President Lee: "Using retirement pensions as a fund to defend the FX market? Not even possible"

The Financial News reported that President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea said on the 21st, regarding discussions on turning retirement pensions into a fund to defend the foreign exchange market, "Not only is it impossible, there is no need to do so and I have no intention of doing it."
Asked at the New Year press conference about his position on the idea of converting retirement pensions into a fund, Lee replied, "There is no need to talk about the retirement pension fund issue in connection with stock prices, because that would cause misunderstandings." He went on to point out, "Not only in Korea but around the world, fake news has become a factor that fuels social confusion and conflict."
Referring to claims that have recently spread online, Lee said, "There is talk that the government is reviewing a forced sale of our people’s overseas stocks, and this is spreading widely as if it were true," adding, "That is not even possible. Even socialist countries cannot do that. How would you even sell them?" He then added, "There are also malicious fake news stories about retirement pension fund conversion that create political misunderstandings."
Lee also expressed concern about the performance of retirement pension management itself. He said, "Ordinary funds earn an annual return of about 7–8%," and continued, "I understand that retirement pension returns are in the 1% range, not even at the level of bank interest. That means they are not being managed well." He added, "From a social perspective, this is an important asset, and for individuals it is a crucial resource for old age. If returns stay below inflation like this, it is a loss."
Lee stated, "There is a view in academia and in politics that we need measures for retirement pensions. Naturally, I am also thinking about this," and asked, "These are extremely important retirement assets for our workers. Is it right to leave them almost abandoned like this?"
On whether to push ahead with converting them into a fund, he said, "Could we proceed with fund conversion if the people concerned do not want it?" and added, "We need to fully discuss whether there is any guarantee that management under a fund system would be better than it is now." He continued, "It is still premature, but it is true that we need countermeasures," stressing, "Fund conversion is indeed one possible option, but please do not misunderstand. If people do not want it, we will not do it. We will not make things worse, and we will never do anything unreasonable that would deserve public criticism."

west@fnnews.com Reporter Seong Seok-woo Reporter