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.
18 Supreme Council members to lead new party
By Jun Ji-hye
Cho Kyoung-tae
Lee Kye-ahn
NPAD’s first bill proposal is about welfare promotion
By Jun Ji-hye
The New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) selected 18 Supreme Council members, including co-chairmen Reps. Kim Han-gil and Ahn Cheol-soo.
Among them, 10 members, along with chairmen, will hold ordinary meetings, spokesmen said Thursday.
“All council members will gather when the party needs to make decisions, but the usual meetings will be handled by chairmen and 10 members,” said spokesman Park Kwang-on at a press briefing.
The coalition between the Democratic Party (DP) and independent Ahn Cheol-soo’s camp was launched the previous day. Despite the vast difference in the number of legislators (126 to 2) for the two contingencies, the NPAD formed its Supreme Council by selecting nine members from each.
Rep. Kim, the former DP chairman, allowed the DP’s existing Supreme Council members to assume leadership posts in the newly created party.
They included floor leader Rep. Jun Byung-hun and Reps. Shin Kyoung-min, Cho Kyoung-tae, Yang Seoung-jo, Woo Won-shik and Park Hae-ja.
Non-lawmaker members Lee Yong-deuk and Jung Kyun-hwan were also included.
Rep. Jun will assume the coalition’s floor leader post until the NPAD conducts an election to choose a new floor leader in May.
Rep. Ahn selected Kim Hyo-seuk and Lee Kye-ahn, who co-chaired his New Political Vision Party, which he had planned to launch on his own before agreeing to the merger.
Others include Lee Yong-kyung, former chairman of now-defunct Creative Korea Party; Oh Hong-keun, former head of Government Information Agency; Kim Keun, former head of KBS; Pyo Chul-soo, former secretary general of the Korea Communications Commission; and lawyers Jung Yeon-ho and Kim Sam-hwa.
Kim Keun, Oh Hong-keun and Lee Yong-kyung had worked for the Ahn’s campaign camp while the first-term lawmaker was running as an independent candidate during the 2012 presidential election.
Lawyer Jung Yeon-ho, a noted self-made man, passed the bar exam after working in a printing house following graduation from a vocational high school. Lawyer Kim Sam-hwa, former chief director of the Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center, is the only female member from the Ahn camp.
“Among those, Reps. Jun, Shin, Cho, Yang and Woo from the DP, along with Lee Kye-ahn, Lee Yong-kyung, Pyo Chul-soo, Jung Yeon-ho and Kim Sam-hwa from the Ahn side, will hold regular meetings of the Supreme Council,” said spokesman Park.
The members will lead the NPAD for a year until it holds a national convention in March of next year.
Meanwhile, the NPAD proposed three welfare-related bills, its first-ever legislative activity.
“We prepared three bills to resolve difficulties facing those isolated from welfare benefits. They were designed to support the vulnerable social group,” Rep. Ahn said. “Taking those bills as an opportunity, the NPAD will keep paying attention to welfare problems.”
The two chairmen said the bills were motivated by a recent suicide case involving a 61-year-old woman and her two daughters in their 30s whose bodies were found in a room they rented in Songpa District, southeastern Seoul.
“If politicians fail to protect those who are not able to receive welfare benefits, although they desperately need it, the tragic event of Songpa will repeat,” said Ahn.
Ahn will give his first-ever speech at the National Assembly as a chairman of a political party Wednesday.