By Kim Hyo-jin
A National Assembly extraordinary session started Thursday amid expectations that parties will pass a pending bill drawn up to address human rights abuses in North Korea.
Redistricting constituency boundaries is expected to be another hot button issue during the month-long session with the April 13 general election just about two months away.
The leaders of the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) agreed to hold plenary sessions on Feb. 19 and Feb. 23. They will continue negotiations to narrow their differences over details of the bills during a bipartisan meeting next week.
Passage of the North Korea human rights bill is being prioritized in the wake of Pyongyang’s rocket launch on Feb. 7, according to Saenuri Party lawmakers.
“At the risk of increasing the North’s provocation, the party decided to further push for the North Korea Human Rights Bill, along with the Anti-terrorism Bill,” Rep. Won Yoo-chul, the party floor leader said after meeting with government officials Wednesday.
The bill aimed at improving the dismal human rights situation in North Korea has been pending in the Assembly for months due to the parties’ wrangling over its wording.
The MPK insisted that the need to improve human rights in the North and secure peace on the Korean Peninsula should be equally expressed in words while the Saenuri Party argued that the stress should be put on the human rights issue.
Under increasing pressure from the ruling party calling for effective sanctions against Pyongyang, the MPK withdrew its long-standing argument on the wording. “The stress can be put either way,” Rep. Rhee Mok-hee, the party’s chief policymaker told reporters after the bipartisan meeting.
Meanwhile, the parties said they ironed out their differences on how to change electoral districts to a large extent.
“We expect the constituency boundaries will be finalized in the February extraordinary session,” Rep. Moon Jeong-lim, spokeswoman of the MPK said, adding the remaining issues are how to set the minimum and maximum number of people for a constituency and the number of constituencies there should be in metropolitan areas.
With parties making improvement on pending bills, National Assembly Speaker Chung Ui-hwa said he would view Feb. 23, the last plenary session day, as the deadline for the parties to negotiate the new electoral map. He earlier asked the parties to conclude talks by Feb. 12.