The Democratic Party of Korea has begun the process of independently handling the election of the standing committee chairman for the second half of the year at the plenary session of the National Assembly on the 30th.
Acting Representative and Floor Leader Han Byeong-do said in relation to the deadlocked negotiations on the composition of the ruling and opposition parties at the general meeting of the National Assembly on the 29th, "The Democratic Party must make a responsible decision as the ruling party and the largest party in the National Assembly," and "(the composition of the House) will never be delayed beyond tomorrow."
At the same time, he said, “We will definitely complete the composition of the second half of the National Assembly within this month and create a working National Assembly,” and asked, “I ask all lawmakers to be on emergency standby starting this afternoon.”
Meanwhile, the ruling and opposition parties have been negotiating to form the second half of the 22nd National Assembly, including the distribution of standing committee chairs, but the discussions have been at a standstill as each side argued that he should serve as chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee.
Accordingly, National Assembly Speaker Jo Jung-sik requested the People Power Party's opinion on the allocation of standing committees by noon on this day, but the People Power Party strongly objected, saying it was a unilateral distribution process.
People Power Party floor leader Jeong Jeong-sik criticized at the general meeting of lawmakers on this day, saying, “So far, Chairman Cho and the Democratic Party have prepared a list of standing committee assignments and notified us without any proposals or negotiation plans.” He added, “What shame does the Democratic Party have for taking the chairman of the Legislative and Judiciary Committee again?”
It is reported that Chairman Cho notified the ruling and opposition parties of his plan to hold a plenary session on the 30th.
When the plenary session is held, the Democratic Party is expected to attempt to independently process the election of the standing committee chair.
However, it appears that the Democratic Party has not made a final decision on whether to elect all 18 standing committee chairs or to only process the election proposals for some standing committees first.
Spokesperson Lee Joo-hee met with reporters and said, “We did not discuss or decide on bringing in all standing committees (at the general meeting),” and added, “There may be various cases.”
He added, “(Related decisions) have been delegated to the leadership, so we cannot discuss whether or not to (elect) all 18.”
Meanwhile, at the general meeting on this day, the Democratic Party decided as a party line to pursue a special investigation to find out the truth about the shortage of ballot papers for the June 3 local elections.
Spokesperson Lee said, “We decided to delegate the specific special investigation plan to the leadership and ratify it at a later date.” He added, “(The special investigation plan) was unanimously adopted as a party line.”
In his opening remarks, an acting official emphasized, "As we have taken the first step in uncovering the truth through a government investigation, an independent special prosecutor's investigation is necessary to uncover dereliction of duty, false reporting, and evasion of responsibility. We will uncover the truth of the situation to the end and unwaveringly push for system improvement to prevent recurrence."
