Pension Reform

[Anchor Lead]

A national pension advisory committee is expected to officially announce on Friday that Korea's national pension fund will become depleted two or three years earlier than initially forecast, the year 2060. Authorities are considering raising national pension premiums and extending the subscription period by five years and pushing back the minimum age for pension recipients to 68 years old. The plan has aroused a public backlash.

[Pkg]

More than a thousand messages have been posted on the Cheong Wa Dae board regarding the national pension reform. They were posted in just one week. Most of them criticize the national pension reform plan. Some of the messages say, "Make national pension optional" and "You'd better get rid of national pension altogether." National pension subscribers blasted the reform plan, which has been partially unveiled by the media prior to its official announcement slated for Friday.

[Soundbite] Lee Hong-koo (Daejeon Resident) : "Raising the pension premium or extending the subscription period is just a temporary solution."

The minister of health and welfare stepped in to quell the controversy. He said that the unveiled reform was only part of the proposal made by the national pension advisory committee and that it did not represent the government's plan. The minister added that the government will draft its own plan by late September based on the opinions of the public, and will then submit the bill to parliament in October. However, appeasing the enraged public will likely be difficult, as an increase in pension premiums and the extension of subscription period are inevitable in order to prevent the depletion of the national pension fund. Many are calling on the government to follow the example of Japan, where public anxiety over pension payment was quelled by enacting a law that guarantees national pension to its citizens.