Recently, the issue of "Korea-Japan relations," triggered by the issue of forced conscription, has heated up political circles. Various words are also said in political circles. Anti-Japanese sentiment and camp logic are intertwined, and the issue becomes more complicated. Naturally, there has been a lot of false and distorted information. SBS Fact-Check The team is focusing on fact-checking statements related to Korea-Japan relations.

► Intensive fact-checking on Korea-Japan relations Part (1): [Actually] Why the claim that "only South Korea apologizes badly" is a delusion
► Intensive fact-checking on Korea-Japan relations Part (2): [Actually] "Japan has already apologized dozens of times"... Points
to Weigh ► Intensive Fact-Check on Korea-Japan Relations Part (3): [Actually] "Japan's Apology for Past History" After analyzing the whole thing... The Wheel of 'Apple' and 'Remorse'


The SBS Fact-Check team recently confirmed President Yoon Seok-yeol's statement that "Japan has already expressed remorse and apologies to South Korea dozens of times." Today, we're going to take a look at the remarks of Democratic Representative Lee Jae-myung.

Representative Lee Jae-myung took issue with the Yoon Seok-yeol government's materials, parts, and equipment, the so-called "sub-chief" budget.
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Our technological independence and self-reliance in the face of Japan's tyranny of export regulations were prime examples of turning crises into opportunities. Under Yoon Seok-yeol's regime, the independence of Sobujang was effectively suspended. The government's budget for special guarantees has been cut entirely, and other subchapter-related budgets have been drastically reduced. - Remarks by the Supreme Committee of the Democratic Party on the 22nd


In July 2019, Japan announced that it would restrict exports of semiconductor core materials to South Korea. It was in retaliation for our Supreme Court forced labor ruling in 7. When the trade dispute between Japan and South Korea began, the Moon Jae-in government at the time announced a number of policies to promote technological independence by establishing a special law on subchapters. Among the national budgets, a special sub-chapter account was also created and a separate budget was made. In other words, Lee's argument reads as a political message to emphasize that Yoon Seok-yeol's government is negligent in addressing technological independence from Japan.

So, as Chairman Lee said, has the budget for the special case guarantee been cut entirely? Did the other sub-chapter budgets really slash? SBS fact-checking facts have been verified by the team.



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"The entire budget for the special guarantee of the sub-chief has been cut?"


First, let's look at the claim that "under the Yoon Seok-yeol government, the budget for the special case guarantee of the sub-chief has been completely cut."

The sub-chapter business special guarantee business is, in simple terms, lending money to sub-chapter companies at low interest rates. The Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and Ventures is the ministry in charge, and the SME contributes KRW 600 billion to the Credit Guarantee Fund and KRW 200 billion to the Technology Guarantee Fund, and the two organizations provide special guarantees to small companies, and so on. However, under the Yoon Seok-yeol government, this budget was completely slashed.

In fact, when the team checked the open fiscal system of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, it was confirmed that the 2023 budget has been completely cut as CEO Lee said. The 800 billion won contributed to the two institutions has been set in the budget every year since the establishment of the Special Accounting for Sub-Chiefs in 2020, but it has been omitted from the budget details since this year. If the budget is cut like this, the related business may be disrupted.



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I asked the midshipman. The Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and Ventures said, "It is true that the 800 billion won contribution budget has been completely cut from the special account of the subchapter," adding, "However, from this year, the Credit Guarantee Fund and the Technology Guarantee Fund, two institutions, have decided to support it using their own funds. Special warranty support for subchapter companies has not changed." Two are fund-managed quasi-governmental institutions with cash flow. We can support it by running our own funds.

In other words, the government explains that the pockets from which the money comes out are different, but the special guarantee support project for small business companies is maintained.



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If so, I asked him if the support was still going on. The relevant ministries, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Industry, explained that "the target for special guarantees for sub-chapter companies is higher than last year."

Originally, the total scale of the special case guarantee business is quite large, about 1 trillion won. The two funds received about 800 billion won of the government budget to supplement part of it. So far, most of it has been self-funded. "The previous year's target for the two funds was 1 trillion won, but this year it has been slightly raised to 1.200 trillion won," Sanjabu said.



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As the government says, we have ensured that there is still a special guarantee for sub-chapter enterprises. There is a report on the "subchapter net" that confirms that the 2020 support project has continued to this day and that it is still accepting applications for assistance.



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"Has the budget for the sub-chapter been drastically reduced?"


Second, I would like to verify the claim that "subchapter-related budgets have also been drastically reduced."

