DP to introduce downsized 2025 budget bill

Dec 02, 2024, 10:51 am

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People Power Party floor leader Choo Kyung-ho speaks during a press conference at the National Assembly in Seoul on Dec. 1, 2024./ Photographed by Song Eui-joo

AsiaToday reporter Han Dae-eui

The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) is raising the level of pressure on the presidential office and the ruling party as it plans to introduce a downsized budget bill for next year in a plenary National Assembly session, which affects the whole amount flagged for special activity expenses of the presidential office as well as those of the prosecution, the state audit agency and the police.

According to the political community on Sunday, the DP plans to report motions Monday to impeach Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) Chair Choe Jae-hae and three prosecutors, including Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office Chief Prosecutor Lee Chang-soo, and put it to a vote on Wednesday. It is the first time in the constitutional history that the party has sought to impeach the head of the Board of Audit and Inspection, a constitutional institution with independence from duties. The DP plans to introduce the motion against BAI Chair Choe for refusing to comply with a parliamentary request to submit documents related to an audit of the presidential office relocation.

In response, the BAI plans to hold a briefing on Monday to refute such suspicions. The DP also took issue with the impeachment of three prosecutors in response to the prosecution not indicting first lady Kim Keon-hee over her alleged involvement in a stock price manipulation scandal. The DP can handle the impeachment motion unilaterally as it holds a parliamentary majority.

The ruling People Power Party (PPP) immediately protested the DP’s move, calling it a “legislative coup.” “The DP is pushing for the impeachment of the BAI chairman and the prosecutors because they believe that Lee Jae-myung, the leading presidential candidate, can get rid of judicial risk by affecting the court of appeals as Lee was found guilty of violating the election law in the first trial and then was acquitted in the first trial of the perjury teacher case,” a ruling party official said.

The DP also announced that it will introduce a downsized budget bill for next year in a plenary National Assembly session today. DP floor leader Park Chan-dae called the move an “extraordinary measure to normalize” state housekeeping, stressing his party’s efforts to block a tax cut for the superrich and slash the budgets for state agencies wielding power. In response, PPP chairman Han Dong-hoon said, “The DP, which had been saying it tries to supplement the budget for the people’s livelihood, is now trying to take hostage against the people with its majority.”

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