Ruling and Opposition Parties Agree on December Extraordinary Session... Aim to Pass Budget Bill by 20th

Budget 2+2 Consultative Group to Operate from the 7th

The ruling and opposition parties have agreed to convene a special session of the National Assembly from the 11th to December and to hold plenary sessions on the 20th and 28th, respectively. They plan to negotiate with the goal of passing the budget, which has exceeded the legal deadline, on the 20th.

On the 7th, Yoon Jae-ok, floor leader of the People Power Party, and Hong Ik-pyo, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, met with National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo at the National Assembly and reached this agreement. After the meeting, Yoon told reporters, "The plenary sessions are tentatively scheduled for the 20th to handle the budget and the 28th to handle bills."

Both parties aim to pass the budget at the plenary session on the 20th, but the Democratic Party has not ruled out the option of passing the budget unilaterally. Hong said, "The principle is to negotiate and try to handle the budget on the 20th, but if no agreement is reached on the 20th, we will process it (the budget) on our own (Democratic Party's version). I clearly told the Speaker that the principle is to handle it through negotiation, but if that fails, 'we will definitely process (our own budget) on the 20th,' and the Speaker agreed."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Previously, due to disagreements on individual items and political deadlock, the ruling and opposition parties failed to pass the budget by the legal deadline of the 2nd and the last plenary session of the regular session on the 8th. Accordingly, the floor leaders of both parties and the ranking members of the National Assembly's Budget and Accounts Committee, Song Eon-seok and Kang Hoon-sik of the People Power Party, held the first meeting of the 'Ruling and Opposition Budget 2+2 Consultative Group' in the chairman's office of the National Assembly's Steering Committee in the afternoon and began serious discussions.

After the meeting, Representative Song told reporters, "It is difficult to clearly classify which issues are contentious and which have been agreed upon, but we are currently discussing a package of projects with some proposed cuts and others with requests for increases. Since both our party and the Democratic Party have raised the necessity of certain R&D projects, we think we should negotiate with the government and reflect some increases," he said.

Representative Kang said about the target deadline of the 20th, "I think it is a sufficiently feasible time. Negotiations are like cooking rice; if you keep opening the lid, the rice doesn't cook well. If you give enough time for negotiation, we will prepare better results," he said.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party appears to plan to push for the twin special prosecutors (Ssangteukgeom) (the Daejang-dong 5 billion Club and Kim Geon-hee's stock manipulation allegations) and a government audit at the plenary sessions on the 20th or 28th, instead of handling them during the regular session. The two special prosecutor laws, designated as fast-track bills in April, will be automatically submitted to the plenary session if not tabled by the 22nd.

After meeting with the Speaker, Hong told reporters, "Since the next plenary sessions are scheduled for the 20th and 28th, it is not too late to handle the twin special prosecutor laws on the 20th, and the 28th session will automatically submit them, so I think we can handle it that way. Currently, we plan to push for it around the 20th, the agreed date for the plenary session," he said.

He also expressed the intention to handle plans for government audits on the Marine Corps soldier Chae Sang-byeong's death, preferential treatment allegations regarding the Seoul-Yangpyeong expressway, and the Osong underpass disaster within this month. He added, "If possible, we will not extend beyond the 20th, 28th, or December."

Meanwhile, the ruling and opposition parties have agreed to re-vote on the Yellow Envelope Act and the three broadcasting laws, on which President Yoon Seok-yeol exercised his veto power, at the plenary session on the 8th.

Whether to bring the nomination bill for Supreme Court Chief Justice candidate Cho Hee-dae to the plenary session has not yet been agreed upon by both parties. Yoon said, "The Democratic Party said they will decide by tomorrow morning whether to hold a confirmation vote for the Supreme Court Chief Justice candidate at the plenary session, and we will continue to negotiate until tomorrow morning." Hong said, "We will hold a personnel hearing special committee tomorrow morning to adopt the review report, but whether to process the nomination bill at the plenary session has not yet been reported to our party, so we plan to listen to the report at the party caucus and then decide."