PM to deliver 2025 budget speech at National Assembly

Published : Nov 4, 2024 - 09:28 Updated : Nov 4, 2024 - 09:28

Three bills on special probes into first lady Kim Keon Hee, a Marine's death and universal cash handouts are voted down during a plenary session at the National Assembly in Seoul, in this Oct. 4. (Yonhap)

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo will deliver the government's 2025 budget speech at the National Assembly on behalf of President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday, Han's office said.

It marks the first time in 11 years that a sitting president has not addressed parliament on the annual budget. Yoon presented the budget speech the past two years after taking office in May 2022.

Since 1988, it has been customary for presidents to outline their key priorities to lawmakers before submitting the government's budget proposal.

While former presidents generally delivered this address only in their first year and delegated it to the prime minister in later years, former President Park Geun-hye established the practice of delivering it annually starting in 2013.

Yoon's decision to skip the address at the midpoint of his single five-year term comes amid deepening political strife between rival parties.

The main opposition Democratic Party has intensified its political offensive against Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee by highlighting their alleged connection with a self-proclaimed power broker at the center of an election nomination scandal.

In September, Yoon also opted not to attend the opening session of the 22nd Assembly, marking the first absence by an incumbent president from the ceremony since 1987. (Yonhap)