Ahn Cheol-soo: "Unify Civil Servant, Private School, and Military Pensions into National Pension Reform Pledge"

Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate of the People’s Party, is announcing the third youth pledge related to home ownership for young people at the National Assembly on the 19th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate of the People’s Party, pledged on the 23rd to reform public pensions, including the National Pension and the Government Employees Pension.

On the same day, Ahn held a press conference at the National Assembly and stated, "I will protect the future of the youth through the integration of public pensions." He said, "For four and a half years, the Moon Jae-in administration thoroughly ignored pension reform, and now major presidential candidates are pretending not to know due to electoral concerns, but someone must step up for the future of the nation."

He went on to name Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea, Yoon Seok-youl of the People Power Party, Shim Sang-jung of the Justice Party, and even former Deputy Prime Minister Kim Dong-yeon, who is attempting to form a third force, proposing a 'Joint Declaration on Public Pension Reform.'

After the press conference, he told reporters, "Anyone who does not actively raise the issue of the imminent pension depletion problem is not qualified to be a presidential candidate."

The core of Ahn’s pledge is to unify all public pension systems into the National Pension system.

As the first step, he announced plans to promote a 'Common Pension' system for the National Pension and three special occupational pensions (government employees, military personnel, and private school teachers). The plan is to unify the financial design structure, including contribution rates, state and employer burden ratios, income replacement rates, and pension commencement age.

He also stated that he would enact a 'Sustainable Integrated National Pension Act' to reorganize the currently fragmented public pension systems into a single National Pension system. However, he added, "Existing vested rights before the system reform will be recognized."

Along with this, he promised to establish a 'National Public Pension Reform Promotion Committee' composed of politicians, civil society, and pension finance experts to design specific standards for integrated operation.

Ahn emphasized, "Without the spirit of social grand compromise, including agreement among ruling and opposition parties and consensus and consent from all members of the community, it will be difficult to gain strong momentum for implementation," and stressed, "Above all, it is important for the presidential candidates from both ruling and opposition parties to reach a preemptive agreement on public pension reform."