Ruling party's new floor leader to deal with post-pandemic economic crisis

Rep. Kim Tae-nyeon, center, new floor leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, speaks during the party's Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly, Friday, a day after he was elected as floor leader. Yonhap

By Jung Da-min

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) has elected its new floor leader, Rep. Kim Tae-nyeon, who is tasked with heading the “super-large” ruling party for the incoming 21st National Assembly after its sweeping victory in the April 15 general election.

The three-term lawmaker beat two other floor leader candidates in a vote of party members at the National Assembly, Thursday.

Among the tasks before Kim is how he will demonstrate his leadership to lead the super-size ruling party, which will take up nearly 60 percent of the 300-seat Assembly, while the nation is dealing with the post-pandemic economic crisis.

As the government is planning to submit the third supplementary budget bill in early June after the 21st Assembly kicks off on May 30, attention is on how the DPK can draw cooperation from opposition parties to pass the bill.

“I've got a lot on my shoulders after being elected as the ruling party floor leader in a time of economic crisis on the tails of the coronavirus outbreak,” Kim said during a press conference at the National Assembly after the vote. “The third supplementary budget is a necessary step for the Assembly to help the nation take preemptive and bold actions against economic difficulties.”

He also pledged to push ahead with a revision of the National Assembly Act to achieve the goal of a “hard-working National Assembly.”

The 20th Assembly which ends May 29 has been labeled as the worst by political analysts, as rival parties remained locked in verbal and even physical clashes and failed to pass bills during its four-year term.

A judiciary reform bill to establish a special investigative body to look into corruption by high-ranking officials and their family members was among the contentious bills, which had brought physical clashes and gave the Assembly the moniker of an “animal-like” legislative body.

Kim seeks revision to oblige the Assembly to hold sessions all year round and have lawmakers with knowledge and expertise in specific fields assigned to relevant committees rather than based on their interests.

Passing other reform bills is also an important and hard task, to complete and carry out many reform measures sought by the Moon Jae-in government, such as reform of authorities including the prosecution and the spy agency. As the Moon administration has two years left, reform bills, if not dealt with opportunely, could be discarded along with the launch of the next administration.

In the meantime, the DPK and its satellite party Civil Together decided to merge through a vote of DPK members, Friday, in which 84.1 percent said they support the merger.

The DPK and Civil Together collectively secured 180 seats in the general election, but two lawmakers-elect returned to other minor parties they belonged to before joining the ruling bloc for the election, and another was expelled over suspected property tax evasion, so now the ruling bloc has 177 seats.