Han Dong-hoon, leader of the People Power Party, said on the 22nd that "discussing a supplementary budget at this point in time would only cause confusion" in response to the presidential office's statement that seemed to leave open the possibility of an additional supplementary budget.
After the party-government meeting on livelihood economy inspection held at the National Assembly that day, Han met with reporters and said, "At this point, the budget bill is at the stage just before being finalized. According to the law, shouldn't the (next year's budget) be decided within a few days?" He added, "From that perspective, I understand that Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok expressed the government's position that discussing a supplementary budget now is not appropriate."
Earlier, the presidential office stated regarding the supplementary budget, "We do not exclude an active role of finance including the supplementary budget, but the timing has not been set for a supplementary budget early next year."
In addition, regarding media reports that Kang Ki-hoon, senior administrative officer of the Presidential Office's Office for National Policy Planning, who returned to work after being disciplined for drunk driving, has expressed his intention to resign, Han said, "The presidential office must have made a good judgment regarding personnel matters."
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