On the afternoon of the 10th, the ruling and opposition parties held the 3rd State Council meeting at the National Assembly to discuss current issues, including the supplementary budget and pension reform, but failed to reach an agreement, leading both parties' floor leaders to return 'empty-handed' once again.
National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik and Kweon Seong-dong of the People Power Party and Park Chan-dae of the Democratic Party attempted to reach an agreement on major controversial issues during a meeting in the Speaker's office. The atmosphere between the ruling and opposition parties was chilly, as this State Council meeting followed the release of President Yoon Suk-yeol.
Earlier, the Democratic Party raised the possibility of the State Council meeting failing, stating, 'The government and ruling party should come up with a supplementary budget plan.' In contrast, the People Power Party emphasized, 'People's livelihood must be prioritized,' stating that the State Council meeting should proceed as scheduled.
Less than 40 minutes after the negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties began, Kweon, the floor leader, said, 'There were no gains. The talks have collapsed,' and left the Speaker's office.
Regarding the supplementary budget discussions, the positions of the ruling and opposition parties diverged. The ruling party found significance in discussing the supplementary budget in the future, whereas the opposition party argued that there were no substantial gains since the scale and timing of the supplementary budget had yet to be determined.
Park Hyung-soo, the Senior Deputy Floor Leader of the People Power Party, noted, 'Today, under the Speaker's leadership, the floor leaders, policy committee chairs, and senior deputies of each party began discussions on state affairs, resulting in some progress regarding the supplementary budget.' He added, 'We agreed to involve the floor leaders of both parties, policy committee chairs, and the committee secretary in advancing the discussions on the supplementary budget.'
Jin Seong-jun, the policy committee chair of the Democratic Party, stated, 'I wanted to hear the government and the ruling party's position on the supplementary budget proposal today. I expected to hear about the overall scale and timing of the supplementary budget, even if I didn't get into the details, but I did not receive a response.'
He continued, 'The Speaker suggested holding a practical meeting this week to discuss the supplementary budget, but the ruling party left by saying they would check with the government.' He assessed that 'the implementation of the supplementary budget has been repeatedly confirmed, but there is still a long way to go in terms of specifying it.'
After the topic shifted to pension reform, the agreement between the ruling and opposition parties completely fell through. Park, the Senior Deputy Floor Leader, remarked, 'Regarding pension reform, the Democratic Party conditioned its stance on the premise of a 13% insurance premium rate and a 43% income replacement rate last time, and they said they would gather opinions within the party, but today the (Democratic Party) has stated that they cannot accept the 43% income replacement rate within the party.'
Park went on to say, 'The Democratic Party has completely reverted the pension reform issue to square one, so we can no longer discuss it, and thus today's meeting has failed.'
In response, Jin stated, 'As a result of discussions within the party, the People Power Party's decision to discuss the automatic adjustment mechanism later and talk about the income replacement rate is essentially the same as going back to square one.' He added, 'The Democratic Party's position is that the income replacement rate must be 44% without the automatic adjustment mechanism, making it difficult to positively consider the ruling party's proposed (income replacement rate) of 43%.'
Unlike the ruling party, which left early from the State Council meeting on this day, the opposition party's floor leaders stayed longer in the Speaker's office due to discussions about the 'cancellation of President Yoon Suk-yeol's imprisonment.'
Jin said, 'I discussed the situation regarding the cancellation of Yoon Suk-yeol's imprisonment with (the Speaker).' He added, 'It was an unexpected decision to cancel the imprisonment, and the subsequent decision by the prosecution to forgo an immediate appeal was also something no one anticipated, indicating an extraordinary situation that was shared with the Speaker and our floor leader group.'