Yeo "Cutting Saemangeum Budget, Blaming Jeonbuk for Jamboree Disruption"

"Retaliatory Budgeting by the Yoon Seok-yeol Government and the People Power Party"

Regarding the government's 78% cut in the Saemangeum infrastructure budget for next year, Democratic Party lawmakers from the Jeollabuk-do region criticized it as "blaming Jeonbuk for the failure of the Saemangeum World Scout Jamboree."

On the 30th, Democratic Party lawmakers from Jeonbuk, including Representative Kim Seong-ju, held a press conference at the National Assembly and stated, "We solemnly condemn the obstinate and petty Yoon Seok-yeol administration and the People Power Party on behalf of the 1.8 million residents of Jeollabuk-do."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

They said, "At the end of May, budget requests submitted by various government ministries, including the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, to the Ministry of Economy and Finance included a total of 738.9 billion won for 24 Saemangeum-related projects. However, in the government budget announced yesterday, only 186.1 billion won, or 25%, was reflected. A staggering 552.8 billion won, accounting for 75%, was cut during the Ministry of Economy and Finance's review process."

The lawmakers criticized, "In particular, the budget for 10 Saemangeum social overhead capital (SOC) projects, which are already reflected in the Saemangeum Master Plan (MP) and underway, was submitted by various ministries to the Ministry of Economy and Finance with 662.6 billion won, but the final budget reflected in next year's government budget is only 147.9 billion won (22.3%). A massive 77.7% was slashed."

They added, "If the Ministry of Economy and Finance prepared the budget for specific regions or projects emotionally and arbitrarily, this goes beyond abuse of discretion to abuse of authority. This large-scale budget cut cannot be explained unless it is a retaliatory budget allocation by the Yoon Seok-yeol administration and the People Power Party, who politically exploited the Saemangeum project by forcibly linking it to the Jamboree and blaming Jeonbuk for the Jamboree's failure."

They emphasized, "We will definitely correct the Yoon Seok-yeol administration's retaliatory budget cuts during the National Assembly's review process of next year's government budget. Furthermore, we will not tolerate any attempts to kill Jeonbuk, and especially, we will never overlook any acts that damage the value and vision of Saemangeum due to the recent Saemangeum Jamboree failure."