Joo Ho-young: "The National Assembly Boycott Won't Last Long... Will Return Once Standing Committees Are Adjusted"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporters Lee Ji-eun, Lim Chun-han] Following the breakdown of the National Assembly organization, the United Future Party (UFP) has been boycotting standing committees. On the 1st, Joo Ho-young, the UFP floor leader, hinted at returning to the standing committees, stating, "The boycott will not last long."

Floor leader Joo said on JTBC's 'Morning&' that morning, "We cannot just smile after being slapped, but we will not give up on the National Assembly."

He added, "From the beginning, we said that the National Assembly is the best place for us to fight, and we said we would fight hard. We plan to file a constitutional dispute against the Speaker of the National Assembly today, and once the standing committee adjustment process is over, we will return to the National Assembly."

The UFP strongly condemned Speaker Park Byeong-seok's forced assignment of 103 UFP lawmakers to standing committees and the unilateral election of standing committee chairs at 10 a.m., and submitted a petition for a constitutional dispute to the Constitutional Court to confirm its invalidity. This constitutional dispute also includes a request to confirm the invalidity of the election of chairs for 16 standing committees and the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts, which were based on the invalid forced assignments.

Floor leader Joo explained, "Speaker Park seems unaware of how anti-parliamentary and unconstitutional his actions are. He made threatening remarks, saying that if the list of standing committee members is not submitted after two forced assignments, he will not assign them until September."

Earlier, the UFP hinted that they could participate in the standing committees if the supplementary budget review period was extended. Floor leader Joo said, "Rather than saying we will participate if extended, we are insisting that it must be extended. Our official position is that there is no need to be a mere bystander conducting the supplementary budget review in just 3 to 4 days by the government's request by the 3rd of this month."

The Democratic Party of Korea increased the third supplementary budget by 3.1 trillion won through standing committee review on the 30th of last month. Floor leader Joo criticized, "If necessary, it can be increased, and if unnecessary, it can be cut, but the act of distributing several trillion won like pocket money to children for populist purposes clearly shows how lightly the Democratic Party government treats the national finances."

Regarding claims from some within the Democratic Party that Kim Jong-in, the UFP emergency committee chairman, interfered in the organization negotiations leading to their breakdown, he said, "I had full authority over these negotiations, but more than half of the three-term lawmakers who were to take the standing committee chair positions said they would not accept such negotiations," and criticized, "The interference came more from Democratic Party leader Lee Hae-chan and the Blue House."