South Korea's finance ministry on Tuesday backtracked on its ambitious pension reform plan for next year by claiming it is not reviewing changes to military and teachers' pensions.

On Monday, the ministry said in its 2015 economic policy directive that it would strive to get the government employee pension reform bill through parliament in the New Year. It also said plans to reform teachers' and military pensions would be examined in 2015.

But deputy finance minister Jeong Eun-bo told reporters that the government does not have any position on reforming military and teachers' pensions. He said the June and October dates for upcoming reform plans for teachers' and military pensions, respectively, are not the official position of the government.

"The focus is to get the government employee pension reform plan through the National Assembly," he stressed.

He, however, did confirm that both military and teachers' pensions are included in the Park Geun-hye administration's broad economic reform blueprint, a sign that these may be tackled at a later date.

On why military pension reform is not being reviewed, Jeong said there is a need to consider the special case of soldiers putting their lives on the line to protect the country. With regards to teachers' pensions, the deputy minister said the situation was not so serious as to warrant a reform plan.

Despite this official stance, government insiders said that the ministry may have taken flak from some ruling Saenuri Party lawmakers for announcing plans that could make it harder to pass the government employee pension plan through parliament.

"There is stiff opposition to even getting the government employee pension plan passed, so policymakers may have opted to not bring up teachers and soldiers at this juncture, which would only complicate matters," an observer said. (Yonhap)