Wildfires Sweep Yeongnam Region... Democratic Party Pushes for Supplementary Budget for Wildfire Crisis

Park Chan-dae:
"Party-Level Task Force Formed
to Support Wildfire Response"

The Democratic Party of Korea announced on March 27 that it would push for an additional supplementary budget (extra budget) in response to the large-scale wildfire crisis in the Gyeongnam and Gyeongbuk regions.

On the 25th, the fourth day since the wildfire broke out in Uiseong County, Gyeongbuk Province, a fire caused by embers from the wildfire occurred in Hawha 1-ri, Danchon-myeon, Uiseong County, where firefighters are moving to extinguish the fire. Photo by Yonhap News

Park Chan-dae, the Democratic Party's floor leader, stated at a policy coordination meeting held at the party's tent headquarters in Gwanghwamun on this day, "The damage from the wildfires is growing uncontrollably," and added, "The Democratic Party will form a large-scale wildfire response task force (TF) to actively support wildfire suppression, assist displaced residents, and aid in recovery efforts."

Jin Sung-joon, chairman of the party's policy committee, said, "Both the ruling and opposition parties have requested the government to swiftly prepare a supplementary budget and have spoken with one voice, but the Ministry of Economy and Finance has not even begun inter-ministerial consultations for the extra budget," and criticized, "If the government is to be responsible, shouldn't it take the initiative and present a supplementary budget proposal first?"

Chairman Jin emphasized, "The Democratic Party will push for a 'wildfire supplementary budget' to ensure sufficient measures and prevent recurrence," and added, "Since the 900 billion won public safety budget included in the Democratic Party's self-proposed supplementary budget announced last month also covers funding for firefighting helicopters and more, discussions on the extra budget can begin immediately."

Toward the People Power Party, he criticized, "They are threatening to restore 2 trillion won in reserve funds under the pretext of the wildfires, but 360 billion won in disaster response funds has already been allocated to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and 100 billion won in forest disaster response funds is allocated to the Korea Forest Service." He continued, "If the budgets of the relevant ministries are insufficient, 1.6 trillion won in purpose-specific reserve funds can be executed," and pointed out, "When wildfire suppression and recovery should be the priority, I do not understand the intention behind continuing to engage in political strife."

The People Power Party has previously argued, "The Democratic Party's unilateral handling of this year's budget led to a significant cut in disaster reserve funds, making it difficult to respond to wildfire damage."

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