Seoul: The National Assembly is set to begin deliberations on the 2025 budget proposal this week, with ruling and opposition parties expected to wrangle over spending on controversial projects. On Monday, the National Assembly is set to deliberate on next year’s budget of 677.4 trillion won (US$509.7 billion), marking a 3.2 percent increase from the previous year.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the ruling People Power Party (PPP) is expected to advocate the government’s focus on discretionary spending due to a fiscal deficit, while opposing the main opposition Democratic Party (DP)’s cash handout proposals pushed by DP leader Lee Jae-myung. In contrast, the DP has vowed to cut funding for initiatives associated with President Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon Hee.

Yoon is expected to skip his budget speech at the National Assembly on Monday, with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo likely to present the budget proposal on his behalf, as stated by Yoon’s chief of staff, Chung Jin-suk, on Friday. If confirmed,
it would mark the first time in 11 years that a sitting president has not directly addressed the National Assembly on the budget.

The decision comes as Yoon is at the midpoint of his single five-year term in a polarized political landscape. Rival parties have clashed over a phone conversation between Yoon and a self-proclaimed power broker at the center of allegations that Yoon was involved in the nomination of a candidate for the parliamentary by-elections in 2022, when he was president-elect.

On Saturday, the DP and its supporters held a massive rally in central Seoul to urge Yoon to accept a special counsel bill for an investigation into allegations involving the first lady. The DP said earlier it plans to push for the passage of the special counsel bill targeting the first lady at a parliamentary plenary session this month, after two similar bills were vetoed by Yoon.