Lee In-young, the floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, said on the 27th, "It can be considered that holding a temporary National Assembly next month has been agreed upon (with the Liberty Korea Party)," adding, "The issue remains whether it will be held in early or mid-next month." On the same day at the National Assembly, through a 'report on public sentiment related to the Lunar New Year holiday,' Lee stated, "We are once again requesting all opposition parties to convene the February temporary National Assembly. It is the duty of the National Assembly to urgently open and handle livelihood bills." He continued, "I think it might be possible to handle all the bills agreed upon in the standing committees and currently pending in the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. For the urgent matters remaining in the standing committees, further consultation is needed."
Lee emphasized that the prosecution and the Ministry of Justice should be provided with an environment where they can resolve their own issues. He said, "It is anachronistic prosecutorial politics and abnormal politics for the political circles to meddle in every detail of what happens inside the prosecution and stir up controversy," adding, "I hope the opposition parties will not repeat acting as proxy parties for the prosecution. The opposition's politics of siding with the prosecution must end here."
Regarding the passage of bills related to reforming power institutions, he said, "Since the legislative process for prosecutorial reform has been completed, it is appropriate now to discuss issues related to the decentralization of police power." He added, "Opposition parties such as the Liberty Korea Party also feared the excessive concentration of police power when only prosecutorial reform was achieved, so there may be quicker consensus on this than on prosecutorial reform."
On the spread of the novel coronavirus infection, referred to as 'Wuhan pneumonia,' he expressed concern, saying, "Although it is still difficult to predict the economic damage, considering that the SARS virus caused a global economic loss of 40 billion dollars, this virus is also likely to have a significant temporary economic impact." Lee said, "The party and government will closely monitor the economic impact, including tourism, and will not hesitate to implement bold economic response policies if the risk expands."
Regarding the formation of a party-level task force (TF), he stressed, "It is important not to cause confusion in the current response by health authorities, and the public must trust the health authorities' response and respond in a coordinated manner at the national level." He added, "If necessary, we will consider swiftly establishing a TF."
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