South Korea's ruling party, the government and the presidential office met this morning to chew over some crunch issues facing the country,... such as the ongoing trade spat with Japan.
Also on the table was next year's government budget bill.
Our political correspondent Kim Min-ji starts us off.
Senior lawmakers from the ruling party and top officials from the government and the presidential office met on Tuesday to discuss the aftermath of South Korea's decision to pull out of its military intel-sharing pact with Japan.
The three sides agreed that maintaining GSOMIA is no longer in the country's interest,... after Tokyo removed Seoul from its list of trusted trading partners.
They also brushed off concerns the move might negatively impact the South Korea-U.S. alliance.
"There's almost three months left before GSOMIA expires. There's room for reconsideration should Japan lift its export curbs and come to the negotiating table."
The three sides also stressed the need for an expansionary budget for next year,... to tackle the headwinds facing the country,... including Tokyo's trade retaliation.
The 2020 budget plan,... which will be finalized on Thursday,... is expected to amount to over 420 billion U.S. dollars,... a hike of about nine percent on-year.
Of that,... more than 1-point-6 billion dollars will be set aside to help local industries cope with Japan's trade curbs.
"If there's a word to describe the conditions facing the South Korean economy it's 'uncertainty.' The 2020 budget will be the basis for the country to overcome downside economic risks,... tackle Japan's export curbs,... step up industrial competitiveness and act as a stepping stone for innovative growth."
And with the regular session of the National Assembly set to kick off in September,... they called for cooperation from the opposition bloc to work on pending bills related to people's livelihoods,... as well as next year's government budget.
"During the final regular session of the 20th National Assembly our focus will be taking care of people's livelihoods. We have a lot on our plate including government interpellation sessions,... state audits as well as deliberating pending bills. We'll also do our best to smoothly pass the budget bill to revive the economy."
The three sides also called on related government officials to keep close tabs on product supply and pricing stability to ease the financial burden on households... ahead of next month's Chuseok holiday,... or Korea's thanksgiving.
Kim Min-ji, Arirang News.
