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.
Nuclear revision bill unapproved
Rep. Choi Kyung-hwan, center, floor leader of the ruling Saenuri Party, and other party members talk over the nuclear security bill pending at the National Assembly, Seoul, Friday. The main opposition Democratic Party opposed the passage of the bill despite President Park Geun-hye’s plea for the passage ahead of the next week’s Nuclear Security Summit. / Yonhap
By Jun Ji-hye
President Park likely to leave for Hague empty-handed
By Jun Ji-hye
The National Assembly on Friday failed to approve a nuclear security bill despite President Park Geun-hye’s plea for its passage ahead of her departure for The Hague to attend the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) scheduled for early next week.
President Park asked leading political parties Tuesday to pass the amendment to the Law on Protection of Nuclear Facilities and Prevention of Radioactive Disasters, before her departure for Europe Sunday.
To meet the President’s request, members from the ruling Saenuri Party pressured the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) to cooperate by unilaterally convening the plenary session, which the latter chose to boycott.
If passed, the revision would have paved the way to complete the nation’s ratification process for two global treaties on nuclear terror and nuclear materials, to which the parliament attached a conditional endorsement in December 2011.
When Seoul hosted the NSS in 2012, then President Lee Myung-bak, Park’s predecessor, pledged to complete the process by 2014.
President Park and the governing party argued that failure to pass the bill before next week’s NSS would be an international embarrassment.
However, the leading opposition is sticking to its initial stance _ the revision should be simultaneously passed along with other pending bills the party has been pushing for, including a revision to the Broadcasting Law.
The revision aimed at expanding the scope of nuclear-related crimes and toughening punishment is still pending at a standing committee where 60 percent agreement is required to put it to a vote by the full body in the plenary session.
The committee is comprised of five members from the governing camp, and five from the DP, meaning the DP’s cooperation is essential.
“We have made every effort to persuade the DP to cooperate, but our request was met with silence,” said Choi Kyung-hwan, floor leader of the Saenuri Party.
In response, Rep. Jun Byung-hun, Choi’s DP counterpart, said: “It is the government and the ruling party that should be responsible for the delayed passage as they left the revision pending for the past two years.”
He argued that the DP’s suggestion to amend the broadcast law should be also passed “to protect national prestige” as it could contribute to resolving the allegations of biased reporting from some conservative cable channels.
Rep. Jun also claimed that failure to complete the ratification process ahead of The Hague’s summit would not damage the national prestige, given former President Lee promised to do so by 2014, which can be construed as by the end of the year.
Indeed, not all member nations have signed on yet, so Park’s failure to finalize the treaties would not be the main cause for delaying their implementation globally. The United States is among the notable countries that have yet to complete their ratification.
The ruling party initially planned to convene the plenary session the previous day, which foundered for the same reason of the DP’s absence.
On that day, National Assembly speaker Kang Chang-hee, who canceled his scheduled trip to countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in order to preside over the revision, called floor leaders of the rival parties to his office to reach a compromise but that failed too.
Prime Minister Chung Hong-won also visited the Assembly Monday to persuade parties, which also failed.