After President Lee Jae-myung called Deputy Minister Kim Yong-beom's remark about a "national dividend" a "fake-news ploy to manipulate public opinion," the conservative opposition countered that "the fake news is President Lee Jae-myung's claim about fake news." In particular, Rep. Park Soo-young, the opposition secretary on the National Assembly Strategy and Finance Committee, pushed back point by point by citing Kim's original text.
Referring to a news article about Deputy Minister Kim Yong-beom's "national dividend" remark, the president said, "What Kim Yong-beom said was 'reviewing a plan to pay a national dividend from the state's excess tax revenues generated by excess profits in the AI (artificial intelligence) institutional sector,'" and added, "Some media edited the remark and distributed slanderous fake news claiming 'Deputy Minister Kim argued for reviewing a plan to distribute corporations' excess profits as a national dividend.' In response, Deputy Minister Kim denied this and kindly offered an explanation, not a clarification, saying it was a review of distributing excess tax revenues as dividends."
The article President Lee shared on X (formerly Twitter) shows a message saying "This post has been deleted or its retention period has expired," indicating it has been deleted.
Rep. Park Soo-young of the People Power Party rebutted the president's claim point by point after analyzing Kim's original text. Park said, "In Deputy Minister Kim Yong-beom's long Facebook post of 7,384 characters, about 40 manuscript pages, the word 'excess profits' appears eight times, 'excess gains' twice, and 'excess tax revenues' three times," adding, "The weight is entirely different. With the original like this, did Deputy Minister Kim's 'national dividend' proposal really refer only to simple excess tax revenues?"
The original text by Deputy Minister Kim that Rep. Park pointed out includes the following passages.
Park said, "The Lee Jae-myung administration has allocated 26 trillion won in this extra budget, is paying high oil price subsidies, and has used excess tax revenues as the funding source. Excess tax revenues are already being used by the Lee Jae-myung administration as a 'vote-buying extra budget,'" adding, "It makes no sense to say that the Blue House's No. 2, the policy chief, suddenly spoke grandly about the structure of the Korean economy but meant only excess tax revenues."
Park said, "Even if they are excess tax revenues, they must be used for purposes prescribed by law, such as repaying Government Bonds under the National Finance Act," and criticized, "Claiming that if more taxes are collected they will be sprinkled as a 'populist dividend' is also a socialist idea that 'state money is the Blue House's money.'"
Politicians representing the conservative opposition, including Jang Dong-hyeok and Han Dong-hoon, also came forward to rebut the president's post.
Jang Dong-hyeok, leader of the People Power Party, wrote on Facebook on the 13th, "At a single word from the president, the article was 'light-deleted (deleted at the speed of light).' It's chilling," adding, "They say not excess profits but excess tax revenues will be 'nationally distributed as dividends.' If more taxes are collected, can the government just hand them out at will?"
Former People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon said, "It is President Lee who should stop spreading fake news," adding, "Until yesterday the Blue House distanced itself, saying the national dividend idea was Deputy Minister Kim's personal opinion, but a day later today the president stepped up as if actively defending Kim's remark."
The former leader said, "President Lee says Deputy Minister Kim's idea is a national dividend from excess tax revenues and that a national dividend from excess profits is fake news, but since excess tax revenues presuppose excess profits, the president's claim is merely a sly play on words," adding, "Judging by the president's rebuttal logic, it is clear that President Lee is the one spreading fake news."