economy, especially the economy of ordinary citizens?"

The Democratic Party announced that if the ruling party does not submit an additional proposal for next year's budget, they plan to bring it up for a vote in the plenary session.

Earlier, opposition parties including the Democratic Party cut approximately 2.4 trillion won from the budgets of the Presidential Secretariat and National Security Office's special activity expenses of 8.251 billion won, prosecution's specific task expenses of 50.691 billion won, prosecution's special activity expenses of 8.09 billion won, police special activity expenses of 3.1 billion won, Board of Audit and Inspection's special task expenses of 4.5 billion won, and special activity expenses of 1.5 billion won during the Budget and Accounts Committee session.

Yonhap News

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