Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon: Firefighting Budget Burden Is Heavy, But I Accept It as a Calling

▲ Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon announces the city's 2027 budget plan at Seoul City Hall on the 29th.

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon addressed the reality of national fire officials relying on local government finances, stating, "It is true that it is a heavy burden, but since it is ultimately paid for with taxes collected from citizens, I accept it as a calling."

Mayor Oh made the remarks in response to a related question during a press conference on the 29th regarding the 2027 Seoul city budget plan, saying, "About 1 trillion won of our budget goes toward firefighting annually, but government support is between 3 percent and 4 percent."

He added, "We are continuously requesting more government financial support, and it seems likely that government support for firefighting personnel expenses could expand in the future."

"If that happens, the financial resources secured through the easing of the city government's burden will be used to support sprinklers in rental housing or modernize firefighting equipment," he added.

Regarding President Lee Jae-myung's recent criticism of preferential policies for multicultural families implemented by local governments such as Seoul, Mayor Oh said, "The general principle is that policy investment and consideration for multicultural families are necessary."

Mayor Oh explained, "(In the case of multicultural families), if we do not provide sufficient consideration and investment during early childhood, it will eventually return as a social cost later in life. Given concerns that the burden of social costs could grow down the road in terms of maintaining order and welfare, it is true that a certain level of consideration is necessary in principle."

However, he elaborated, "If we go as far as extending more consideration to multicultural families even in support through competition, our citizens may feel a relative sense of deprivation. In such cases, the system design needs to be more refined."

He added, "On the day the issue was reported, I instructed during an executive meeting that we need to thoroughly reexamine (preferential policies for multicultural families) to strike a proper balance and refine them to dispel concerns about disadvantages faced by citizens, and that work is currently underway."

Mentioning the "judicial reform 3 bills," which are centered on introducing the crime of distorting the law, the trial appeal system, and expanding the number of Supreme Court justices, as well as the push for a parliamentary investigation into Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae, Mayor Oh renewed his criticism of the Democratic Party of Korea, saying, "The moves of the Democratic Party are truly going from bad to worse."

In particular, he criticized the judicial reform 3 bills, dubbing them the "3 bills to protect the president."

Mayor Oh stated, "By increasing the number of Supreme Court justices to 26, the number of justices that President Lee Jae-myung can appoint is 22. This is something that only happens in underdeveloped democracies," adding, "How can a single president appoint more than 84 percent of Supreme Court justices?"

He criticized it as "an outrage by the majority party and the worst of malicious laws aimed at seizing control of the judiciary by abusing its monopoly on legislative power."

He continued, "As if that weren't enough, they passed a bill that creates the crime of distorting the law so that complaints and accusations can be arbitrarily filed if rulings or investigations do not suit the administration's tastes. Still feeling uneasy, they created a constitutional complaint system allowing people to take issues with rulings to the Constitutional Court. I strongly suspect this is in preparation for a potential unfavorable ruling against the president."

He also emphasized, "No matter how hard (the Democratic Party) tried to find various flaws in the current Chief Justice, it didn't work out. Without needing to explain each one, the logical basis for holding a parliamentary investigation is extremely weak."

He added, "Even so, for the ruling party leader to casually talk about conducting a parliamentary investigation and even reviewing impeachment means they no longer view the judiciary as one of the pillars of the separation of powers."

(Photo: Yonhap News)

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