Parties Divided Over Pending Issues in Parliament

Political parties will likely clash in a National Assembly session over pending issues.

The ruling Grand National Party and the main opposition Democratic Party yesterday each held meetings on agenda to be discussed in the plenary session of the 18th National Assembly Monday.

The ruling party at an officials` meeting in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, decided to focus on the economy in the session, aiming to create a systematic ground to foster principles based on a free market, public welfare and rule of law.

Party floor leader Hong Joon-pyo said in a briefing, “The people empowered our party through the presidential and general elections, hoping we can advance the nation and join the ranks of developed countries.”

He announced six basic principles of parliamentary management, including the ratification of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement; acceleration of public sector reform; tax cuts and reform; deregulation; countermeasures against oil and price hikes; and revision of anti-government, anti-business and anti-market laws.

The party`s chief policymaker Lim Tae-hee announced four major policy priorities to be addressed in the parliamentary session: relieving the economic and financial burden of the public; promoting investment; securing new growth engines; and establishing law and order.

The main opposition Democratic Party held its officials meeting in Hongcheon, Gangwon Province. The party decided to fight the ruling party, with Chairman Chung Sye-kyun saying in the keynote speech, “The ruling party will try to introduce laws that fail to meet the needs of our times. But we will never let it happen.”

The opposition party selected five main principles to handle in the parliamentary session: revision of value-added taxes; taxi operations; revision of laws on personal information protection and assembly and demonstration; establishment of laws on trade procedure and Dokdo; a task force to investigate irregularities by public servants; and promotion of inter-Korean reciprocation.

The Democratic Party pledged to prevent what it called incompetency and self-complacency of the Lee Myung-bak administration.

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