Yoo Sang-beom Holds Forum on 'Constitutional Issues in the National Pension's Exercise of Voting Rights' (January 26, 2026)

Yoo Sang-beom, a National Assembly member of the People Power Party (Hongcheon-Hoengseong-Yeongwol-Pyeongchang), publicly criticized the government's moves to expand the National Pension's exercise of corporate voting rights on the 26th.

Rep. Yoo held a seminar at the National Assembly that day on the theme 'Corporate Control by the National Pension and Institutional Private Equity Funds — How Far Does It Go?', and

“Today, the foundation that allowed the Republic of Korea to grow into one of the world's top-10 economic powers lay in the values of the free-market economy that our Constitution guarantees,” and

“however, looking at the recent institutional trends surrounding our economy, there is no shortage of worrying signs,” he pointed out.

In particular, Rep. Yoo said, “The National Pension's exercise of voting rights is excessively constraining corporate management autonomy, and even threatening the stability of pension asset management,” and

“on top of that, anti-market bills such as the so-called 'tougher Commercial Act,' which would mandate cumulative voting for directors at listed companies with assets of 2 trillion won or more, are being pushed forward one after another, further deepening anxiety in the corporate sector,” he argued.

He went on to say, “The National Pension — the social safety net responsible for the public's old age and a precious asset of the people — is straying from its original purpose to intervene excessively in corporate governance,

and the concern that it could be misused as a means for the state to control private companies is by no means a matter to be taken lightly,” and

“moreover, as institutional-only private equity funds acquire listed-company shares on a large scale, the potential for management-control disputes is growing, and with overseas electronic voting now permitted at shareholder meetings, our companies find themselves effectively defenseless against the influence of foreign capital,” he said.

Choi Hwan-yeol, head of the Korea Financial Markets Institute, who gave the presentation, explained the unconstitutionality of the National Pension's exercise of voting rights, and

“members of our financial community will defend the Republic of Korea's free democratic system through a constitutional appeal,” he said.