Jun Ji-hye, a reporter at the finance desk of The Korea Times, focuses primarily on economic policy and government agencies, mainly covering the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Ministry of Budget and Planning, the National Tax Service and the Korea Customs Service. She previously covered financial authorities, including the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, and earlier worked on the political, city and business desks, reporting on a wide range of issues.
Lawmakers' attitude blocks passage of bills
By Jun Ji-hye
Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo sits alone at the empty main conference hall in the National Assembly waiting for a plenary session to begin, Tuesday. He was the first to arrive at the hall before other lawmakers. / Yonhap
By Jun Ji-hye
The National Assembly’s failure to pass a resolution calling for the normalization of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, Monday, raised questions over lawmakers’ attitude toward their duties.
The Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee adopted the resolution and submitted it to a plenary session last Wednesday.
But it was not put to a vote in two plenary sessions afterwards _ on Thursday and Friday, there were insufficient ruling and opposition party lawmakers in attendance.
The number of those who entered the main conference hall for the session by the scheduled time on Friday, which was 2 p.m., was only 30.
The session barely managed to form a quorum with 70 lawmakers 10 minutes later. Thursday’s session was even worse with only 59 lawmakers in attendance.
The quorum for a plenary session is 60, one fifth of the total of 300 legislators.
At the time, the two parties said they would postpone endorsing the Gaeseong resolution until Monday.
However, the situation changed in the mean time, as the government decided to withdraw all South Korean workers from the joint complex, late Friday, in response to North Korea’s refusal to discuss the issue.
Workers and field supervisors returned to the South on Monday, with seven remaining in Gaeseong.
Following this, both parties decided to exclude the bill from Monday’s session, claiming, “The resolution does not reflect changes in the situation, so it is meaningless to approve it.”
The failure on the resolution further escalated the public’s anger over legislators’ negligent attitude toward their duties as seen in their low attendance rate and habitual lateness.
According to the National Assembly Secretariat, only two plenary sessions and standing committee meetings out of an aggregate total of 133 held from April 8 to 27 began on time.
In particular, most committee meetings started at least 30 minutes later than the scheduled time, as lawmakers had to wait for latecomers. The committee meetings can only be held with the attendance of a majority of members.
On April 11, the meeting of the politics reform special committee was held 34 minutes later than planned, while the meeting of the budget and financial reform special committee opened an hour and 45 minutes late.
“I also have missed some meeting and sessions. I would say I had some unavoidable reasons, but I feel ashamed of it. Some lawmakers seem to think participating in the plenary session or committee meetings are annoyances,” said a second-term lawmaker from the opposition party, asking not to be named.
“They need to make improvements in their lackadaisical state of mind and regard attendance in the parliament affairs as their duty.”