One Day Before Budget Deadline: Ruling and Opposition Parties to Resume Stalled Negotiations This Afternoon

Sharp Differences Remain Over Local Gift Certificates and U.S. Investments
Further Review by Budget Committee Secretaries... Additional Talks Scheduled for Afternoon

The ruling and opposition parties have failed to narrow their differences over key budget items as of December 1, just one day before the legal deadline for processing next year's budget bill. The floor leaders of both parties plan to meet again at 5 p.m. today to continue negotiations.

Democratic Party Floor Leader Kim Byung-ki and Chief Deputy Floor Leader Moon Jin-seok are meeting with People Power Party Floor Leader Song Eon-seok and Chief Deputy Floor Leader Yoo Sang-beom on the 1st at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, for additional negotiations regarding the contentious budget and the proposals to raise corporate and education taxes. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

Kim Byungki, Floor Leader of the Democratic Party, and Moon Jinseok, Deputy Floor Manager, met twice at the National Assembly on this day with Song Eonseok, Floor Leader of the People Power Party, and Yoo Sangbeom, Deputy Floor Manager. They discussed contentious budget items, including the local love gift certificate budget, policy funds, and special activity expenses for the presidential office, but failed to reach an agreement. The second meeting, which lasted about 40 minutes, was also attended by Koo Yooncheol, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of Economy and Finance.

The floor leadership from both parties agreed that further discussions among the Budget and Accounts Committee secretaries are needed regarding the contentious budget items. After the second meeting, Deputy Floor Manager Moon told reporters, "The committee secretaries will meet to review the parts that have not been thoroughly examined, and we agreed to reconvene at 5 p.m." Budget-related bills, such as the proposed increases in corporate tax and education tax, which still face disagreements between the parties, were not brought to the discussion table.

The People Power Party is demanding cuts to the local love gift certificate budget (1.15 trillion won), the reserve fund (4.2 trillion won), and the special activity expenses for the presidential office (8.2 billion won). The Democratic Party is emphasizing that these are minimum necessary budgets and is countering that the opposition's demands for cuts amount to "indiscriminate reductions." The meeting between Floor Leaders Kim Byungki and Song Eonseok, scheduled for later this afternoon, is expected to focus on negotiating these issues.

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