(Hankyoreh Report, November 13, 2018) "A 50% Income Replacement Rate for the National Pension Is My Conviction — Policy Must Be Flexible" (Posted September 4, 2026)
[Hankyoreh] Kim Yeon-myeong, Senior Secretary to the President for Social Affairs,
answers at the plenary session
of the National Assembly Steering Committee
(Under an opposition offensive,
he indicates that he "will not insist on his existing argument,"
though only in a roundabout way)
Kim Yeon-myeong, Senior Secretary to the President for Social Affairs, said that "a 50% income replacement rate for the National Pension is a conviction I held as a scholar," while adding that "once one moves into a position where policy is decided (a senior secretary at the presidential office), one has to weigh a range of circumstances flexibly."
With controversy spreading recently over the prospect of a so-called "Kim Yeon-myeong-style National Pension reform plan," he was in effect indicating, in a roundabout way, that he would not insist on his existing argument for raising the income replacement rate (the share of lifetime average earnings accounted for by the pension benefit) to 50%.
Senior Secretary Kim made the remarks on the 13th, when he appeared at the plenary session of the National Assembly Steering Committee, convened to review the presidential office's budget for the following year.
The remark came as Representative Kim Seung-hee of the opposition Liberty Korea Party asked, "You argued that the National Pension's income replacement rate should be raised to 50%; is that still your position?" and Senior Secretary Kim explained that it had been "a conviction I held as a scholar before I entered the presidential office."
When Representative Kim asked several times, "Does that mean you might change (your position)?" Senior Secretary Kim answered, "Yes." And to the question "Did you not in the past call for a 1-percentage-point increase in the National Pension contribution rate?" he offered the view that the claim "was based on past data and so does not hold (now)."
Representative Yoo Eui-dong of the Liberty Korea Party then asked, "If President Moon Jae-in were to say that the income replacement rate should be raised to 50% without raising the contribution rate, what would you advise?" and Senior Secretary Kim replied, "I think (that approach) is theoretically unconvincing."
Senior Secretary Kim did add, however: "(The Senior Secretary to the President for Social Affairs) is not in a position to determine and formulate National Pension policy or specific plans. That is the task of the Minister of Health and Welfare.
Within the scope of the pension-related policy goals the President has stated, my role is that of an advisor." With that, he drew a line under the "Kim Yeon-myeong-style National Pension reform plan" raised in some quarters.
As a scholar who studies the National Pension system, Senior Secretary Kim has consistently argued that the income replacement rate—which is scheduled to be reduced incrementally to 40% by 2028—should be raised to at least 50% in order to guarantee old-age income.
A past remark of his—that a 50% income replacement rate is achievable even if the contribution rate is raised only by about 1% from the current 9%—has recently become the subject of controversy.
