Provisional Agreement on Substitute Legislation for National Security Law

During a bipartisan conference of the floor leaders under the supervision of Speaker of the National Assembly Kim One-ki, the ruling and opposition parties reportedly narrowed down their differences over the “four major bill” issues, including the dispute over the abolition of National Security Law. The parties were able to do so because Speaker Kim had exerted pressure upon the floor leaders of both parties to seek settlements over the disputatious articles of the National Security Law, the “newspaper law,” and the Past Injustices Investigation Law. After the conference Kim Ki-man, senior press secretary to the speaker of the Assembly, stated that Speaker Kim said, “The parties have narrowed down their difference. The bills should be settled within the day. If the settlement fails today, I will hold another general meeting tomorrow and will certainly handle the matter.”

Floor leader of the Uri Party Chun Jung-bae said, “Both parties did a lot of talking,” and the floor leader of the Grand National Party Kim Duk-ryong answered, “It might happen,” to the press’ question, “Can the dispute over the National Security Law also be settled?”, implying that the settlements are about to come.

Accordingly, both parties have opened the general meeting of the Assembly members, and entered the final process to talk about the negotiations.

If the negotiated bills pass the general meetings, it is likely that the three bills out of the “four major bill” will be settled concurrently, and the Private School Law, which has been disputed over the “open director system,” will be passed on to the extra session of the National Assembly in February 2005.

During the bipartisan conference of the floor leaders, the ruling and opposition parties agreed provisionally to substitute the “National Security Guarantee Law” for the abolition of National Security Law. The laudation crime of the disputatious Article 7 (laudation and stimulation crime) were deleted, and the article over the usurpation of government’s title was somewhat modified. The Past Injustices Investigation Law was modified so that the ratio of the members selection changed to 7 (Assembly) : 4 (President) : 4 (Supreme Court).

As the parties have agreed previously, the ruling and opposition parties decided to handle the budget and the agreement bill of the dispatch of forces to Iraq.

Also, the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly has agreed to handle the revision bill of the Securities Collective Lawsuit System in the extra session of the National Assembly in February 2005 as the financial world has requested the omission of past window dressing settlements from the lawsuits for the next two years.

Executive Secretary of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee Choi Jae-chun and Jang Yun-suk met on December 30 and agreed to handle the matter in the extra session of the National Assembly in February 2005 after hearing the opinions of the corporations, civic organizations, the academic circles, and the legal circles, and opening a public hearing in January 2005.

Young-Chan Yoon Young-Hae Choi yyc11@donga.com yhchoi65@donga.com