Ruling party seeks to 'unilaterally' hold opening session of 21st National Assembly

Rep. Kim Young-jin, right, of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, submits documents to the National Assembly Secretariat, Tuesday, to request holding the opening session of the 21st Assembly, Friday, despite protests from the main opposition United Future Party. Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-geun

By Jung Da-min

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is seeking to “unilaterally” hold the opening session of the 21st National Assembly on Friday despite resistance from the main opposition United Future Party (UFP), which says negotiations between the parties over how to form standing committees should come first.

The DPK, in alliance with the minor Justice Party and the Open Minjoo Party, submitted a request to convene an extraordinary session to the National Assembly Secretariat's office, Tuesday. According to the National Assembly Act, such a request should be submitted three days before the proposed session. Under the act, the 21st Assembly should hold its opening session on Friday, one week since its commencement on May 30.

The DPK request has come amid a tug of war between the DPK and the UFP over how to allocate the 18 committee head positions, with both parties laying claim to the head positions of two key committees for legislative activities for major policies ― the Legislation and Judiciary Committee and the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts.

DPK floor leader Rep. Kim Tae-nyeon said the submission of the request was the first step toward a “hard-working National Assembly” for which all parties have agreed to cooperate, because any delay to the opening will mar the pledge from the very beginning of the new four-year Assembly.

“Holding the opening session on the date designated by law can never be the subject of negotiations,” Kim said during a party meeting at the Assembly.

Referring to previous assemblies in decades where the opening date had not been met due to similar conflicts on committee selections, Kim said, “The bad practices in the past ― in which not abiding by the law was called cooperation and negotiating outside the law was regarded as politics ― should be put to an end. I call on the UFP to join the move toward a hard-working National Assembly without conditions, leaving the bad practices of the past behind.”

According to the law, the Assembly is required to elect the speaker and deputy speakers in the opening session. The DPK is planning to elect its six-term lawmaker Park Byeong-seug as the speaker and four-term lawmaker Kim Sang-hee as one of the two deputy speakers allocated for the ruling bloc. The remaining deputy speaker post allocated for the main opposition will be reserved for the UFP's Rep. Chung Jin-suk, but it is uncertain if the votes for Chung will be conducted at the opening session if the UFP boycotts it.

Under the act, the 21st Assembly also has to complete the process of dividing 300 lawmakers into 18 committees and electing heads of each committee by June 8, within three days of the opening session, if held as the DPK is pushing for.

The UFP is demanding the selection of committee heads should come before the opening session, citing the act that also stipulates the speaker can unilaterally divide lawmakers into committees if the parties do not submit a list of committee members within two days after the first plenary session is held.

UFP floor leader Rep. Joo Ho-young strongly condemned the DPK's move to “unilaterally” hold the opening session, comparing it to a dictatorship.

“All dictatorial governments have claimed they followed the law. They made laws for their advantage and interpreted them as they wish to maintain dictatorial governance,” Joo said in a party meeting. “The DPK won't get the UFP's cooperation in the future if it holds the opening session on Friday without the UFP's agreement, selects the speaker and pushes ahead with committee organization and extra budget passage unilaterally.”