S. Korean president calls for job-creating extra budget

SEOUL - South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday asked parliament to approve a supplementary budget aimed to create jobs amid the record-level unemployment rate of youths.

He became the country's first leader to make a speech in the National Assembly to only demand the passage of the extra budget. The Moon government allocated $10 billion for the extra budget plan.

The new president, who took office a month earlier, said in a televised address that the youth unemployment may become a national disaster without immediate special measures.

The jobless rate among those aged 15-29 surged to the highest 11.2 percent in April since the relevant data began to be compiled by the statistical agency.

Moon said the high youth unemployment was a "heart-rending" situation for the parents of college graduates.

The country's economic paradigm, Moon said, must be changed into the one that achieves the goal of growth by creating decent jobs. At the center of people's hardships was the unemployment, Moon said.

The president also emphasized the need to narrow income inequality. In the past five quarters, households in the bottom 20 percent income bracket saw their income keep falling, while income for the upper 20 percent bracket kept rising.

The upper 10 percent income bracket took about half of the income of all households in South Korea, Moon said.

To tackle the widening income gap and the high youth jobless rate, the Moon government will spend fiscal funds to create jobs in the public sector first.

The supplementary budget only for job creation was anticipated to create about 110,000 jobs.

Moon admitted that the budget scheme would merely become an emergency action, vowing to pour all of the government's policy capabilities into the job creation together with the private sector in the long run.

Meanwhile, Moon's approval rating rebounded last week despite the controversy over the nomination of new cabinet members, a survey showed on Monday.

According to the Realmeter poll, his support was 78.9 percent last week, up 0.8 percentage points from the previous week.

The result was based on a survey of 2,022 voters conducted from last Monday to Friday.

During last week's parliamentary confirmation hearings, controversies emerged over foreign minister nominee and the antitrust watchdog nominee, but South Koreans seemed to support Moon's nominations.

Xinhua