National pension rebalancing delay sparks clash at Assembly audit

The ruling and opposition parties clashed Wednesday at the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee national audit of the National Pension Service over whether to release minutes from the fund management committee's decision to delay rebalancing of the national pension portfolio, as well as over the subpoena of former Cheong Wa Dae policy chief Kim Yong-beom as a witness.

The People Power Party pushed for the release of the fund management committee minutes and raised the possibility of a parliamentary investigation, while the Democratic Party pushed back, warning that disclosure could affect market stability.

Rep. Baek Jong-heon, who leads the opposition party's side on the committee, said the Democratic Party had repeatedly refused to approve Kim as a witness. "The opportunity to directly ask the person who oversaw government policy at the time — why the national pension broke its own principles and delayed rebalancing, and who decided to introduce single-stock ETFs and through what process — has been blocked," he said.

He added that the fund management committee had voted in January to delay rebalancing and had also resolved to keep the minutes sealed until 2030. "However, under the National Pension Act, the relevant standing committee of the National Assembly may request that the minutes be submitted," he said.

Rep. Lee Dal-hee of the People Power Party also weighed in, saying, "The national pension is not a stock market support fund for the administration." She added that no one would consider the National Pension Service chairman independent from political power when he responds to a single word from the president by changing investment guidelines.

In response, National Pension Service Chairman Kim Sung-joo said he had never experienced government requests being passed through unchanged, and noted that the rule restricting disclosure of the minutes was established under the Park Geun-hye administration.

Rep. Seo Young-seok, who leads the ruling party's side on the committee, argued that the demand to subpoena Kim as a witness was not in keeping with the purpose of a national audit and was not a matter for the committee to pursue separately. He said the disclosure rules were established by the National Assembly in 2013 and included a four-year exception for matters related to market stability.

Seo added that demanding the release of the minutes now was self-defeating. "If the decision to delay rebalancing was significant enough to move markets, then it is precisely the kind of agenda item that could affect financial market stability — which makes the argument for releasing the minutes internally contradictory," he said.

Seo said he could not support the People Power Party's demand, questioning whether it truly served the public interest to insist on releasing the minutes at the risk of exposing ongoing investment strategies.

Regarding the matter, Chairman Kim said that looking back at stock market conditions in January and May, experts recommended by the Yoon Suk Yeol administration at the time had raised no objections to delaying rebalancing. "It was because we took an optimistic view of the Korean stock market situation," he said.