Yoon vows to reach national consensus on pension reform

Jul 07, 2023, 09:48 am

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President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during a meeting reviewing youth policies at the Floating Island Convention Hall in Seoul on July 6, 2023./ Source: Presidential Office

AsiaToday reporter Hong Sun-mi

President Yoon Suk-yeol met young people on Thursday and vowed to come up with a proper pension reform plan during his term and reach a national consensus.

“I believe fundamental reforms will be possible from next year,” the president said while presiding over a meeting reviewing the results of his administration’s youth policies in its first year at the Floating Island Convention Hall in Seoul, hinting at a ruling party victory in the general elections.

On labor reform, Yoon said, “We need to establish the rule of law in the industrial field,” and stressed, “We need to make the labor market more flexible depending on demand and supply in order to give future generations more opportunities.”

On education reform, he said, “Removing barriers of departments of university education or within universities is a way to make it more flexible.”

He is gearing up to carry out reforms in his second year of power. In his New Year’s address this year, he expressed the willingness to carry out reforms, saying, “We can no longer delay the top three reforms in labor, education, and pensions for the future of Korea and future generations.”

Yoon also expressed regret over the current situation of the National Assembly, where the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) holds a majority.

“The government is currently a minority group in the National Assembly,” he said. “They try to hinder whatever we do. Our party submitted 99 bills by organizing my campaign pledges into 120 national tasks, but none of them have passed or even properly discussed,” he added.

Regarding the youth, Yoon said, “In fact, I became the president because of you. At first, I started my political career because I didn’t know anything about politics but wanted to normalize the country. In the end, they were young people who chose me as an election campaign partner.” The meeting was attended by 650 people, including government officials, members of the youth policy coordination committee under the Prime Minister’s Office, youth advisers for each ministry and youth interns.

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