The National Assembly is on a collision course as the parliament, where the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea holds the majority of seats, pushed through a budget cut proposal that would strip authorities in the Yoon Suk Yeol administration of their confidential funds.
This came along with another high-stakes opposition-led move to impeach the head of the state-run Board of Audit and Inspection and three prosecutors who found Yoon's wife Kim Keon Hee not guilty of her alleged involvement in a stock manipulation crime.
Rep. Park Chan-dae, the Democratic Party of Korea floor leader, said Sunday his party would float the budget proposal with a cut of over 4 trillion won ($2.86 billion) at the National Assembly plenary session on Monday. In August, the Yoon administration proposed a 677.4 trillion won national budget for 2025.
“The Democratic Party has decided to submit a budget bill with cuts tomorrow, which is the legally set deadline,” Park told a press conference, adding its budget cut decision was aligned with the liberal party's principle aimed at preventing the waste of government money in the name of the confidential funds.
Park added the budget cuts “are necessary measures to normalize the (fiscal) operations of this country.”
A few hours later, Democratic Party Chair Rep. Lee Jae-myung on Sunday said his party was "open to renegotiating the budget bill to reflect the increases proposed by the government," as he met with North Gyeongsang Province Gov. Lee Cheol-woo in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province.
In response, President Yoon's spokesperson Jeong Hey-jeon said Sunday that the opposition "had lost control of itself" in regard to the budget decision, saying that the main opposition party was "neglecting ordinary people's livelihoods" by exploiting its legislative power as it holds the majority in the parliament.
"The Democratic Party will be liable for any losses of the ordinary people if the budget cut leads to a failure to address issues pertaining to people's livelihood, public safety and foreign affairs," Jeong said.
People Power Party floor leader Rep. Choo Kyung-ho told reporters Sunday that the ruling bloc would refuse to come to the negotiating table unless the opposition-led budget committee extends an apology and drops its earlier budget cut proposal.
According to the presidential office, the confidential funds could help authorities fight drug-related crimes, digital sex crimes using deepfake technology and cyberspace crimes, among others.
But Rep. Kang Yu-jung, floor spokesperson of the Democratic Party, on Sunday claimed that the confidential funds were improperly used to pay mobile plans for employees, rental fees for air purifiers, buy vouchers and hold team gathering events, among others.
She added the confidential funds' nature of opacity and their propensity to be misused was the reason behind the party's decision.
On Friday, the opposition-led parliamentary committee, dedicated to reviewing national annual budget bills, agreed to send the 673.3 trillion won budget bill to the plenary session, while the ruling People Power Party lawmakers boycotted the committee session in protest.
As a result, confidential funds for the presidential office, Yoon's National Security Office, as well as investigative bodies such as the prosecution, the police and the state-run auditor Board of Audit and Inspection, were reduced from 20.9 billion won to zero. In South Korea, authorities are often eligible to use confidential funds to ensure activities that do not have to undergo mandatory disclosure to the public.
The same was true for the prosecution and BAI's special funds for internal probes and audits, removing the 55 billion won budget plan.
Also among the budget cut plan was a reduction of the reserve fund by 2.4 trillion won, and a cut in a 50 billion won proposal for gas and oil exploration in the East Sea to nearly zero.
Friday's move by the National Assembly's special committee on budget and accounts allowed the proposal to be tabled by as early as Monday -- a legal deadline by which an appropriations bill is supposed to pass.
It was the first time in the history of South Korea that the budget proposal was passed without bipartisan agreement.
National Assembly Speaker Rep. Woo Won-shik has invited floor leaders of the ruling and main opposition parties to a dinner Sunday to reportedly discuss the budget cut, but Choo said Sunday that he had declined to attend the dinner.
The rival main parties have also been at odds over the proposed plans to impeach BAI Chief Choi Jae-hae, as well as three prosecutors including Lee Chang-soo, head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office.
An official of the presidential office said on condition of anonymity Sunday that the impeachment proposal "would disrupt the constitutional order," adding it does not expect the Democratic Party "to go insane to the degree of doing so."
