VIP Kim causes plenary session confusion

Through an unrelenting flip-flop of decisions by the Democratic and the United Liberal Democrat parties concerning the time for their call for the opening of the plenary session, the ire of the assembly members was fanned.

With the first morning request by the Democratic Party for the opening of the session at 2 p.m., the Democratic Party then, prior to noon, twice asked for a delay to 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on the pretext of "buying more time for talks with the opposition" and "filling the seats of the assembly."

However, at around 4 p.m. an announcement of yet another rescheduling of the opening time for 5:30 p.m. rang through out the chambers.

It has been revealed that the 5:30 rescheduling was for the purpose of allowing the honorary chairman of the Liberal United Democrats, Kim Jong-Pil, to attend the session, and that he was making a short hop from Japan to Korea for that purpose.

Kim arrived in Korea at 3 p.m. and made way for his scheduled flight back to Japan at 6:40 p.m. soon after the vote for the Pharmaceutical Law revision.