'Business viability should have been scrutinized by the Assembly'
'Farmers are furious over farmland survey'
People Power Party Policy Committee Chairwoman Lim Ee-ja warned Wednesday that the government's investment commitments to the United States could burden future generations, saying "projects with high risk could pass debt on to our descendants."
Speaking on Channel A's Political Signal that day, Lim said the business viability of the investments should have been "thoroughly scrutinized by the National Assembly, because they could end up as a significant burden." She criticized the government's approach, saying it was unacceptable to hand over "a few sheets of paper as a pre-briefing and ask, 'Is this OK?'"
Lim doubled down on her position that National Assembly approval was required before proceeding with the US investment commitments. "In the case of nuclear power plants and the Alaska LNG pipeline, if the business viability falls short and there is no guarantee of recovering the principal and interest, National Assembly consent is necessary," she said.
She then questioned how the government could treat the matter as a done deal. "There was no prior briefing to the Assembly and no prior consent — so how can they make it a fait accompli and say they will send $10 billion by the end of the year?" she said.
Lim also called for a parliamentary investigation into single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds, saying former policy chief Kim Yong-beom had convened a closed-door meeting on the matter.
"What on earth happened there? Who, on what basis, through what procedure, and on whose orders was this high-risk financial product introduced without any warning?" she said, and went on to say that her attempts to get answers had been stonewalled. "No materials have been provided at all — this must be brought to light through a parliamentary investigation," she said.
Lim also raised concerns about the government's comprehensive farmland survey, saying farmers were deeply unhappy. "I heard directly from farmers," she said. "They are furious."
She went on to say that rural areas are aging and that many farmers face health and other difficulties, making it hard to lease or entrust their land. Even when they try to use the farmland bank, she said, "I thought it was two to three years, but apparently you have to wait five to six years."
Lim said the government had failed to consider the realities on the ground, noting that many farmers feared the survey was a pretext to seize their land. She added that farmers who had spent their youth cultivating their plots field by field were alarmed by enforcement fines — set at 25 percent of the land's value per year — for violations related to leasing or entrustment arrangements.
"That means your land is entirely gone in four years," she said, adding that the psychological anxiety and pressure among farmers was considerable.
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