President Park Geun-hye on Monday rejected a recent demand by her ruling Saenuri Party to withdraw her pledges on welfare expansion without tax hikes.

Lashing out at the party leadership, Park called the recent discussion about tax raise “an act of betrayal” to the people and said it ignored the government’s efforts to secure new sources of income through its economic reform drive.

The party chairman Rep. Kim Moo-sung and the newly elected floor leader Rep. Yoo Seong-min last week voiced their opposition to the government’s plans, saying that it was impossible to expand welfare policies without increasing the current tax rates.

“It keeps nagging at me, how our politics could make such a demand of the people -- that the government has to collect more money from taxpayers simply because we are short of tax revenues,” Park said at a weekly meeting with her senior secretaries.

Park accused the ruling party of abandoning its duty to support the government’s policies on economic revitalization, saying that the work is aimed at creating jobs and reducing the tax burden on the people.

“The economic revitalization is meant to create jobs, to impose less burdens to the people and revive the economy. If (the party) turns away from the efforts, wouldn’t it be an act of betrayal to the people?”

The remark came a week after Saenuri leader Kim directly resisted Park’s welfare policies. Rep. Kim, known as a long-time political rival of Park, claimed that they were populist pledges that were impossible to realize.

Park had remained mute over Kim’s criticism until Monday.

Welfare expansion was the centerpiece of Park’s presidential campaign.

Park promised to provide free child care services and a higher monthly allowance for elderly citizens and to revise the current health insurance program to fairly impose fees based on subscribers’ income levels. Instead of raising tax, Park vowed to create new income sources from the underground economy and curtail unnecessary and costly state-led projects.

The Park government, however, came recently under fire as it raised tobacco prices, pushed to reform public servants’ pensions and introduced a revised tax settlement scheme, which were seen as attempts to collect more money from workers to pay for the costly welfare policies.

The president’s rejection on party’s demand is expected to spark a heated controversy on tax hike and also to further strain her ties with the party.

Rep. Yoo, a nonmainstream lawmaker, became the new floor leader in the party’s primary vote last week. His victory was seen as the party starting to make critical approaches to the president’s policies, at a time when she suffers from deepening public distrust. Her ratings plummeted to below 30 percent late last month.

To restore public trust, Park said she will carry out reshuffles of the Cabinet and reorganize Cheong Wa Dae.

So far, Park has nominated former Saenuri floor leader Rep. Lee Wan-koo as her new prime minister and said will announce another batch of ministers after the appointee gets parliamentary endorsement. Rep. Lee’s two-day confirmation hearings kicks off Tuesday and his nomination will be put to a vote Thursday.

His nomination, however, is expected to face fierce opposition from the main opposition New Alliance Politics Alliance Party.

The opposition lawmakers have accused him of abusing his power over media firms to stop publishing negative stories on him.

The latest controversy follows a series of other allegations including academic plagiarism and real estate speculation.

By Cho Chung-un ()


koreaherald@heraldcorp.com