Government standoff ahead of next year's budget deadline

[Anchor]

Hello everyone.

This is the 9 o'clock news on a Sunday.

There is only one day left until the legal deadline for next year's budget proposal.

However, the ruling and opposition parties are continuing their standoff.

The issue is that the Democratic Party unilaterally processed a budget proposal with only cuts and no increases in the Budget Committee.

The Democratic Party has stated that it will present this budget proposal at the plenary session tomorrow (Dec. 2), while the People Power Party has declared that there will be no further negotiations unless it is withdrawn.

Kim Min-cheol reports.

[Report]

The Democratic Party has announced that it will present the 'reduced budget proposal' passed solely by the opposition in the Budget Committee at tomorrow's plenary session.

As an agreement with the ruling party fell through and the Ministry of Economy and Finance also did not agree to any increases, they believe this is an unavoidable measure to meet the legal deadline.

[Park Chan-dae/Democratic Party Floor Leader: "If the Budget Committee does not make a decision by November 30, all the discussions that have taken place for over a month will become meaningless, and the government proposal will just be submitted."]

They have threatened that further cuts are possible but have left the door open for additional negotiations.

[Lee Jae-myung/Democratic Party Leader: "The proposal for cuts has been passed, and if the government submits a revised proposal, we can discuss it with them."]

The People Power Party criticized that the opposition's unilateral budget proposal was carried out under the direction of Leader Lee Jae-myung.

They stated that there will be no additional negotiations without an apology from the Democratic Party and the withdrawal of the reduced budget proposal, declaring a 'line in the sand'.

[Choo Kyung-ho/People Power Party Floor Leader: "We are concerned that the unilateral budget cuts by the opposition will exacerbate the suffering of the people and create gaps in public safety..."]

Leader Han Dong-hoon, who visited a site affected by heavy snowfall, criticized the reduction of the disaster response reserve fund by 1 trillion won, saying, "The opposition is being abusive towards the disaster victims."

[Han Dong-hoon/People Power Party Leader: "Support needs to be provided quickly to help these areas."]

At tomorrow's plenary session, in addition to next year's budget proposal, impeachment motions against the Chairman of the Board of Audit and Inspection, Choi Jae-hae, and three prosecutors are also expected to be reported, and the Secretary-General of the Board of Audit and Inspection, Choi Dal-young, is scheduled to hold an emergency briefing tomorrow to express his position on the unjust nature of the impeachment push.

KBS News, Kim Min-cheol.