During the process in which last year's government research and development (R&D) budget was sharply cut, it was revealed that then–Senior Presidential Secretary for Economic Affairs Choi Sang-mok directly ordered, "Reduce the R&D budget to 10 trillion won." Ten trillion won is about one-third of this year's total R&D budget and is similar in scale to the 2008 government R&D budget.
Roh Jong-myeon, a lawmaker of the Democratic Party of Korea on the Science. ICT. Broadcasting. and Communications Committee and the Special Committee on Budget & Accounts, said on the 9th that, after reviewing the "investigation report on the R&D budget cut process" received from the Ministry of Science and ICT, he found indications that the presidential office effectively led the R&D budget cuts.
According to the investigation, in June 2023 the Ministry of Science and ICT drew up a major R&D budget plan of 25.4 trillion won, up 0.6 trillion won from the previous year, but on June 28 former President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered a complete reexamination of all projects at the National Fiscal Strategy Meeting, saying, "Shun pork-barrel-style R&D and focus on world-class research," and the situation changed rapidly.
The Ministry of Science and ICT sought partial restructuring while maintaining the aggregates, but on July 6 Senior Secretary Choi escalated the fallout by ordering, "Cut the R&D budget to 10 trillion won." According to on-site attendees at the time, Choi also said, "The scientific community is a cartel, but the Ministry of Economy and Finance is an elite, not a cartel."
Choi then proposed a "brick-laying" approach that would add, one by one, the budgets of projects deemed feasible, using 10 trillion won as the baseline. Testimony also emerged that the Ministry of Science and ICT's views were hardly reflected, and there was interference such as, "This won't do, that won't do," and "Increase this."
After an internal discussion presided over by the former president on July 20, the presidential office notified an adjustment of the aggregates for major R&D to 17.4 trillion won, and, after the Ministry of Science and ICT persuaded them to add items such as student labor costs and program-type projects, a 21.5 trillion won budget was finalized on Aug. 22.
The investigation also found that the presidential office demanded a reorganization of bio R&D centered on the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, and in early August ordered that the R&D budgets of these ministries each be increased to over 1 trillion won. In fact, while most ministries saw their R&D budgets cut, only the Ministry of Health and Welfare (12.1%), the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (10.2%), and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (3.9%) saw increases in their R&D budgets. The Ministry of Health and Welfare's "Boston-Korea Project" was not in the initial major R&D budget plan, but 60.4 billion won was newly allocated in the final budget plan.
Lawmaker Roh Jong-myeon said, "Not content with cutting the R&D budget, they tried to set it at the 10 trillion won level. They did not hesitate to push Korea's R&D back more than 20 years," adding, "As the presidential office handled the R&D budget, we need to verify who benefited and what interests were involved. Through the parliamentary audit, we will closely examine the additional R&D budgets and projects stacked like bricks on the basis of 10 trillion won."