Rival parties' pledges center on low birthrate, climate change

A worker touches a sign promoting the April 10 general elections at the Seoul Election Commission in Jongno District, Seoul, March 11. Joint Press Corps

The ruling People Power Party (PPP) and the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) have revealed their respective top 10 policy pledges for the April 10 general elections, both highlighting their common efforts to address the country’s low birthrate and climate change.

However, the pledges are facing doubts as well, because the parties said they will use an expected increase in the state budget to finance those pledges, without proposing detailed plans for how to increase the revenue. Also, similar pledges were already made in previous major elections, sparking criticisms that the rival parties neglected their policies while concentrating on partisan competition.

The National Election Commission on Thursday published the rival parties’ top 10 policy pledges for the upcoming elections.

People Power Party interim leader Han Dong-hoon, center, greets the public during a canvassing event in Busan's Buk District, Thursday. Yonhap

The ruling party set out key concepts for its promises including balance between work and life, comprehensive child care, public safety, reinvigorating startups and climate change response. Of them, the balance between work and life contains policies mostly about government efforts to address the country’s low birthrate.

The main opposition party also put forward pledges including addressing the low birthrate, guaranteeing basic quality of life, responding to the climate crisis and achieving political reform.

Both parties highlighted the low birth trend as topping the agenda of the country for the next four years, because the country’s birthrate is nosediving. Already the lowest in the world, Korea’s total fertility rate was 0.72 per woman in 2023, standing at 0.65 in the fourth quarter alone. It is feared to fall further and remain below 0.7 by the end of this year.

However, the parties showed differences in addressing the issue.

The PPP’s policies are focused on management of existing measures, highlighted by establishing a new ministry on demographics. Also, the party seeks to enable parents to spend more time with their children without worrying about their careers, by mandating companies have their employees apply for parental leave concurrently with maternity leave.

The DPK primarily concentrated on providing economic aid to new couples. Its promises include offering public rental homes to couples with more than one child, and extending low-rate loans to new couples regardless of their income level.

The rival parties also have different angles on their climate change responses. The PPP seeks a balanced development between nuclear and renewable energy sources and plans to set up a special act on supporting regions that decommission coal power plants.

The DPK placed RE100, a global initiative that pledges to convert 100 percent of the electricity used by a company into renewable energy, at the top of its agenda, to drive an expansion in the country’s use of renewable energy. In doing so, the main opposition pledged to enact a Korean version of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act to promote clean energy use.

Democratic Party of Korea Chairman Rep. Lee Jae-myung, center, gestures during a canvassing event in Daejeon's Jung District, Thursday. Joint Press Corps

In terms of plans for financing those pledges, however, the parties did not suggest details for how to finance the anticipated expenses.

The PPP said it will meet expenses for the climate policies through “continuous adjustment of expenditure structure for non-essential projects.” The party repeated this as its financing plan for most of the 10 policies.

The DPK also showed a similar stance. The main opposition said it seeks to cover 5 trillion won ($3.8 billion) of expenses for its climate policies from “planned increases in government revenue,” and repeated this in most of its other policies.

Both rival parties also repeated some of the same policies from previous elections.

During the previous general elections in 2020, the PPP’s predecessor, the United Future Party, picked addressing the low birth trend as one of its top 10 policies. The party promised that it will implement measures to have the government ease the burden of child care, including financial aid.

The DPK did not pick the low birth trend among its top 10 policies in the 2020 general elections, but it has promised to provide financial aid and public housing to 1 million newlywed couples.

The rival parties both promised to cover fees for caregivers under the state health insurance, but they also pledged this during the 2022 presidential elections. Talk on this issue has been sluggish at the National Assembly due to concerns over the cost of executing the policy.