Ruling and opposition parties, budget dispute escalates..."Reducing the cost of special activities vs. legislative coup"

About 4 trillion won less than the government's proposal...a reduction in special activity costs for investigative agencies

The budget for gas field projects, etc., has been drastically reduced...Half reserve

Democratic Party "Unable to budget for special activities of opaque power institutions"

The ruling party should restore it to its original state, including special expenses...legislative coup"

[Anchor]
The confrontation between the ruling and opposition parties is intensifying as the Democratic Party of Korea pushes ahead with next year's government budget bill, which only reflects the opinion of the reduction.

In particular, when the Democratic Party of Korea emphasized that it could not accept poorly explained budgets such as special activity expenses for investigative agencies, the people's power strongly protested, saying it was a legislative coup to stop the government.

I'm connecting you with a reporter from the National Assembly. Reporter Son Hyojung!

The legal deadline for next week's budget bill is approaching, so please tell us the status of the budget review.

[Reporter]
The Democratic Party of Korea passed the budget bill yesterday, which only reflected the opinion of the reduction, to prevent the government's budget bill from automatically going up to the plenary session due to the failure of the ruling and opposition parties' agreement.

Unlike increasing the budget, it is possible for the National Assembly to reduce the budget without government consent.

The passed budget was 673.3 trillion won, which is 4 trillion won less than the government's proposal.

The special activity costs of the presidential office, prosecutors, police, and the Board of Audit and Inspection, which had been confronted by the ruling and opposition parties, were all cut,
Following the budget for government-focused projects such as the
East Sea gas field project, the reserve budget to prepare for unexpected expenditures has also been drastically reduced.

In particular, the Democratic Party reiterated its position that it cannot specify where it is used and that it cannot organize special activity costs for power agencies that are executed opaquely.

In order to pass the reduction budget bill, the Democratic Party also gave up increasing the budget for key projects, and a floor official told YTN that there was an in-house persuasion to "give weight and take bones."

On the other hand, the people's power is maintaining the position that the reduced special activity expenses should be restored to their original state.

In his statement, Bae Joon-young, the deputy floor leader, said that the Democratic Party of Korea has launched a legislative coup by cutting the government's essential budget, and urged the National Assembly Speaker, who has the authority to propose a budget, to correct it.

In addition to the impeachment of First Lady Kim Gun-hee, the head of the Board of Audit and Inspection and the prosecutor, the political situation has become even more frozen due to the opposition's super-strong budget plan.

However, the prevailing observation is that there is still room for negotiation.

The Democratic Party also failed to reflect representative Lee Jae-myung's representative policy of 2 trillion won in local currency budget and various increases in people's livelihood budget, which could lead to internal opposition,
This is because it is unclear whether Chairman Woo Won-sik of the National Assembly,
, will submit a unilateral budget bill to the plenary session.

Today, the weekend, is difficult for the leaders of the ruling and opposition parties to continue negotiations immediately.

Both parties remain tough on their stance of not backing down an inch yet, but the floor leaders of the ruling and opposition parties are expected to start full-fledged negotiations next Monday, the legal deadline for handling the budget bill.

Chairman Woo Won-sik will also meet with the floor leaders of the ruling and opposition parties before the plenary session next Monday to summarize his position on the budget bill.

So far, I've delivered it to you by the National Assembly.