President Yoon Suk Yeol held a second policy briefing Thursday at the presidential office.

The president vowed to realize four major reform initiatives, which will affect the national pension system as well as health care, education and labor. The country’s survival depends on those reforms, he said. 

Discussing the national pension system, Yoon said the nation should write a legal guarantee into the law to reassure young people that they will receive their payments when they retire. He also said it is necessary to raise premiums for different age groups at different rates. 

He pledged to increase the basic monthly pension for elderly people to 400-thousand won before the end of his term. 

Now that the plan to increase medical school admissions has been finalized, Yoon said the government will focus its policy efforts on delivering essential medical services, as well as on ensuring high-quality health care throughout the country.

The president said the government will restructure top-tier hospitals that over-rely on trainee doctors, instead shifting the focus to specialists and physician assistant nurses.

Regarding the record-low birth rate, Yoon said the government will alleviate the cost burdens associated with child care and housing so that young people can dream of getting married and having children. 

The president added that the government will launch a task force next month, as the first step toward establishing a new ministry to tackle the low birth rate and the aging population. He called on the National Assembly to cooperate to pass related legislation.