A Clash Between the Ruling and Opposition Parties on Whether to Summon Assembly’s Special Session

The ruling and the opposition parties stood against each other on December 7 on the issue of whether to summon a special session of the Assembly before the end of the year.

Chun Jung-bae, the Uri Party floor leader, held an emergency press interview that day and suggested that a legislative hearing and a national public debate be held within the year by saying, “I will delay the settlement relating to the bill for the annulment of the National Security Law which was presented to the parliament’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee yesterday.”

Uri Party floor leader Chun also added, “I propose a special session of the Assembly to the Grand National Party.” and said, “Let’s deal with the bill concerning the livelihood of the people as a priority and also discuss the reform bill and settle the matter through rational compromise within the year.”

This proposal seems to be a concretization of the so called “three-plus-one” plan which aims to settle the National Security Law within the year and deals with the settlement of the other three major legislations such as the private school law, the newspaper reform law, and a special law for inquiring into pro-Japanese activities.

Accordingly, the Grand National Party floor leader, Kim Duk-ryong said, “It is very shameful for the Uri party to spoil the regular session by pushing the ‘major four evil laws’ and to suggest to hold a special session of the Assembly” during a press interview, and made clear that he will deal with the settlement of the bill relating to the people and the summoning of the special session of the Assembly separately, by saying, “We will deal with the bill related to the budget within the session (December 9).”

Floor leader Kim also added, “If the government party truly wants to reach a grand compromise, then they should apologize for the snatching incident in Assembly’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee and promise prevention of it happening again,” and urged the government party to deal with the withdrawal of party opinions on the abolition bill of the National Security Law, and the partial elimination of the unconstitutional parts of the other three major pieces of legislation through mutual agreement.

The Uri party submitted a written request, which proposes to hold a special session of the Assembly for one month starting from December 10.

On the other hand, the National Defense Committee decided to contact executive secretaries of the ruling and the opposition parties on this day, and present an additional extension motion for dispatching the Zaytun unit to Iraq.

Yeon-Wook Jung jyw11@donga.com