[News Focus] Moon's extra budget speech fails to win over opposition

Addressing the National Assembly for the first time since taking office, President Moon Jae-in apparently had a two-way strategy in mind -- to reiterate his pledge to deal with the nation‘s employment crisis and to break through the current deadlock with the opposition parties.

The state chief’s action, however, did little either to propel the disputed budget plan ahead or to alleviate the partisan conflicts over his key personnel decisions.

The parliament failed to adopt a confirmation hearing report on Kim Sang-jo, nominated by Moon to head the Fair Trade Commission, on Monday afternoon, while delaying action on two other nominees.

On the extra budget submitted by the government last week, two opposition parties and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea agreed to start deliberations, minus the main opposition Liberty Korea Party.

At the heart of the persisting antagonism was the conservative main opposition Liberty Korea Party, which controls 107 seats of the 299-member parliament.

“We will not consent to the extra budget or the government restructuring plan, unless (the presidential office) calls off the nominations (of problematic personnel),” said Rep. Chung Woo-taik, its interim chief and floor leader.

“The president speaks of communication, but in order to reach out to the parliament, he should first take actions on these three (nominees),” he said, referring to Foreign Minister nominee Kang Kyung-wha, FTC chairman nominee Kim and Constitutional Court chief justice nominee Kim Yi-su.

The main conservative party chief also boycotted the morning meeting between the president and the representatives of three other parties under the chairmanship of Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun.

“It is politically and morally outrageous that the floor leaders and parliamentary speaker should reach a consensus in the absence of the main opposition party,” Chung said.

The ruling liberal Democratic Party, along with the People‘s Party and Bareun Party, earlier consented to review and vote on the budget plan.

The People’s Party, which upheld the president‘s budget plan, also added its opinion that the details of the blueprint were flawed.

It was the ruling party only which entirely stood in support of the idea.

“In the past, the role of the opposition was to check the government, but now it is time to share responsibility over state affairs,” said the ruling party chief Rep. Choo Mi-ae, pushing for the opposition’s cooperation.

Last Wednesday, the government submitted a supplementary budget of 11.2 trillion won ($9.95 billion) to the parliament. Of the amount, some 4.2 trillion won is to be used to create about 71,000 new jobs in the public sector.

The fiscal plan fully reflected Moon’s first administrative order as president, which was to create a presidential committee on job creation, which will devote itself to labor market supervision and job boosting policies.

The plan was met with a backlash from the hard-line conservative Liberty Korea Party, which called for stricter fiscal prerequisites in order to draw up an extra budget.

The main opposition party alone falls short of holding back the budget plan. The ruling liberal party, together with the runner-up opposition People’s Party and Bareun Party, account for a decision-making majority of 180 seats.

But regardless of the parliamentary quorum, Moon has been leaning towards a peaceful solution as the opposition‘s help is crucial in order to approve the pending appointment of Cabinet members.

The most urgent issue at hand is that of the foreign minister, whose role is much needed in the upcoming Korea-US summit to be held in Washington later this month.

Seeking to make under-the-table negotiations with the resisting opposition, a group of senior officials accompanied the president to the parliament Monday.

Apart from the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, who conventionally assists the president’s communication with political circles, Moon’s chief of staff, social affairs secretaries and most of his legal affairs staff made their way to Yeouido on Monday, according to the Blue House.

It was President Moon’s first visit to Yeouido since his inauguration ceremony on May 10. It had taken his ousted predecessor Park Geun-hye 267 days after her swearing-in to visit the parliament for the first time. It was also the first-ever presidential address at the parliament on a supplementary budget.

Moon has earlier vowed to reach across the aisle and to become a president for all, not just for the ones who supported him, but also for those who stood against him in the election.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.cm)