Choo Kyung-ho, the floor leader of the People Power Party, proposed to handle pension reform with public consensus during the first regular session of the 22nd National Assembly.
On the 26th, Floor Leader Choo stated at the National Assembly, "Rather than a clumsy reform rushed by political strife and time constraints, we will prioritize it as the top agenda in the first regular session of the 22nd National Assembly."
He also suggested forming a consultative body involving the ruling and opposition parties and the government to discuss both parametric reform and structural reform together. Additionally, he emphasized the need to reestablish the National Assembly Pension Special Committee, which ended its activities in the 21st National Assembly, in the 22nd National Assembly to "derive reform plans with public consensus including youth and future generations."
Earlier, the Democratic Party had proposed prioritizing the parametric reform plan containing "a 13% contribution rate and a 44% income replacement rate," which expires on the 29th within the 21st National Assembly.
Floor Leader Choo criticized, "The Democratic Party, which had neglected pension reform over the years, suddenly wants to hastily push through an unresolved pension reform just three days before the end of the 21st National Assembly's term."
He explained, "The failure to reach an agreement now is not simply about a 1 percentage point issue in the income replacement rate," adding, "It is difficult to separate structural reform issues such as linking the National Pension and Basic Pension."
Regarding the Democratic Party and Speaker Kim Jin-pyo's proposal to "first implement parametric reform in the 21st National Assembly and then structural reform in the 22nd National Assembly," he responded negatively, saying, "Is this a trustworthy proposal? Once the hastily adjusted figures are finalized, the momentum for pension reform will decline."
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