By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter

Opposition parties condemned the governing Grand National Party (GNP) Monday for the plan to allow business owners having experienced losses due to violent protests to file a class action lawsuit.

A group of GNP lawmakers submitted a bill to the National Assembly to permit businesses to seek material compensation if 50 or more people suffered reduced business profits due to violent protests.

Rep. Cho Jeong-sik of the largest opposition Democratic Party (DP) said in a statement that the move was a violation of the freedom of expression as well as the freedom of association.

Rep. Cho said his party would make all-out efforts to deter the passage of the bill in the legislature.

The DP lawmaker made the comments shortly after GNP floor leader Hong Joon-pyo encouraged governing party lawmakers to work hard to pass the bill as soon as possible during the current assembly session.

Hong also said the party members should work closely together to pass the bill to ban discrimination based on religion and the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement motion together.

The GNP floor leader said if opposition parties are not going to cooperate in forming a sub-committee to discuss the agenda, governing party lawmakers should still make efforts to find ways of passing the bills.

The GNP has 172 seats in the 299-member legislature and can meet the quorum of 150 supporters needed to pass the bill on its own. The DP has 81 seats.

Minor parties criticized the GNP for the plan to go ahead with passing the three bills without having much discussion with other parties, calling the GNP arrogant.

Minor Liberty Forward Party Spokeswoman Park Sun-young said the GNP was ignoring the principle of democracy with its unilateral move.

The Democratic Labor Party commented the class action bill does harm to social integration and therefore the GNP's plan will only trigger a backlash afterwards.

hkang@koreatimes.co.kr