SUWON — Rep. Boo Seung-chan of the Democratic Party of Korea said on the 19th that his remark about firefighting budgets "draining" provincial finances — made while defending Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae over the so-called "fiscal straw" controversy — was intended to convey that the system "should not be something that drains resources."
Boo made the comment during supplementary questioning at the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee's parliamentary audit of Gyeonggi Province, held that afternoon at the Yulgok Building of the Gyeonggi Provincial Government complex. Raising the issue of who bears the cost of firefighting budgets, he asked, "Doesn't the state have a responsibility for civil servants it employs at the national level?" and added, "How long will this problem be left unaddressed?"
He went on to argue that "soldiers and police officers are national civil servants, so when an accident occurs, everything from equipment support to recovery happens quickly," while "firefighters were converted to national civil servant status in 2020, yet that kind of support is still not being properly provided."
Boo said his remark came after he had first criticized the governor's own misstatement, and that it was made after Choo apologized, as he was raising the question of how the national government intends to resolve Gyeonggi Province's fiscal burden.
"If you pull out only this one part, then the National Assembly is at fault and the state is at fault, but it ends up looking as though Gyeonggi Province alone did something wrong," Boo said.
"I can point out where the state is abdicating its responsibility," he said. "Why is it possible for soldiers and police officers but not for firefighters?" He also argued that firefighters face different treatment from soldiers and police officers when it comes to burial at the national cemetery, and said gaps in pay and support have persisted even after the shift to national civil servant status.
Boo also rejected the interpretation that his remark was meant to disparage firefighters. "It is not appropriate to extract only this part and push it as though I had disparaged firefighters," he said.
Earlier in the day, during questioning at the audit, Boo defended Choo's "fiscal straw" remark by saying, "Local governments shoulder about 90% of firefighting budgets even though firefighting is a national function, so isn't it really draining their finances dry?" The comment drew criticism.
Rep. Kim Eun-hye of the People Power Party called Boo's remark an "outrageous statement" and demanded that he publicly apologize to firefighters and the public. When Boo countered that it was "the kind of behavior that exploits an issue for political fighting," shouting broke out between lawmakers from both parties and the audit was briefly suspended.
Separately, the Democratic Party said in a notice the same day that "Party leader Kim Min-seok issued a stern warning today over Rep. Boo Seung-chan's remarks on firefighting made during the parliamentary audit," adding that he "ordered the central party ethics tribunal to conduct its own investigation into the circumstances of the remarks."