Yoon Exercises Veto on Four Bills Including Jeonse Fraud Special Act and Democratic Meritorious Person Act

End of 21st National Assembly Term... 4 Bills Automatically Discarded
14th Vetoed Bill Since President Yoon's Inauguration

President Yoon Suk-yeol is speaking at the 9th Korea-Japan-China Summit held on the 27th at the Blue House State Guesthouse. [Image source=Yonhap News]

President Yoon Suk-yeol exercised his veto power on the 29th against four bills that had passed the National Assembly plenary session solely by the opposition party: the Special Act on Support for Jeonse Fraud Victims and Housing Stability (Jeonse Fraud Special Act), the Act on the Honor and Treatment of Democratic Meritorious Persons (Democratic Meritorious Persons Act), the Act on Agricultural and Fishery Chambers, and the Support Act for a Sustainable Korean Beef Industry (Korean Beef Industry Act).

The Presidential Office announced in the afternoon that President Yoon approved the veto proposal on the four bills, including the Jeonse Fraud Special Act, which had been resolved at the Cabinet meeting presided over by the Prime Minister.

Earlier that day, the government held an extraordinary Cabinet meeting at the Government Seoul Office, chaired by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, to review and approve the promulgation of the amended Sewol Ferry Disaster Victim Support Act, which had passed the National Assembly plenary session the previous day through the opposition party's forced processing. This law includes a provision to extend the medical expense support period for victims of the Sewol Ferry disaster by five years.

However, the four bills?the Jeonse Fraud Special Act, the Democratic Meritorious Persons Act, the Korean Beef Industry Act, and the Agricultural and Fishery Chambers Act?that also passed the National Assembly plenary session were not approved as originally proposed, and instead, a veto proposal was adopted.

Since President Yoon approved the veto proposal on the day, the four contentious bills are expected to be automatically discarded. Although bills on which the president exercises veto power must undergo a re-deliberation process in the National Assembly, according to the National Assembly Secretariat, bills vetoed in the 21st National Assembly cannot be approved in the 22nd National Assembly.

With this veto exercise, the number of bills vetoed by President Yoon since his inauguration has increased to 14.