| President Yoon Suk Yeol enters a hall to appoint the new vice chair of the presidential committee on low birthrates at the presidential office in Yongsan District, Seoul, Feb. 8. Yonhap |
By Nam Hyun-woo
Recent decisions from the National Assembly ― a refusal to revive key pension rates and a vote to impeach the interior minister ― seem to be thwarting President Yoon Suk Yeol's efforts to reform the nation's pension system and governmental working processes.
The parliamentary special committee on pension reform said last week that “it is not the time to discuss revisions to the income replacement rate of pensions and premium rate,” adding that it will concentrate on "long-term structural reforms of the country's national pension system."
Revising the income replacement rate of pensions and premium rate is seen as the most challenging job in pension reform, because the former determines the amount of benefits that a holder will receive, while the latter affects the amount the holder will pay.
With the general election coming up next year, rival parties have been hesitant to make a decision between two scenarios as the revision could potentially yet negatively affect the public sentiment. Both of the scenarios involve increasing the premium rate to 15 percent from the current 9 percent, but they differ in their approach to increasing the pension replacement rate, which is currently at 40 percent, to 50 percent or keeping it at the current level.
“There are various opinions on revising the premium rate and pension replacement rate, and this is not a matter that can be easily determined by the (Assembly's) pension reform committee or private advisory committees,” said Rep. Kim Sung-ju of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, who is a member of the pension reform committee.
“If the government drafts its comprehensive national pension operation plan in October, the Assembly will make a decision based on the plan.”
However, questions remain whether the Assembly will prioritize this sensitive issue in October, when the general election is just a few months away. In light of this, Deputy Prime Minister Choo Kyung-ho urged on Feb. 10 that the Assembly should “make more fundamental approach, rather than delaying its discussions.”
Though the government said it will have the Ministry of Economy and Finance to carry out pensions reform without setback, but pundits and government officials are skeptical of Yoon's pensions reform drive delivering tangible outcomes before the general election in April next year.
| Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min leaves his home in Apgujeong-dong, Gangnam District, Seoul, Feb. 9. Yonhap |
Including labor and education, pension is one of the three fields that President Yoon has suggested as top reform priorities during his presidency. He recently added government reform to his agenda, which the presidential office now refers to as the "three plus one" initiative.
The government reform has, however, also hit a snag, as Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min was suspended from his job after the Assembly passed an impeachment motion against him for his “slack responses” to the crowd crush disaster that occurred late last year in Itaewon, Seoul.
Since Lee will be suspended until the Constitutional Court decides whether to uphold the motion, the government's planned events on reforming its structure and system have come to a halt.
“The interior minister was spearheading the government's disaster control system improvement projects but there have been set backs after he was suspended from the job,” an official at the presidential office said. “Also, there are difficulties in carrying out government reform plans without the minister.”
“With the vice minister in charge of the ministry, we believe the focus should be on maintaining the current status, rather than pushing for reforms aggressively.”