And to help cope with that depressing jobs figure,... lawmakers at the National Assembly are going over the multi-billion dollar supplementary budget bill aimed at creating quality jobs.
This progress at the parliament comes after an over-one-month-long standstill with rival political parties blocking each other's moves.
We have our Kim Mok-yeon on the line for us with the details,... Mok-yeon, so what's expected from the budget committee meeting today?
Hi Se-min,
Just a few minutes ago, the parliamentary special committee on budget and accounts kicked off a general meeting at 10 a.m., beginning its long-delayed review of the proposed extra budget, aimed at addressing the nation's serious problem of youth unemployment.
Some six other parliamentary standing committees,... such as the National Policy Committee, and the Agriculture, Food, Rural affairs, Oceans and Fisheries committee have also begun their pre-screening of the budget this morning, as National Assembly speaker Chung Sye-kyun asked for the committees to finish their pre-evaluation before 9:30 a.m., 30 minutes ahead of the general meeting.
The standing committees have until tomorrow to finalize their reviews as the special committee on budget and accounts will refer the extra budget bill to its subcommittee Friday so that it can finally be put to a vote during Friday's plenary session.
The extra budget proposal had been submitted by the government in early April, but its screening had been delayed as the national assembly has been paralyzed due to partisan squabbles over an online opinion rigging scandal, and a set of contested bills including the budget proposal.
Rival parties finally made an agreement on the issues to bring parliament back to normal on Monday, and have agreed to put the supplementary budget bill to a vote by Friday.
Back to you Se-min.
