Kim Sung-joo, Chairman of the National Pension Service: "A Misunderstanding about Being Mobilized to Defend the Exchange Rate…We Will Build a Pension Whose Fund Never Runs Dry" (January 29, 2026)

(It appears this press briefing was conducted without a proper understanding of the automatic adjustment mechanism!)

◆ 'Caution' on Introducing the Automatic Adjustment Mechanism… "Concern over Worsening Old-Age Poverty"

On the other hand, he made clear a cautious stance on introducing the 'automatic adjustment mechanism (automatic adjustment of pension amounts based on demographic and economic variables)', a key point of contention in the recent pension reform debate.

Advanced countries such as Germany and Japan introduced it only after old-age income security was already sufficient, but Korea's position is that a hasty introduction is difficult given that its elderly poverty rate ranks first among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) members, at 35.9%.

Chairman Kim said, "We need to look at the difference between the reality in advanced countries that have introduced the automatic adjustment mechanism and the reality in Korea," and

"Germany and Japan raised their contribution rates as much as they possibly could, and even so, the factors behind fiscal instability were not fully resolved, so they judged further adjustment to be difficult and adopted automatic adjustment based on factors such as life expectancy and the number of insured persons," and

"it was introduced with the aim of avoiding the social conflict and waste that would come from adjusting the contribution rate," he explained.

Chairman Kim said, "In our country, only about half of those aged 65 and over receive the National Pension," and added, "The average old-age pension benefit is 679,000 won."

He responded, "If an automatic stabilization mechanism focused mainly on cutting benefits were introduced without old-age income security first being made sufficient, we would face yet another old-age poverty problem, so taking a cautious stance toward introducing the automatic adjustment mechanism fits our reality here in Korea." 

https://m.newspim.com/news/view/20260129000987