People Power Party: "Law Committee Reassignment, a Trick to Push 'Lee Jae-myung Shield Law'"

Ahead of Floor Leader Election, Kim Gi-hyeon Visits National Assembly Speaker's Office
"A Very Strange Measure Contrary to Tradition and Custom"

Kim Ki-hyun, floor leader of the People Power Party, is visiting the Speaker's office at the National Assembly on the 8th to protest Speaker Park Byeong-seok's personnel changes in the Judiciary Committee. The meeting was canceled due to Speaker Park's absence that day. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy reporters Hyunju Lee and Hyunji Kwon] The People Power Party strongly raised issues with National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seok regarding the reshuffling of members in the Legislation and Judiciary Committee.

On the 8th, Kim Gi-hyeon, the floor leader of the People Power Party, visited the Speaker's office in protest, stating, "This is a very strange measure that does not comply with the National Assembly rules nor with tradition and precedent," and added, "There are clear rules and traditions regarding the number of standing committee members and the allocation of seats between negotiating groups and non-negotiating groups." He was unable to meet Speaker Park directly due to the latter's absence.

The People Power Party is raising concerns over Speaker Park's reshuffling the independent lawmaker Yang Hyang-ja, who belongs to the Planning and Finance Committee, to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, and swapping her with Park Seong-jun of the Democratic Party, who was a member of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. Since the Agenda Coordination Committee must be composed with an equal ratio between the majority party and other standing committee members, if there is a standing committee member from a non-negotiating group, the composition ratio of the Agenda Coordination Committee changes to 3:2:1. Effectively, if Representative Yang is classified as affiliated with the Democratic Party, it could nullify the discussions of the Agenda Coordination Committee itself. Floor leader Kim criticized, "They ignored tradition and did not listen to the negotiating groups' opinions, acting unilaterally," and strongly condemned, "If the Speaker sympathizes with politically motivated bill processing unrelated to people's livelihoods, he is unqualified to be the National Assembly Speaker."

The People Power Party views this as an attempt to submit and pass sensitive bills related to prosecutorial reform in the Legislation and Judiciary Committee before the regime change and is on alert.

On the same day, floor spokesperson Jeon Ju-hye issued a statement saying, "Despite the People Power Party clearly expressing opposition to the Democratic Party's push for reshuffling members of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee to the Speaker's office, the Speaker completely ignored this, making yesterday's unilateral approval null and void and it must be canceled," and added, "This unilateral reshuffling was carried out suddenly while the Democratic Party was pushing the 'Lee Jae-myung Shield Law' through the complete dismantling of prosecution powers under the guise of prosecutorial reform."

Spokesperson Jeon criticized, "Last year, the Democratic Party repeatedly engaged in tactics to include nominal opposition lawmakers in the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee and the Legislation and Judiciary Committee to undermine the Agenda Coordination Committee's composition and function," and said, "With the new government about to launch, their intention and plan to rapidly push the complete dismantling of prosecution powers law through the National Assembly is very obvious."