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

Minjoo pushes ahead with the full reduction plan of the automatic 'government budget plan'
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
Minjoo "Can't budget for opaque power institutions' special activities"

[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, it strongly protested that the power of the people was a legislative coup.

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, the Democratic Party also gave up its main project budget, 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.

Bae Joon-young, the deputy floor leader, issued a statement a while ago, saying that the recent Democratic Party's behavior is nothing more than a legislative coup to stop the government, and urged the National Assembly Speaker, who has the authority to introduce the budget bill, 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.

As the Democratic Party of Korea also pushed ahead with the reduction budget plan, it failed to reflect the representative policies of Lee Jae-myung, the local currency budget of 2 trillion won and various increases in the people's livelihood budget.

This is because the increase in the district's budget is not reflected much, which could lead to opposition parties' opposition, and it is unclear whether National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik will put the unilateral budget bill to the plenary session.

It is difficult for the leaders of the ruling and opposition parties to continue negotiations immediately today as it is the weekend.

Although the two parties remain strong, saying they can't back down at all, the floor leaders of both parties are expected to start full-fledged negotiations next week.

Chairman Woo Won-sik will also meet with floor leaders of the ruling and opposition parties to organize his position on the budget ahead of a plenary session scheduled for next Monday, the legal deadline for handling the budget bill.

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