Park Kwang-on "Does Yoon Care About Farmers' Livelihood and Food Security?"

Park Kwang-on, considered one of the candidates for the floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, criticized President Yoon Suk-yeol's veto of the amendment to the Grain Management Act, questioning, "Was there any serious consideration of farmers' right to survival or food security issues?"

On the 5th, on KBS's 'Choi Kyung-young's Strongest Current Affairs,' Park said, "Stabilizing rice prices is a very important national task because it stabilizes farmers' livelihoods and fundamentally protects food security. Could such a decision to ignore this be made so easily?"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The day before, President Yoon, in his remarks at the Cabinet meeting, directly criticized the amendment to the Grain Management Act as "a typical populist bill that goes against agricultural productivity goals and increasing farm income, and does not help farmers or rural development at all," and exercised his veto power.

Park said, "I would like to urge reconsideration of this issue," adding, "For our party, this is such an important issue that we plan to push for re-legislation and clarify any parts that were not properly reported during the process."

Park emphasized, "We will pursue re-legislation," and said, "Giving up on this critical issue just because of the president's veto is an irresponsible act of abandoning a national task, so I believe re-legislation must be pursued."

He also pointed out that many ruling party lawmakers support the Grain Management Act amendment. Park said, "Initially, many ruling party lawmakers, especially those from rural areas, supported the amendment. However, at some point, the number of supporters decreased and disappeared. Rather, making this issue a political problem?turning farmers' right to survival and food security into a political issue?is the ruling party's responsibility, isn't it?"

The ruling party opposes the bill, citing that it was also opposed during the Moon Jae-in administration. Park said, "Regarding the Grain Management Act, the opposition is based on the assumption that if the bill passes, the number of rice farming households will increase significantly. However, all necessary safeguards have been put in place for such an increase," adding, "Therefore, the fact that it was opposed during the Moon administration cannot be a basis for exercising the veto."