Four parties submit key fast-track reform bills

Rep. Na Kyung-won, center, floor leader of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, gets disappointed after listening to the fact that four other political parties have submitted controversial reform bills which her party has been opposing for at the National Assembly, Friday. / Yonhap

LKP continues face-off with four parties

By Park Ji-won

The ruling Democratic Party Korea (DPK) and three minor parties submitted four reform bills to the National Assembly Friday evening to fast-track them. The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) strongly protested the DPK-led coalition force's move.

Using the Assembly's electronic system, the four parties ― including the Bareunmirae Party (BMP), the Party for Democracy and Peace (PDP) and the progressive Justice Party ― submitted the bills, according to party officials. It's the first time in South Korean political history that bills have been submitted electronically.

The key points of the submitted bills include plans to increase the number of proportional representation seats in the Assembly, establish a special investigative body to look into corruption allegations involving high-ranking government officials and their families, and expand the police's independent investigative authority.

The four parties plan to hold committees on judicial and political reform to vote on whether to fast-track the bills. However, it is uncertain whether they would be able to hold their meetings as the LKP is strongly resisting the move by conducting sit-in protests inside the Assembly.

Tensions are high between the DPK and the LKP, resulting in tense physical confrontations in the National Assembly.

The LKP has been opposing the attempt to fast-track the bills as it was carried out without its approval, claiming it is against parliamentary democracy and aims to extend the current “leftist regime.” A group of Bareunmirae Party (BMP) members also held a sit-in protest on Thursday opposing its leadership's decision to push for the attempt.

Adding to sit-in protests blocking the Assembly's offices, between Thursday and Friday, the LKP members locked Rep. Chae Yi-bai of the BMP in his office for six hours to prevent him from participating in a key committee meeting to fast-track bills. An LKP member also allegedly broke a fax machine which accepts proposals to be registered.

The LKP stepped up its protests after National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang approved the BMP leadership's request Thursday to replace its lawmakers on related committees with other lawmakers who are in favor of passing the reform measures.

The law on fast-tracking bills was initially made to prevent bills from being held up in the Assembly for too long after failing to win bipartisan support in 2012 when the Saenuri Party, the predecessor of the LKP, took the majority of the Assembly. The ruling DPK and three opposition parties agreed Tuesday to fast-track the bills after months of discussions.

If the bills are approved by the special committees, they will be put to a vote in a National Assembly regular session within 330 days. If the reform bills take effect, next year's general election will be carried out under a revised Election Law with an increased number of proportional representatives.

Leaders of the ruling DPK and the main opposition LKP exchanged barbs, threatening to stop each other's activities.

Rep. Lee Hae-chan, chairman of the DPK, said “The LKP took violent action at the Assembly which I have never seen before in my career as a lawmaker since 1988.”

Stressing that those activities are against the law, Lee pledged he will push for fast-tracking the bills to make a new order in the country by working together with his party members. The DPK later filed a complaint with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, accusing 18 LKP lawmakers and its secretaries for violating the Assembly Law and Criminal Law while sabotaging the four parties' moves to pass the bills.

“The DPK's move was illegal. South Korea is not North Korea. It is hard to understand continuing to change people to get approval,” said Rep. Na Kyung-won, floor leader of the LKP.

“They violated the Assembly Law and customs first. So our protest activities against them are totally acceptable.”