Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, floor leader of the ruling People Power Party, comforts displaced residents at an evacuation shelter in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, Thursday. Yonhap

As Korea faces its worst-ever wildfire disaster, the nation's two main rival political parties are embroiled in a blame game over the nation's reserve funds for unexpected calamities.

The ruling People Power Party (PPP) is pushing to restore the reserve fund, which was significantly reduced by the opposition-controlled National Assembly late last year, while the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is advocating for a supplementary budget.

In December, the National Assembly passed the 2025 budget bill, cutting the total reserve fund in half — from 4.8 trillion won ($3.6 billion) to 2.4 trillion won. The fund specifically allocated for disaster and emergency response was reduced from 2.6 trillion won to 1.6 trillion won.

The PPP blamed the DPK for cutting the reserve fund and pushing for a large-scale supplementary budget. It also formed a special committee for wildfire disaster response and urged the government to expand the designation of special disaster areas.

"The DPK not only drastically cut the reserve fund during last year's budget review, but also left key government posts vacant, preventing the government from responding quickly and effectively to the wildfires," PPP spokesperson Cho Yong-sool said.

PPP's policy chief, Rep. Kim Sang-hoon, added "The DPK, which endorses sending out cash coupons to everyone regardless of income status is opposing the disaster reserves for citizens and public officials who lost their lives and property due to the unexpected wildfires."

Rep. Lee Jae-myung, center, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, comforts displaced residents at an evacuation shelter in Yeongyang County, North Gyeongsang Province, Thursday. Yonhap

The DPK responded, stating that the government has sufficient resources to implement measures for wildfire response and victim support.

"The PPP is lying as if they are unable to properly implement wildfire countermeasures due to lack of budget," DPK leader Rep. Lee Jae-myung said during a Supreme Council meeting on Friday.

Currently, the government's disaster response budget stands at 927 billion won, with 360 billion won allocated to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and 100 billion won to the Korea Forest Service. When combined with the 1.6 trillion won reserve fund allocated for disaster and emergency response, 800 billion won in general reserves and 1.5 trillion won in national debt, the government currently has a total budget of 4.87 trillion won available for wildfire response measures.

The ruling and opposition parties have agreed to resume discussions on a supplementary budget, which had been put on hold, in response to the recent wildfires. However, they remain divided on the scale and specific details. The DPK opposes increasing the reserve fund, arguing that its proposed supplementary budget from last month already includes 900 billion won for public safety measures.

"When we proposed the separate supplementary budget, we emphasized that we had allocated 900 billion won for disaster response funds to respond to forest fires, floods and droughts," the DPK's top policymaker Jin Sung-joon said. "Let's expand the number of helicopters and fire trucks for extinguishing wildfires through the supplementary budget, not through the reserve funds."

Leaders of both parties visited wildfire-stricken Gyeongsang Province on Friday, pledging support for recovery efforts in the affected regions.

Rep. Kwon Young-se, interim leader of the PPP, visited Uiseong and Andong in North Gyeongsang Province, where the wildfire damage was most severe. He also plans to attend the funeral of a pilot who was killed when a firefighting helicopter crashed while battling a large wildfire in Uiseong.

Lee visited an evacuation shelter in Sancheong, South Gyeongsang Province, to comfort displaced residents.