KB News Desk
The 22nd National Assembly is set to reconvene on Monday following a short respite at the midpoint of its four-year run.
According to the National Assembly Secretariat on Friday, the parliament will hold a special session Monday for the first time since the inauguration of the new speaker, Rep. Cho Jeong-sik.
This follows a ruling Democratic Party-led request to convene the session earlier, despite the fact that seven standing committee chairs have yet to be elected amid partisan clashes, while the main opposition People Power Party lawmakers are refusing to join the committees in a show of protest.
On Tuesday, the National Assembly elected 11 lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea as chairs of parliamentary committees, including the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, after weeks of negotiations with the main opposition People Power Party collapsed.
Both parties had insisted on chairing the Legislation and Judiciary Committee.
On Thursday, the People Power Party leadership announced that its lawmakers would engage in an “all-out protest” and refuse to cooperate with the ruling party over the party committee assignments.
People Power Party floor leader Rep. Jeong Jeom-sig claimed that the Democratic Party’s scheme to pass a controversial special counsel bill to cancel charges against President Lee Jae Myung was the cause of its failure to abide by the unwritten rule under which an opposition party lawmaker chaired the committee.
Despite the protest, the Democratic Party proceeded with the plan to resume the National Assembly, which has been paused since late May with former National Assembly Speaker Rep. Woo Won-shik ending his term.
Before Tuesday’s election, a special committee investigating ballot shortages during the June 3 local elections was the only committee active. The other standing committees could not be convened because of the prolonged negotiations over committee assignments between the rival parties.
This led the Democratic Party to submit committee member assignments to Cho, as the People Power Party refused to do so.
On Friday, Democratic Party floor leader Rep. Han Byung-do said the main opposition People Power Party was neglecting matters related to ordinary people’s lives, blaming the party for the delays in the committee assignments.
“The People Power Party has finally declared a boycott of public welfare,” Han said in a party meeting before the party submitted its request to Speaker Cho to convene an extraordinary session.
He added that the People Power Party is “justifying its irresponsible acts” with rhetoric, using a “wasteful political ploy that takes ordinary people hostage.”
Meanwhile, some of the 11 parliamentary committees with newly elected chairs are starting to meet.
The latest is a session of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee on Thursday chaired by Rep. Seo Young-kyo of the Democratic Party. The session was held without lawmakers from the People Power Party.
A meeting of the Strategy and Finance Committee could not be convened as scheduled on Friday as the membership quorum for the session was not met.
