Kang Seung-woo is the Business Desk editor at The Korea Times. Prior to this position, he covered politics, national affairs, finance and sports.
Rival parties differ on moving Nat'l Assembly to Sejong
The National Assembly in Seoul / Korea Times file
By Kang Seung-woo
By Kang Seung-woo
The rival parties agreed, Wednesday, to a 12.7 billion won ($11.5 million) bill for the construction of another National Assembly building in Sejong as part of the 2021 budget, to reduce the inefficiency of public officials having to travel between the Government Complex Sejong and the Assembly in Seoul.
The ruling bloc believes this will be a step forward to relocate the entire legislative branch to the special self-governing city and complete the goal of making Sejong into the nation's administrative capital. However, it remains to be seen whether the ruling party-floated plan will come to fruition as the official opposition claims the Sejong building should remain a mere branch of the Assembly.
On Wednesday, the Assembly passed the 558 trillion won budget for next year, the largest budget in the country's history, and it included the money for a new Assembly.
If the construction is completed, 11 legislative standing committees are likely to move to the new Assembly building, according to the parties, and they include the Strategy and Finance Committee, the National Policy Committee and the Land Infrastructure and Transport Committee whose relevant government organizations are housed at the Government Complex Sejong.
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is set to move the entire Assembly to Sejong through a phased relocation.
“The DPK will seek to relocate the Assembly to Sejong step by step. We will unveil the plan soon,” DPK Chairman Rep. Lee Nak-yon said last month.
The relocation of the Assembly is part of the party's master plan to move the nation's administrative function from Seoul to Sejong, with the goal of economic and political decentralization.
The relocation vision is not new to the liberal side as the 2003-08 Roh Moo-hyun administration sought to set Sejong as the new capital. But the Constitutional Court dashed the plan in 2004, ruling that moving the nation's capital was unconstitutional and required an amendment to the Constitution. As a result, some ministries and government agencies have been moved to Sejong, 120 kilometers south of Seoul.
In response to the DPK's plan, the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) stands against taking the entire Assembly to Sejong.
“First of all, the capital relocation plan must address the issue of its unconstitutionality and a referendum should be a prerequisite for pushing ahead with it,” PPP floor leader Rep. Joo Ho-young said last month.
“Although the PPP agrees to move some standing committees to Sejong to resolve inefficiency, we do not approve the plan of relocating all committees and setting up the main chamber there. Even if the entire Assembly moves to Sejong, we need to test-operate with some committees and assess efficiency.”