Yoon Seok-myung: "If President Yoon Handles National Pension Reform This Way, He Will Be a Successful President" [News Cabinet] (2024.08. 28.)

(In May 2024,

the final month of the 21st National Assembly,

nearly every group and force in South Korea

packaged an amendment to the National Pension Act—in reality a deterioration—as "reform,"

and branded the tiny minority of

experts who opposed this regressive bill

as forces standing in the way of reform.

At the time, the Pension Future Forum stood up almost alone,

repeatedly issuing statements and holding seminars

to insist that a regressive bill that would leave future generations

bruised and battered must not be passed.

In particular, Joo Ho-young, chairman of the 21st National Assembly Special Committee on Pension Reform, and

Yoon Seok-myung, leader of the Pension Future Forum,

clashed in a heated debate of some thirty minutes

over whether the bill should pass the 21st National Assembly.

The following is what the Pension Future Forum's leader, at the time,

strongly urged upon Special Committee Chairman Joo Ho-young's office.

If you block the regressive bill

from passing in this 21st National Assembly,

then, so that a genuine reform bill can pass in the 22nd National Assembly,

the Pension Future Forum will devote every ounce of its strength

to helping you.

At the time, despite the leader of the dominant opposition party

calling for a ruling–opposition leaders' summit on passing the National Pension Act,

and even National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo stepping in

to press for the bill's passage,

in the end the amendment to the National Pension Act—

that is, the regressive law—was successfully blocked from passing the 21st National Assembly.

The historic role of the Pension Future Forum—virtually the only group

that opposed the regressive law's passage at the time—

is posted here on the Forum's website

so that, together with the Maeil Shinmun interview,

it may remain as a record of history!

At the time, the Pension Future Forum's leader

stated that if Yongsan, the presidential office, accepted the regressive bill

(that is, if it agreed to the bill's passage),

it would become a 'historical accomplice.'

That broadcast is posted here on the Pension Future Forum's website.

(July 17, 2026, is Constitution Day and, at the same time,

the day the Pension Future Forum's Youth Committee

holds the first filming of "Yeongeumtong,"

its YouTube channel created

to make the true facts about pensions known—

which makes this especially so.)

(Broadcast Transcript)

▷Lee Dong-jae: Hello. Last May, at the very end of the 21st National Assembly, you came on our program to speak about parametric reform of the National Pension, and after some time we have invited you back once again to discuss a pension-related topic.

▶Yoon Seok-myung: Thank you. Last May, the plan being discussed in the National Assembly was essentially dressed up and presented as a reform bill, and tremendous pressure was brought to bear to have it accepted—the media and experts came out in force. The opposition leader and even the former Speaker of the National Assembly stepped in, urging that it be accepted, and it was even attached as a condition for a leaders' summit—all over this single pension issue. At the time, our Pension Future Forum, though very much alone, kept saying that the bill really must not be allowed to pass. In that situation, Maeil Shinmun invited me on, and I was deeply grateful. Yongsan was holding out all alone back then, and because Maeil Shinmun gave me that platform, I was able to convey what I wanted to say—so, belatedly, I thank you once again.

▷Lee Dong-jae: Oh, the thanks are ours. When you say Yongsan held out alone, you mean President Yoon held out alone, correct?

▶Yoon Seok-myung: Yes, exactly. At the time I even went so far as to say, "If Yongsan accepts this bill, it becomes a historical accomplice." And because the President did not become that accomplice, I wrote in a column—something I had not done in a very long while—that "President Yoon Suk-yeol has done a great thing," and I made clear in the column that this was no flattery aimed at landing myself some position. Certain reform directions are now emerging as expected, and those will have to be evaluated on their merits, but the fact that we turned 180 degrees in just those few short months—if that is formally announced as such, I think, historically, it could become quite a news story internationally as well.

https://n.news.naver.com/article/088/0000901133?sid=102