National Assembly Conducts Comprehensive Review of Settlement Bill... Ruling and Opposition Clash Over Presidential Office Special Activity Funds

The National Assembly began a comprehensive review of the final accounts for the 2025 fiscal year on August 24, 2026. As the opposition party signaled its intention to rigorously scrutinize the two rounds of supplementary budgets as well as the special activity funds allocated to the Presidential Office and the three major special prosecutor teams, both the ruling and opposition parties engaged in disputes over current issues such as relations with the United States, real estate policies, and tax reform proposals.

The Special Committee on Budget and Accounts of the National Assembly convened a plenary meeting that morning to conduct comprehensive policy inquiries. Prime Minister Han Sung-sook stated, “Last year, the government formulated and executed a main budget of approximately 673 trillion won, along with a supplementary budget of about 45 trillion won,” and added, “We will do our utmost to promote locally led growth focusing on the three mega projects.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance Koo Yoon-chul is reporting the final accounts for the 2025 fiscal year at the first plenary meeting of the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts held at the National Assembly on August 24, 2026. Photo by Kim Hyun-min

The People Power Party previously declared its intention to closely investigate the supplementary budgets and the special activity funds of the Presidential Office and the three major special prosecutor teams. Yoo Sang-beom, secretary of the Special Committee from the People Power Party, said, “We requested the submission of special activity fund details from the Presidential Office and the three special prosecutor teams, but all have refused. Please request the documents through a resolution of the committee.”

Bae Joon-young, a People Power Party legislator, added, “The responsibility for policy should not fall to the ministries if the Presidential Office sets the policies,” and called for Blue House Policy Chief Kim Yong-bum to be present. Song Eon-seok of the People Power Party requested, “As budgeting and settlement are highly important, please ensure that decisions are made based on consensus and not handled unilaterally.”

Meanwhile, the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts will continue its comprehensive policy inquiries on the final accounts through August 25, 2026, and will conduct ministry-level reviews for economic and non-economic departments on August 26 and 31, respectively. Subsequently, the committee plans to refer the final accounts for the 2025 fiscal year to the plenary session through review by the Subcommittee on Settlement and a final plenary vote.

However, the likelihood of the final accounts being passed before the opening of the regular National Assembly session in September appears low. While the current National Assembly Act stipulates that the review and resolution of the final accounts must be completed before the regular session convenes, since 2017 (for the 2016 fiscal year final accounts) and through last year, the final accounts have consistently been processed later than the statutory deadline.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.