Democratic Party Urges Resolution of Supreme Court Justice Vacancies and Utilization of Tax Revenue

The Democratic Party strongly demanded that the government implement effective measures to prevent families of individuals with developmental disabilities, who are in blind spots, from falling into despair, despite the government's plan to announce cross-ministerial care measures.

Prior to his departure, President Lee stated that in France, where cinema was born, he would together write a new drama for K-culture and the global film and video industry.

Co-chairing the Lumiere Summit in France, President Lee discussed expanding cooperation in future industries such as AI, space, nuclear power, and bio, and contributed to enhancing Korea's global status by proposing ways to drive North American dialogue and develop the ROK-US alliance.

This resulted from the delay in re-nominating a successor for over half a year since the retirement of former Justice Rho Tae-hak in March, and difficulties in securing the quorum for trials are expected.

The vacancies in Supreme Court justices will not only disrupt the operation of the Grand Bench but also lead to delays in trials of major cases, such as those related to Kim Keon-hee, Han Duck-soo, and Lee Sang-min, potentially causing harm to the public. The Democratic Party demanded Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae to promptly re-nominate candidates and urged the normalization of the judicial system.

The Democratic Party strongly denounced the 'cabinet politics' style of the political prosecution during Minister Han Dong-hoon's tenure and demanded a thorough explanation of the channels and circumstances of data acquisition that were used by the Ministry of Justice to collect information on misconduct by opposition figures.

The Democratic Party stated that it would meticulously verify the nominee's morality and suitability for the job through this confirmation hearing and resolve public suspicions through a transparent and fair process.

Notably, consumer goods exports, including food and cosmetics, showed remarkable growth.

However, he pointed out the urgent need for thorough responses to external variables such as US tariff pressure and the Middle East war, and the formulation of strategies to strengthen industrial competitiveness, emphasizing continuous efforts to leap forward as an export powerhouse.

This is attributed to a combination of pan-governmental efforts and institutional improvements, such as the enactment of a special law for damage prevention.

The special law for damage prevention extended the scope of damaged assets to include virtual assets and introduced a system of reduced penalties for internal collaborators in voice phishing organizations, demonstrating a strong will to eradicate crime.

He claimed that problems arose during Chief Justice Cho's unilateral nomination of candidates without consulting the Presidential Office.

This raised suspicions that he was attempting to commit 'self-judicial misconduct' by ignoring candidates recommended by the existing recommendation committee, and he strongly criticized this as an act that undermines the independence of the judiciary.

He pointed out that such an act appears to be intentionally inducing a breakdown in judicial appointments.

He strongly criticized that ignoring candidates who have already gone through official procedures and attempting to form a new recommendation committee appears to be an impure intention to proceed with appointments arbitrarily, like 'shopping for candidates,' emphasizing that this severely undermines the independence and fairness of the judiciary.

President Lee Jae-myung's state visit to France, commemorating the 140th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Korea and France, served as an opportunity to elevate the bilateral relationship from past friendship to a global strategic partnership that builds the future together. In particular, through the Lumiere Summit, cooperation on video industry investment worth 1.6 trillion won was pursued, achieving economic success in the cultural content sector.

Furthermore, practical diplomacy in advanced fields such as AI, space, nuclear power, and bio was strengthened, securing future growth engines for both countries and expanding global technological cooperation.

Representative Song Jae-bong announced the launch of the Local-Led Growth Engine Council in Cheongju, Chungcheongbuk-do, with the participation of 13 local governments. This represents a new paradigm that moves away from the central government dictating projects to localities, instead supporting localities to autonomously create their growth strategies based on their strengths and competitiveness.

The council is expected to provide a 7-pillar policy support package, including finance, taxation, funding, talent, infrastructure, institutions, and technology, to promote autonomous local growth and contribute to achieving balanced development led by localities, moving away from a centralized project approach.

This system aims to support localities in independently discovering and nurturing growth engines, rather than merely implementing top-down policies from the central government.

With the activation of this system, a total of 25 growth engines have been selected across regions, which is expected to significantly contribute to revitalizing local economies by promoting customized development strategies that leverage each region's characteristics and strengths.

In particular, by establishing a new mega-regional account and significantly expanding its budget, it is expected to promote inter-regional cooperation and decentralize development concentrated in the metropolitan area, thereby contributing to balanced growth nationwide.

Now, beyond the self-reliance of individual cities and provinces, a mega-regional approach where regions cooperate to maximize strengths and compensate for weaknesses will be the core driver of regional balanced development.

He emphasized that how this vast fiscal capacity is utilized will determine Korea's future, pointing out that merely focusing on national debt repayment would be an unwise choice.

The Democratic Party's stance is that along with securing fiscal stability, bold investments to secure future growth engines must be made using the additional tax revenue.

Floor Leader Ahn Deok-geun presented three principles of fiscal management: fiscal stability, debt management, and future investment, emphasizing the importance of finding an optimal balance. He proposed a golden ratio for fiscal allocation: 64% for fiscal stability, 28% for future investment, and 8% for debt reduction.

This reflects the will to achieve sustainable development through balanced fiscal management that strengthens the fiscal safety net, stably manages national debt, and boldly invests in Korea's future growth potential.

This is a result of the government's efforts to improve fiscal soundness and is expected to significantly contribute to reducing the fiscal burden.

He also assessed that next year's managed fiscal balance will return to a balanced level for the first time in 20 years, achieving results far exceeding the People Power Party's emphasized target of a deficit ratio within 3% of GDP, expressing strong confidence in securing fiscal soundness.