Ruling Party: "Deceiving the Public with Bogus Numbers"
Opposition: "Playing Games and Lying in Front of Disaster Victims"
The conflict between the ruling and opposition parties over whether to prepare a supplementary budget (supplementary budget) for wildfire damage recovery has escalated into a battle over the truth. The ruling People Power Party criticized the Democratic Party's claim that "the government budget is sufficient" as a "deceptive" act. The Democratic Party, in turn, rebutted that the People Power Party is "lying."
On the 28th, the People Power Party fiercely attacked Representative Lee, who said regarding the large-scale wildfire disaster in the Yeongnam region, "The budget is sufficient, but the government's will and ability are lacking," stating, "He is deceiving the public with bogus numbers without fact-checking to avoid responsibility for the outrageous cut in the main budget's contingency funds." Kim Sang-hoon, chairman of the People Power Party's Policy Committee, issued a statement pointing this out and added, "National budgets are to be used according to principles and standards, not recklessly like petty cash. We express regret over Representative Lee's slapdash and shortsighted attitude toward the national budget."
Earlier, before the 10th West Sea Defense Day memorial ceremony held in Daejeon, Representative Lee said at the Supreme Council meeting, "There is already a total of 4.87 trillion won in national contingency funds available for wildfire countermeasures," and criticized, "Even at sites where many people have suffered severe damage and are in despair, the People Power Party is engaging in political strife. They are even recklessly committing acts of deceiving the people."
Kwon Seong-dong, floor leader of the People Power Party, is speaking at an emergency meeting of the Special Committee on Wildfire Disaster Response held at the National Assembly on the 27th. 2025.3.27 Photo by Kim Hyun-min
Chairman Kim refuted point by point that the 4.87 trillion won contingency fund mentioned by Representative Lee as immediately available was false. First, he pointed out, "The contingency fund in the 2025 main budget was initially proposed by the government at 4.8 trillion won, but the Democratic Party unilaterally cut 2.4 trillion won, resulting in a contingency fund of 2.4 trillion won."
He continued, "Among the allocated contingency funds, excluding 800 billion won for economic crisis response, national security, and public safety maintenance general contingency funds, 1.6 trillion won was allocated as purpose-specific contingency funds for disasters and calamities," adding, "However, of the 1.6 trillion won in purpose-specific contingency funds, about 1.2 trillion won was unilaterally confirmed by the Democratic Party to be spent on projects such as free high school education, so the actually immediately usable purpose-specific contingency fund is about 400 billion won."
Regarding the claim that 970 billion won in disaster and calamity funds remain in each ministry, he criticized, "They spread false information to the public without proper verification. The disaster and calamity funds in each ministry total 927 billion won, not 970 billion won, and of this, only 199.8 billion won is immediately available." Song Eon-seok, a People Power Party member and chairman of the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee, also issued a statement that day, raising his voice, "Representative Lee and the Democratic Party are deceiving the public as if the wildfire response budget is sufficient by using inaccurate numbers without proper verification. We will file a complaint against Representative Lee, who is staging a public fraud."
On the other hand, Jin Sung-jun, policy committee chairman of the Democratic Party, said, "The Ministry of the Interior and Safety's disaster countermeasure fund of 360 billion won has already been allocated, and the Korea Forest Service's forest disaster countermeasure fund of 100 billion won has also been allocated," adding, "If the ministry budgets are insufficient, execution is possible from the 1.6 trillion won purpose-specific contingency fund. If that is still insufficient, 1.5 trillion won can be utilized through the disaster countermeasure national treasury debt burden act."
Heo Young, Democratic Party member and opposition whip of the National Assembly's Budget and Accounts Special Committee, also explained, "The 4.8 trillion won contingency fund submitted by the government was an excessive amount compared to the scale allocated during the COVID-19 situation," and said, "The claim that opposition-led contingency fund cuts worsened disaster response is incorrect." Since their own supplementary budget proposal last month included 900 billion won for national safety budgets, they maintain that the disaster response budget scale is sufficient.
Representative Lee also asserted, "What budget shortage are they talking about? Has even a single won of this contingency fund been spent?" "Do they want to play games telling such lies in front of disaster victims who have lost their families, burned all their possessions, and are sitting in despair?"
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