Parties agree on bill against violence

By Chung Min-uck

The ruling and opposition parties agreed to push for legislation that will implement tough anti-violence measures against lawmakers during this month’s parliamentary session.

Rep. Hwang Woo-yea, leader of the ruling Saenuri Party, and his main opposition Democratic Party counterpart Kim Han-gil, reached an agreement to a swift passage of anti-violence and other parliamentary reformative bills at a luncheon meeting, Tuesday.

The two leaders jointly said bills related to reducing lawmakers’ privileges and reestablishing their code of conduct would be “prioritized” in the upcoming session.

“Lawmaker’s conducting violence at the National Assembly seriously lowers people’s confidence against the legislative function,” said the bipartisan parliamentary committee on political reforms said in a statement, explaining the purpose of the bill.

According to committee members, based on the new regulation, acts of violence by lawmakers in legislature could result in a prison term, consequently, could lead to losing one’s seat.

Bills on reducing lawmakers’ perks include ending lawmakers’ immunity from arrest, prohibiting them from holding more than one job, doing away with their pensions and applying no-work, no-pay rules.

Such privileges have been the target of public criticism that lawmakers are given too many benefits while the general public is suffering from economic hardship.

However, observers remain skeptical about the actual passage of the bills as the rival parties lock horns over when to start a parliamentary investigation into election meddling allegations involving the National Intelligence Service (NIS).

They remained poles apart on when to conduct an agreed-upon parliamentary probe into suspicions that the state intelligence agency mobilized some of its agents to post political comments on the Internet in an attempt to influence December's presidential election.

In March, the rival parties agreed to launch a parliamentary investigation into the case as soon as the prosecution investigation comes to an end. The prosecution wrapped up the probe last week and indicted former NIS chief Won Se-hoon for his alleged involvement in the case.

On Tuesday, opposition party chief Kim called for an immediate launch of the proposed probe. But ruling party leader Hwang balked at the demand, saying the prosecution has not yet completed its investigation into other related suspicions.

Meanwhile other bills at hand for the upcoming session are 83 bills related to the people's livelihoods and “economic democratization.”