Three Bills to be Passed With Accord Between Ruling and Opposition Parties

Concerning the agreement of the three controversial bills – the national security law, private school law, and organic law for fact-finding and reconciliation – the Uri Party`s newly elected chairman, Moon Hee-sang, stressed yesterday that he had no intention to enforce his power to pass them during the National Assembly`s special session in April, saying, "The foremost principle is that the ruling and opposition parties should agree based on democratic principles."

Uri Party’s new Chairman Moon Hee-sang manifested the above position through an aide when he visited the National Memorial Board located at Dongjak-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul yesterday morning. The aide said, "Chairman Moon`s intention is to put [the three bills] to votes if the ruling and opposition parties fail to agree."

Before the event, Moon was elected to the party chairmanship with a two-year term at a party convention held at the Olympic Gymnastic Stadium located at Bangeui-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul on April 2. Representatives Yum Dong-yeon, Chang Young-dal, Ryu Si-min, and Han Myeong-sook were elected as central members of the standing committee.

In the party convention, Uri Party`s 10,478 representatives voted on selecting two out of eight chairman candidates, and chairman Moon won 4,266 votes (43 percent) and ranked at the top. Representatives Yum, Chang, and Ryu each won 3,339 (33.7 percent), 3,092 (31.2 percent), and 2,838 votes (28.6 percent), respectively, and ranked second to fourth.

Although Representative Han won 1,058 votes (10.7 percent) and ranked eighth, she was selected as a central member of the standing committee according to the party regulation which stipulates that one female must be included among the five seats.

Meanwhile, Moon plans to appoint Rep. Jeon Byeong-heon and Rep. Park Young-sun to party spokesman and chief of chairman secretary, respectively.

For the two central member seats in the standing committee which chairman Moon will appoint, representatives Kim Myung-ja, Kim Hyuk-gyu and Kim Young-chun from Busan and South Gyeongsang Province, and Lee Yong-hee and Hong Jae-hyeong from Chungcheong Province are being discussed.

Myoung-Gun Lee In-Jik Cho gun43@donga.com cij1999@donga.com