(Minutes of the 22nd Meeting of the Fifth National Pension Financial Estimation Committee, 2023) The Debate over Recording the Cumulative Deficit and Unfunded Pension Liability in the Report (Posted September 5, 2026)

We are posting the supporting evidence

showing that even at the 22nd meeting,

the final meeting of the 2023 Fifth National Pension

Financial Estimation Committee,

a fierce debate was still under way over whether

the National Pension's unfunded pension liability

and cumulative deficit figures

should be recorded in the report.

Had one read the earlier minutes closely,

the fact that a considerable number of the

Financial Estimation Committee's members

did not properly understand the concepts of unfunded

liability and cumulative deficit —

and, more disheartening still,

the fact that, without properly understanding them,

and even while confusing the two concepts,

they were strongly opposed to recording

these figures in the report —

would be readily apparent.

After extensive debate,

a hard-won agreement was reached on

the cumulative deficit ratio relative to GDP.

Yet what the committee had originally agreed on,

the government bond interest rate, was not what was used:

a figure discounted using the fund investment return rate

was recorded in the Financial Estimation Committee's report

instead — and that

is the fact we must take note of.

The cumulative deficit ratio relative to GDP attached here

is the figure discounted using the fund investment return rate.

From the final report, even this much has been

deleted.

For reference, had the figure discounted using the

government bond interest rate been recorded in the report,

that figure would come to

roughly double the figure recorded in the

Financial Estimation Committee's final report.

Why

was the report written

in such a distorted way

and passed to the members of the

National Assembly's special committee!

Someday, it seems,

the full story of how this came about

will have to be brought to light.

(The minutes of the 22nd meeting of the Fifth Financial Estimation Committee

and the original text of the final report —

for the convenience of visitors to the website,

we have captured the relevant pages and attached them.)

(A comparison of discounting using the government bond interest rate and the fund investment return rate, obtained through a Google search, is also attached.)