Yoon says opposition push for greater Assembly clout could be unconstitutional
President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks to reporters at the presidential office in Seoul's Yongsan District, June 13. Yonhap
President Yoon Suk-yeol said Monday that an opposition push to strengthen National Assembly oversight of the government could be "unconstitutional."
Rep. Cho Eung-chon of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea is reportedly planning to introduce an amendment to the National Assembly Act to enable standing committees to request a revision to a presidential decree or a prime minister's ordinance if they deem it to be incompatible with the law.
Critics said the amendment, if passed, could give the DPK, which controls the National Assembly with 170 out of 299 seats, too much say in government affairs, thus hurting the principle of the separation of administrative and legislative powers.
"I'll have to take a look at the bill, but if it's about having the right to demand revisions to enforcement ordinances, as reported in the press, then I think it would leave a lot of room to be viewed as unconstitutional," Yoon told reporters as he arrived for work.
"An enforcement ordinance is meant to be the president's decision, and the way to resolve problems with enforcement ordinances is to follow the means and steps stipulated in the Constitution," he said. (Yonhap)