DP floor leader raises need for another round of universal stimulus checks

Rep. Yun Ho-jung, floor leader of the ruling Democratic Party (DP), has said the country needs to come up with another round of universal COVID-19 response stimulus checks in time for the national attainment of herd immunity.

"(The government) needs to provide emergency handouts and take measures for grand economic reconciliation as a new strategy to reinvigorate the economy for the post-COVID-19 era," the ruling party floor leader said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency at the National Assembly on Monday.

"(The government) needs to take far-reaching economic revitalization measures around the time (South Korea) attains herd immunity," he added.

The floor leader elaborated that those measures could include legal or administrative actions to recover the credit of those hit by COVID-19 at a time when the pandemic rendered many people bankrupt or less creditworthy.

"I am, in other words, calling for a kind of (economic) renaissance movement," Yun said.

His proposal mirrors a growing call inside the ruling party for a second round of stimulus checks to all South Koreans following the first universal COVID-19 response emergency handouts distributed in May last year.

Currently, some DP lawmakers are floating an option to provide universal stimulus checks before the extended traditional Chuseok holidays in late September, ahead of the country's attainment of herd immunity, estimated for November.

Yun also made the case for the parliamentary passage, within this month, of a new law aimed at recompensing small business owners for losses incurred by antivirus social distancing measures.

The DP is currently trying to reach a compromise with the government over whether the envisioned damage compensation law, if enacted, should be applied retrospectively, he also said. (Yonhap)