“Four Major Bills” Will Likely Cause Conflicts between Ruling, Opposition Parties

The Uri Party held a general meeting on October 17 and confirmed the final versions of “the four legislation bills,” the National Security Law, the historical fact-finding law, the law on private institutions and the law on the press. This foreshadows an inevitable conflict between the governing party and the opposition party regarding the passing of these bills.

The Uri Party plans to hand the four bills in to the National Assembly on October 20, and will bring them up for deliberation before the assembly sometime next month after an introducing and screening process in the appropriate standing committees. Meanwhile, the Grand National Party is defining the bills as “National Disunion Bills” and has proclaimed their opposition to them with all their might.

Uri Party Chairman Lee Boo-young said at the general meeting, “We are now at a diverging road headed either towards an age of a reconciliatory and cooperative South-North relationship or an age of conflict between the two,” adding, “We have to create this bill thinking that we are working together with the people.”

However, Grand National Party Chairwoman Park Geun-hye said at an emergency security policy check meeting on the same day regarding the four bills that “these bills contradict the national system and aggravate the split in national opinions, and one cannot label them as ‘reforms,’”and she articulated her resistance to the bills.

Chairwoman Park also said regarding the abolishment of the National Security Law that “we have found many problems with our security through the National Security inspection of the administration, but the governing party is pushing forward the national security law abolishment against the people’s will,” and added, “The abolishment of the law means they will legalize pro-North activities.”

Therefore, the GNP will devise a separate national security law reform bill themselves right after the inspection, and it has proclaimed that it will risk physical opposition if the Uri Party pushes the abolishment bill forward.

Young-Chan Yoon Seung-Heon Lee sunjung71@hotmail.com