The Situation Just Before the Passage of the March 2025 Amendment to the National Pension Act (1)

(In order to preserve as a historical record the tense circumstances

surrounding the passage of the amendment to the National Pension Act on March 20, 2025,

we are posting two press articles to the Pension Future Forum website's Data Archive.)

It has been confirmed that Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, said, "If the ruling and opposition parties cannot reach agreement on a National Pension reform bill, we will have no choice but to push it through," at a closed-door meeting of the ruling party – opposition – government consultative council on state affairs on the 20th, attended by Acting President and Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Choi Sang-mok, National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik, and People Power Party Emergency Committee Chairman Kwon Young-se.

This suggests the possibility that the Democratic Party may move to force the bill through with the goal of putting it on the agenda at the plenary session of the National Assembly on the 27th, amid a sharp standoff in which the ruling and opposition parties are respectively insisting on income replacement rates of 42% and 44% for the National Pension (the amount received).

Multiple attendees of the consultative council told the JoongAng Ilbo by phone on the 23rd, "Leader Lee said to Acting President Choi's face, 'In the end, if it doesn't work out, we'll have no choice but to push it through ourselves,' and in response, Emergency Committee Chairman Kwon showed discomfort, saying, 'What is the point of negotiating if you're going to force it through every time?'"

A key Democratic Party official likewise said in a phone call, "Leader Lee said, 'Didn't the People Power Party also mention 44%?' and Speaker Woo said, 'Let's agree on the parametric reform (the key numbers) this time and discuss the rest in the special committee,' but the People Power Party would not budge," adding, "The talk of forcing it through came up in that context."

Discussions between the ruling and opposition parties on a National Pension reform bill are stalled, blocked by the income replacement rate (currently 40%), which determines the pension amount received in old age. There is no disagreement between the two sides on raising the contribution rate (the amount paid in) from the current 9% to 13%.

In addition, regarding the automatic adjustment mechanism (a system that lowers the periodic increase rate of pension amounts in line with changes in life expectancy, the number of insured persons, and similar factors), which the government and ruling party have been urging be introduced, at the consultative council meeting on the 20th, Leader Lee's conditional openness to the idea that it be 'triggered with National Assembly consent' was hinted at for the first time.

But over this single point of contention — the income replacement rate — the ruling and opposition parties remain on sharply parallel tracks.

The Democratic Party has stepped back one notch from its existing party line of a 45% income replacement rate to 44%, but the government and ruling party are sticking to 42%, saying, "Depending on circumstances, the opposition's proposal could increase the national debt".

Some within the People Power Party say, "A combination of '43%+the automatic adjustment mechanism' is worth considering," but within the Democratic Party, the response is, "Civil society is still calling for 50%. 

Anything below 44% is difficult" is their stance.

It also dismissed the ruling camp's proposal — that the Health and Welfare Committee handle only the 13% contribution rate already agreed upon by both parties, while a newly formed Pension Reform Special Committee discusses the income replacement rate — saying, "There's no time for that. It's a romantic notion."

https://n.news.naver.com/article/025/0003422584?sid=100