PPP: "National Pension Service Mobilized to Prop Up Stocks... Jeong Must Resign, Lee Must Apologize"

The People Power Party on the 19th called on Health and Welfare Minister Jeong Eun-kyeong to “take responsibility and resign” and President Lee Jae-myung to “sincerely apologize to the people” over the National Pension Service’s decision to keep confidential until 2034 the minutes of a Fund Management Committee meeting that approved measures including postponing rebalancing and raising the target allocation for domestic stocks.

Yonhap News Agency

At a press conference that day, People Power Party members of the National Assembly’s Special Committee on Finance, Economy and Planning and Special Committee on Pension Reform said, “The minutes of the Fund Management Committee meeting that undermined the operating principles of the National Pension Service, along with the documents supporting its decision, must be submitted to the National Assembly immediately. If the government refuses to explain, we will uncover the truth, even through a parliamentary investigation.”

“The results of this artificial effort to prop up stock prices have been disastrous. The KOSPI has plunged 38% from its peak, and the value of the National Pension Service’s domestic stock holdings has fallen by more than 182 trillion won in just three and a half months,” they said. “Even after the administration’s stock-price-boosting spree ends, the bill will fall squarely on the people’s retirement savings and future generations.”

“Was the decision to dramatically increase the share of investments in domestic stocks truly made to improve the National Pension Service’s returns, or was it a stock-price-boosting project for the president’s local elections?” they said, adding, “It must be made crystal clear what instructions were exchanged among the presidential office, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the National Pension Service.”

They continued, “An even bigger problem is the bill being left to future generations by the National Pension Service,” and said, “If the pension system continues on this path without structural reform, a large-scale asset sale in the future could send

the entire stock market into turmoil. The policy time bomb left by the Lee Jae-myung administration will ultimately be passed on to the next administration and future generations.”

After the press conference, People Power Party lawmaker Ahn Sang-hoon told reporters, in response to a question about the limitations of being a minority party, “Given the enormous harm to retail investors and the public, there will be a public demand to identify who made this absurd decision. Whether through a parliamentary investigation or a special counsel probe, those responsible must now be held accountable.”

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