[Editorial] Broad-measure National Debt Ratio at 181% … Fiscal Rules Must Be Enacted Without Delay (February 21, 2026)

It must be recognized that, among the major OECD member states, virtually no country carries unfunded liabilities across all public pension schemes on the scale that Korea does—whether those liabilities are termed unfunded pension liabilities or accrued liabilities.

Let us take Japan—the country from which Korea learned its pension model—as a concrete example, and compare the civil-service and private-school pension schemes of the two nations.

Japan's Government Employees Pension and private-school pension schemes, which apply a contribution rate of 18.3% against an income replacement rate of approximately 32%,

versus Korea's Government Employees Pension and private-school pension schemes—which guarantee a contribution rate of 18% while providing an income replacement rate of 68% or more—and the resulting disparity in the scale of unfunded liabilities.

Furthermore, the magnitude of accrued liabilities (or unfunded liabilities) that will accumulate each year

can be readily understood by anyone capable of basic arithmetic.

Despite this state of affairs,

certain parties appear to react with alarm at the mere mention of unfunded liabilities,

and it appears that the proceedings of the advisory committee of the National Assembly Special Committee on Pension Reform have been conducted in a manner seemingly designed to suppress any discussion of the matter whatsoever.

This is precisely why such conduct strikes observers as highly anomalous.

(The following is an excerpt from a Korea Economic Daily editorial.)

The so-called "broad-measure national debt" (D4)—encompassing central government and public-institution liabilities as well as public pension accrued liabilities—was found to have reached 4,632 trillion won as of 2024.

This figure was derived by Representative Park Su-yeong of the People Power Party by adding the National Pension's unfunded liability (1,575 trillion won), the military pension's accrued liability (267 trillion won), and the Government Employees Pension's accrued liability (1,052 trillion won) to the government-published "public-sector debt" (D3).

This corresponds to 181% of Korea's gross domestic product (GDP), equivalent to a debt burden of 90 million won per person.

(omitted)

Even at this juncture, the true extent of national indebtedness must be disclosed transparently through integrated liability management.

Through such measures, vigorous efforts must be undertaken to secure fiscal soundness.

The fact that the national debt ratio exceeded 50% for the first time this year (on a budget basis) is itself a matter of concern, but the excessive speed of debt accumulation represents a far more serious problem.

As Korea does not issue a reserve currency, a rapid increase in national debt carries the risk of destabilizing the entire economy through a decline in sovereign creditworthiness, rising interest rates, and a sharp depreciation of the won.

To avert such an outcome, urgent action must be taken to expand the revenue base and restructure expenditures.

The enactment of fiscal rules, currently stalled in the National Assembly, must also be expedited.

Without the minimum safeguard of capping the fiscal deficit at 3% of GDP, it is difficult to ensure the long-term sustainability of public finances.

https://n.news.naver.com/article/015/0005253224?sid=110