“Withdraw the Four Major Bills”

Grand National Party Chairwoman Park Geun-hye said on October 27, “The four major bills which the incumbent government is promoting, namely the abolition of the National Security Law, the Past Injustices Investigation Law, Act on Newspapers, and the Private Schools Law, are fueling the national divide,” and called for withdrawal of the so-called “Four Major Legislation.”

In her speech representing the negotiating groups in the National Assembly, Park said, “Any form of policies and initiatives that goes against free democracy and market economy must be put to a stop immediately, and these laws have nothing to do with livelihood, much less can revive people’s livelihood by destroying the nation’s regime.”

She said, “If the National Security Law becomes obsolete, there is no way to restrict the use of North Korean flags. If this administration does enforce the repeal of the National Security Law, I will stand in the forefront of the resolute fight to protect our nation.”

Regarding the Constitutional Court’s ruling that declared the Special Law of the Administrative Capital Construction unconstitutional, Park argued, “I fully accept the decision of the Constitutional Court and demand an immediate suspension of the debate over this issue. If the president defies the Constitution and denies the national system, our nation will be shaken from the foundation.”

She proposed the launch of a special committee on the promotion of balanced and regional development to come up with concrete measures for a balanced development of the nation.

In response to Chairwoman Park’s demand for the withdrawal of four major bills, Uri Party’s floor leader Chun Jung-bae characterized her remark as a “coup that denies dialogue and compromise between the ruling and opposition camps” and criticized her, saying, “We are open for policy criticism, but politically-charged attacks based on ideology such as ‘leftists are of no help’ must be prevented.”

Yeon-Wook Jung jyw11@donga.com