South Korean National Assembly Elects Committee Chairs, Ends Deadlock

SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- The National Assembly elected the chairs of six standing committees allocated to the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) on Thursday, ending weeks of bipartisan deadlock over the formation of the parliamentary committees.

All but one of the seven committee chairs set aside for the PPP were elected during a plenary session, with the Gender Equality and Family Committee post left vacant after Rep. Lim Lee-ja, who had been nominated for the post, stepped down.

The six committees include the foreign affairs and unification committee, the education committee and the health and welfare committee.

The PPP's decision to end its boycott and take up the remaining committee chairmanships came after the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and the PPP reached an agreement to pass a special counsel bill to look into ballot shortages reported during the June 3 elections.

Three-term lawmaker Kim Jung-jae, who lost the race for the chair of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee to Rep. Yu Eui-dong, has been tapped to head the gender committee.

The PPP plans to hold a general meeting of its lawmakers to approve Kim's nomination before putting it to a vote at the next plenary session.

The impasse in committee formation negotiations left the National Assembly largely idle for nearly two months as the PPP boycotted parliamentary sessions after the DP unilaterally selected the chiefs of a special budget committee and 10 parliamentary standing committees from its own lawmakers.

Among the committees was the legislation and judiciary committee, a key Assembly panel that has the power to approve bills before they are put to a plenary vote.