National Assembly Becomes a Battleground for Interest Groups

Yeouido, where the National Assembly is located, has become a battlefield for interest groups recently as the legislative body is due to review several bills on controversial issues, such as shareholders‘ class action lawsuits, government labor unions, bio-tech ethics and others.

An example relates to demonstrations of proponents and opponents of a tideland reclamation project in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, which has drawn heated debate in Korea. In a corner on Yeouido, people attended the “three steps and one bow” procession, calling for preservation of a sandbank in Saemangeum, while proponents are currently holding demonstrations for promotion of the project. The confrontation between the civic groups is expected to escalate as Rep. Ahn Sang-su of the Grand National Party (GNP) pledged to present a revision bill to the National Assembly upon the public sea-land reclamation project, which would forbid the reclaiming of land, exceeding 300,0000 square meters.

Another pending issue in controversy is the shareholders‘ class action lawsuits, which will be decided in June in the Assembly.

The class action suit will allow a group of shareholders to expect the same compensation when one individual investor files a lawsuit against a company for fraudulent accounting, stock price manipulation, or false reporting, and wins the case. Although the government and the opposite GNP have some differences on the issue, including the business scope which the bill should cover, the timing of the implementation, and safeguard measures against abusing the law, it is highly likely that the bill will be passed after slight revisions.

Regarding the issue, groups representing business circles, like the Federation of Korean Industries and Korcham, are putting forth strengthened protective measures against reckless dependency on the law. On the other hand, civic groups and labor unionists are calling for maximized legal support on their side.

Problems of government workers are to resurface when the government bill, which allows naming of labor unions, and collective bargaining right in limited terms, arrives at the Assembly. Recently, unionized government workers cast votes to decide whether to go on strike. The revised version of the government bill is more unionist-friendly than the original, which disapproved the naming of the workers‘ union. However, the national union of government workers is opposed to the government’s unilateralist movement to enact the law in a form of a special act. The unionists are committed to attaining “three perfect labor rights” and have expressed strong opposition to the government proposal.

Other conflicting issues, such as the biotech ethics bill, and abolition of the family headship system (a revised bill of a civil law) are expected to garner conflict and social discord.

Dong-Ki Sung esprit@donga.com