17 hours ago
A look at Lee Jae Myung's top policy priorities
Less than a month into the Lee Jae Myung administration, several of his key policy priorities are now starting to take shape.
Below is a breakdown of top policy moves based on the announcements out of the presidential State Affairs Planning Committee and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea.
Prosecution overhaul
As a candidate, Lee had pledged to take away the public prosecution service's investigative functions entirely.
Shortly after Lee took office, the Democratic Party announced sweeping bills that would abolish the prosecution service and set up new bodies instead.
Prosecutors would completely lose their ability to investigate under the Democratic Party bills, not even to complement the police's investigation. Prosecutors would only decide whether or not to indict the accused, based on the results of an investigation they did not conduct.
This raises concerns that gaps in a police investigation, which would have been revisited by prosecutors under the existing system, could be left open.
It would also no longer be the prosecutors' job to ensure an investigation is properly executed.
Prosecutors have also traditionally handled "white-collar crimes" involving powerful people.
The Democratic Party's push to significantly slash the prosecutors' role in the criminal justice process is motivated by the criminal cases facing the president as well as the allegations surrounding his close aides, according to the rival People Power Party.
The Lee administration has proposed a supplementary budget totaling some 13.2 trillion won for cash handouts to all South Koreans. Each would get up to 520,000 won in the form of digital vouchers under the proposal. This is intended to encourage spending and stimulate the economy, according to the Democratic Party.
On top of the direct cash aid, up to 50 million won worth of debts and defaulted loans will be canceled for small businesses. The Democratic Party says the debts accumulated during national crises such as COVID-19 and the "insurrection," referring to former President Yoon Suk Yeol's six-hour martial law decree, should be the government's responsibility.
The People Power Party says these stimulus measures only promote reckless spending and unnecessary risk taking in the economy.
A shift in emphasis away from nuclear power as an energy source and toward renewables had been Lee's main policy pledge.
In the supplementary budget proposal, some 120 billion won has been set aside for renewable energy such as solar and wind. Key renewable energy clusters in the country are located in Jeolla provinces, which are traditional Democratic Party strongholds.
