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.
Assembly opens Monday with bleak outlook
By Jun Ji-hye
The National Assembly begins a 100-day regular session, Monday, but there is little likelihood of normal parliamentary procedures functioning to pass a backlog of pending bills on time.
The outlook remains bleak because of the continuing impasse between rival parties over a special bill intended to establish a committee to investigate the aftermath of the ferry Sewol disaster that claimed more than 300 lives in April.
Confrontation over the contents of this proposed legislation caused deadlock in the Assembly during July and August, resulting in no bills being passed at all.
As there is no apparent sign of a breakthrough, there are deep concerns over further delays on passing other bills related to raising people’s living standards and boosting the ailing economy.
The main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) has been under growing pressure to return to the National Assembly by terminating its street protest.
“We will attend the opening ceremony Monday,” said the NPAD in a statement. However, the party has yet to decide on whether to agree on convening the plenary session that day to approve a bill for the appointment of a new secretary general for the Assembly.
The NPAD is clinging to its position that the special bill should be addressed with the highest priority before other pending bills are discussed.
The opposition is boycotting bipartisan activities, calling on the governing party to accept granting a committee full investigative powers to establish what caused the man-made tragedy.
The families are calling for this, as well as the power to indict to be granted to such a committee. They believe this will be the only way to entirely establish what caused the incident. Elements within the NPAD oppose granting the power to indict.
The governing party is entirely opposed to this idea, arguing that it could damage the nation’s judicial system. It is instead calling for a special prosecutor to be appointed to probe the case.
In its effort to resolve the deadlock, the Saenuri Party has been holding talks with representatives of the families of the victims. The third round of the talks, which could be a decisive for normalizing parliamentary activities, will be held right after the opening ceremony.
The NPAD is demanding three-party talks to be held between rival parties and the families.
Follow Jun Ji-hye on Twitter @TheKopJihye