Following today's (23rd) National Assembly plenary session cancellation
People Power Party: "Temporary schedule on 30th and 1st for budget processing
Next week's plenary session may also be canceled"
Yoon Jae-ok, the floor leader of the People Power Party, announced that he will not agree to the National Assembly plenary session schedule set for the 30th of this month and the 1st of next month. The schedule in question is a temporary timetable for budget bill processing, and if the Democratic Party of Korea forcibly processes the so-called 'double special investigations (the suspicion of stock manipulation involving Kim Gun-hee related to Deutsche Motors and the Daejang-dong 5 billion club)' and the impeachment motion against Lee Dong-kwan, the Chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, the plenary session will not be held. The originally scheduled plenary session on that day was also canceled due to the failure of the ruling and opposition parties to narrow their differences over the re-submission of the impeachment motion against Chairman Lee.
Yoon Jae-ok, the floor leader of the People Power Party, held a party meeting at the National Assembly on the same day and said, "November 30 and December 1 were tentatively designated as plenary session dates for budget bill processing," adding, "If there is no agreement on the budget bill, there will be no plenary session."
Yoon Jae-ok, floor leader of the People Power Party, is giving a greeting at the 'Brown Bag Meeting' with the press corps held at Sarangjae in the National Assembly on the 22nd. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@
Yoon criticized, "The Democratic Party is currently showing an intention to proceed with the impeachment of the Communications Commission Chairman and prosecutors regardless of the budget bill processing schedule that was set for the budget bill," and said, "Distorting the negotiation content of this schedule, which was made to keep promises to the people, to forcibly carry out parliamentary violence is politically unethical and a kind of reckless politics."
He directly refuted, saying, "The Democratic Party floor leader claimed that the Speaker of the National Assembly promised to report the impeachment motion on the 30th and process it on the 1st of next month. I know that is not true."
Earlier that day, at the Democratic Party policy coordination meeting held at the National Assembly, Hong Ik-pyo, the floor leader of the Democratic Party, said, "The Democratic Party will hold plenary sessions on November 30 and December 1 as agreed by both ruling and opposition parties and as planned by the Democratic Party, and will process livelihood bills," adding, "On the 30th, if the Judiciary Committee is normalized, we plan to collectively process five existing agenda items and the Constitutional Court appointment consent bill." Hong also conveyed that Speaker Kim Jin-pyo agreed to this.
Yoon said, "The People Power Party has not agreed to any negotiations regarding the impeachment of the Communications Commission Chairman and prosecutors, which are nothing but unconstitutional political offensives by the Democratic Party, as well as the double special investigations (the Daejang-dong 5 billion club special investigation bill and the Kim Gun-hee special investigation bill)," and stated firmly, "There must be a clear public promise from the Democratic Party regarding the processing of agenda items for the plenary session to proceed normally."
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