Parties agree on pension reform

[Anchor]

Discussions on the National Pension reform have made some progress.

The ruling and opposition parties have found common ground on the contentious issue of the income replacement rate, agreeing to set it at 43%.

The remaining issues now include whether to introduce an automatic stabilization mechanism.

Reporter Bang Jun-won has the story.

[Report]

While an agreement was reached to raise the 'insurance premium rate' by 13%, the pension reform proposal could not narrow the 1% point gap on the 'income replacement rate'.

The Democratic Party had been pushing for 44%, while the People Power Party was advocating for 43%, but the Democratic Party has taken a step back.

[Jin Sung-jun/Democratic Party Policy Committee Chair: "We have decided to make one more concession. We will accept the income replacement rate of 43% proposed by the People Power Party and the government."]

The Democratic Party has set conditions such as the formalization of state payment guarantees, additional recognition of joining periods during childbirth and military service, and expanded support for insurance premiums for low-income individuals, which have already been agreed upon by both parties and the government.

The People Power Party welcomed this immediately.

[Kim Sang-hoon/People Power Party Policy Committee Chair: "We accept this positively and welcome it. We will work with the government to ensure a reasonable decision be made..."]

However, there are still unresolved issues.

The ruling and opposition parties are in a tug-of-war over the wording of 'consensus processing' regarding the formation of the National Assembly's pension reform special committee to discuss structural reforms.

[Woo Won-shik/Chairman of the National Assembly/Yesterday: "(The pension special committee formation proposal) was not processed due to very minor and non-essential issues. It is very regrettable..."]

The Democratic Party still opposes the introduction of an 'automatic adjustment mechanism' that links pension amounts to changes in population structure.

As the pension reform proposal has finally taken a step forward, it is expected that the ruling and opposition parties will restart the National Policy Council next week to seriously discuss pension reform and the supplementary budget proposal.

This is KBS News, Bang Jun-won.