In fact, the team based its budget on the "Subchapter Special Accounting," which is a collection of subchapter-related budgets. From fiscal 2020 to fiscal 2023, we checked how much money was allocated to the sub-chief special accounting for the four years. We checked the exact figures in the open finance system of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and we also requested separate data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to cross-check. For reference, the sub-headed special accounting ministries are the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of Small and Medium Venture Enterprises, and the Ministry of Science and ICT. The budgets of each ministry must be combined.

The budget trend for the "Sub-Chief Special Accounting" is as follows:



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From about 2020 trillion won in fiscal 2, it increased significantly to nearly 2.6 trillion won the following year, and then decreased slightly from fiscal 2022. Overall, we maintain 2 trillion won.

The sub-chapter special accounting budget is classified into four areas. These are 'technology development', 'foundation construction', 'funding field', and 'ecosystem construction field'.

We broke down in detail how each budget changed. The field of ecosystem construction is about billions of won, so it was not written separately.



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This year's subchapter budget is down 2.1% compared to last year, which appears to be due to a significant reduction in funding budgets. The significant reduction in the budget for the funding field is largely due to the reduction of KRW 800 billion contributed to the Credit Guarantee Fund and the Technology Guarantee Fund.

On the contrary, this year's budget for technology development and infrastructure construction increased by 1.2% (KRW 1.8 trillion to KRW 436.1 trillion) and 8.657% (KRW 9.5 billion to KRW 4.058 billion), respectively, compared to last year.



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In the end, it is the team's judgment that it is difficult to say that the amount has been "drastic" as Lee claims.
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How was the sub-chapter budget and the National Assembly debate?


The national budget cannot be set and executed at the discretion of the government. When the government makes a budget, the National Assembly must deliberate on it, revise it, and vote on it before it is finalized. The same is true of the sub-chief special accounting.

In fact, the team looked at the minutes of the meeting when the budget was being discussed. The 800 billion won cut in the budget of the Credit Guarantee Fund and the Technology Guarantee Fund has been talked about since the government audit in October last year. This is because the government did not reflect this aspect when it sent the budget to the National Assembly. The issue was raised by the opposition, but the government failed to explain it properly.



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Finally, in November last year, in the midst of budget debate, the opposition members of the National Assembly's Committee on Industry, Commerce, Resources and Small and Medium-sized Venture Enterprises, which was deliberating the related budget, agreed to keep the 11 billion won budget for the two funds intact. They asked the government to recapture the 800 billion won that was missing in the budget.



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However, during the discussion of the Special Committee on Budget Settlement, just before the plenary session, the 800 billion won budget was again withdrawn. For that part, I couldn't find the minutes of the meeting.

I asked the Ministry of Small and Medium Venture Enterprises about it. The Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises said, "We reported to the National Assembly that support for sub-chapter companies is a system that should be maintained anyway, so we will do it with our own funds (of the Credit Guarantee Fund and the Technology Guarantee Fund), and it was settled by subtracting it." Ultimately, it's just a matter of where to support the fund, because the support for sub-chapter companies itself doesn't change.



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As the issue of relations between South Korea and Japan became a hot topic in political circles, the issue of the budget of the sub-chapter was again on the chopping block, and it became the subject of political controversy. The issue of relations between South Korea and Japan is such a sensitive issue that there may be various political remarks, but I hope that at least statistics and data will not be interpreted differently.

The SBS team will also continue to fact-check issues related to foreign affairs between South Korea and Japan so that healthy discussions in political circles can continue.
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The SBS Fact-Check team first fact-checked Democratic Party Representative Lee Jae-myung's claim that "the government's budget for the special case guarantee of the sub-chapter has been completely cut." While Mr. Lee's claim that the special guarantee budget had been cut in its entirety is true, the related support projects were maintained at the level of previous years through the "own funds" of the Credit Guarantee Fund and the Technology Guarantee Fund. The source of the budget has changed, but the support project itself has not changed. In fact, the team considers Lee's claim to be "half true." However, the claim that "the budget for sub-chapters has been drastically reduced under the Yoon Seok-yeol government" is judged to be "largely untrue." In fact, when the team analyzed the open fiscal system and the separate data of the Ministry of Industry, and checked the trend of the special fiscal budget for each year, they could not find any dramatic changes. On the contrary, it has been confirmed that the budget for the development of sub-chapter technology and the construction of the foundation has increased.


(Interns: Yeom Jung-in, Yeo Geun-ho)