By Kim Hyo-jin
President Park Geun-hye on Friday vetoed a bill that would allow the National Assembly to hold hearings more often.
The rejection drew fierce protest from the opposition bloc, which vowed to table the bill again in the 20th National Assembly that begins next week.
With President Park visiting Ethiopia on a 12-day, four-nation trip, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn presided over a Cabinet meeting where he reached the decision.
The bill, passed last week, was aimed at empowering the Assembly’s committees, enabling them to hold hearings on state affairs at their own discretion.
However, the government had raised concerns over its passage, saying the Assembly could abuse the hearings to mount a political offensive.
Hwang said the bill should be reviewed as it is more of a “control” than “check” over the administration.
“The bill could be unconstitutional,” Hwang said. “The hearing system to probe ongoing state affairs means a new measure to control the government by the legislature, which goes against the constitutional spirit of checks and balances.”
Park electronically approved the Cabinet’s proposal requesting the Assembly to review the bill, according to presidential spokesman Jung Youn-kuk.
It marked the 66th presidential veto since the establishment of the Constitution and the second in her term, following the one against the revision bill to the National Assembly law that would have empowered lawmakers to challenge government ordinances last year.
Je Jeong-boo, the government legislation minister, backed Hwang’s opinion while explaining the background of the veto following the Cabinet meeting.
“It’s better to forestall the possibility of abusing the bill than implement it limitedly,” Je said during the press conference. “It will shoulder excessive burden on governmental bodies and private companies as the range of state affairs that will be targeted is too broad.”
Friday was a virtual deadline for the government to deal with the bill, except the weekend before the outgoing National Assembly ends on May 29.
The government held an extra cabinet meeting instead of the regular meeting scheduled on May 31, reflecting the will to end the controversy before the coming 20th Assembly starts.
“We hope that it is no longer a cause of political dispute,” said a official at Cheong Wa Dae.
The opposition parties immediately protested against the veto, saying they will take all possible measures to push ahead with the bill.
“We will bring back the bill as soon as the new Assembly opens,” Rep. Woo Sang-ho, floor leader of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK), said during a press conference held to denounce the government’s move.
Woo dismissed the veto as “political cheating” because it was carried out at the last stage of the outgoing Assembly, depriving it of a chance to open the plenary session to re-vote for the bill.
Opposition leaders voiced in common that the move went against parliamentary democracy and Park quelled the spirit of the cooperative politics she pledged earlier during the meeting with floor leaders of rival parties.
“I’m concerned that the possibility of cooperative politics created after the meeting with Cheong Wa Dae is being ripped off,” said Rep. Park Jie-won, floor leader of the minor opposition People’s Party.
“I believe the President is interpreting the public sentiment reflected in the general election in a distorted way,” said Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, co-chairman of the minor opposition People’s Party, calling the move “self-righteous.”
Meanwhile, the ruling Saenuri Party floor leader Chung Jin-suk advocated for the President, saying, “A Presidential veto is an inherited right so it should not be viewed as a taboo.”
Controversy still remains as there is no specific rule whether the bill will be scrapped automatically along with the end of the parliamentary term.
The Secretariat of the National Assembly said it is studying the legal interpretation of the procedure.
If the bill is scrapped, the opposition parties should started proposing the bill from ground zero, which includes seeking agreement of rival parties during related committees.
Even if the bill can be delivered to the next Assembly, it is uncertain that it can be passed smoothly.
The bill will be finalized as a law if more than half the 300 lawmakers are present in voting and two-thirds of them endorse it. As the total number of the opposition party lawmakers is 167, they should expect 33 more votes from lawmakers in the ruling party.
The MPK insisted that the veto is “invalid” as it was carried out without leaving enough time for the Assembly to review the returned bill.
Under the National Assembly Law, the Assembly speaker should announce that the plenary session will be convened three days earlier. Gi Dong-min, an MPK spokesman, said: “It should’ve done on May 26, considering the Assembly ends on May 29. It was an abuse of power exercised knowing the parliamentary review was impossible.”