Partisan wrangling over EU FTA to continue in March session

By Kim Ji-soo

A relatively shorter March extra session at the National Assembly is likely to pit the governing and the opposition camps over pending issues such as the Korea-EU free trade pact and the savings banks.

The session will open on March 3 and continue through March 12.

Partisan wrangling is expected over the submitted motion to ratify the Korea-Eu free trade pact, the recent turmoil among savings banks and the break-in of spy agency officials into the Indonesian delegation’s hotel room in Seoul.

Conflict is likely to arise also in the bills including one for an international business belt, which were railroaded last year by the governing Grand National Party.

“We will give priority to legislating bills that are related to the betterment of people’s livelihood,” said Kim Moo-sung, GNP floor leader, strongly suggesting that the GNP will push through the Korea-EU free trade agreement and increase the protection of savings account holders.

His counterpart Park Jie-won, floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, said “We will focus on public livelihood issues as well as the illegal entry of the visiting Indonesian delegation’s hotel room and doubts surrounding former tax chief Han Sang-ryule.”

The ruling and opposition parties had agreed to put the Korea-EU trade pact up for a final vote on March 3, but that date is expected to further be delayed, as the DP is asking for a prior measure to counter any possible negative fallout from the free trade pact.

One of the biggest clashes may come from the Assembly’s Intelligence Committee slated for March 4. Enraged DP lawmakers bolted just after an hour in a meeting with the National Intelligence Service on Friday, when senior NIS official Kim Nam-soo continued to give “NCND” answers to the lawmakers’ inquiries on the trespassing into the Indonesian delegation’s hotel room.

Also, heated debate is expected within the Environment and Labor Committee, as lawmakers will be debriefed by the environment ministry on possible contamination by leachate from the massive burial grounds of animals with foot-and-mouth disease.

Meanwhile, the two camps agreed Sunday to approve 13 bills including one that will compel people convicted of sex crimes to undergo a mandatory program on sexual violence.