Opposition Refuses to Submit Speaker Meeting and Standing Committee Member List
Democrats Likely to Unilaterally Elect 11 Committee Chairs on the 10th
The ruling and opposition parties failed to reach an agreement on the formation of the 22nd National Assembly even by the legal deadline on the 7th. The Democratic Party of Korea, which holds the majority of seats, is increasingly likely to unilaterally decide the distribution of standing committee chairpersons.
On the morning of the same day, the floor leaders of both parties met at the National Assembly with Speaker Woo Won-shik participating, attempting a last-minute settlement, but the meeting was ultimately canceled due to the refusal of the People Power Party.
The People Power Party also rejected Speaker Woo's demand to submit the list of standing committee members by midnight. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party submitted their list of standing committee members in the afternoon and began the process of unilaterally allocating the standing committee chairpersons.
The ruling and opposition parties are currently at odds over the ownership of the chairmanships of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, the Steering Committee, and the Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Committee. The People Power Party insists on maintaining the seven chairmanships, including these three, that they held during the first half of the 21st National Assembly, citing parliamentary precedent.
Furthermore, they have decided not to finalize their party's share of the Deputy Speaker and standing committee member lists until these issues are resolved. The People Power Party plans to hold a party meeting on the 10th to discuss their response strategy.
If the Democratic Party forcibly proceeds with the plenary session to elect standing committee chairpersons, the People Power Party intends to boycott the session. There is also talk of a full boycott of the National Assembly standing committees.
The People Power Party protested the Democratic Party's submission of the list of chairpersons and members for 11 standing committees, including the Legislation and Judiciary, Steering, and Science and Technology Committees. Floor leader Choo Kyung-ho stated at a press briefing, "We completely reject the Democratic Party's unilateral standing committee proposal," and added, "We will not participate in any future unilateral formation of the National Assembly by the Democratic Party."
He further demanded the opposition party, saying, "It is wrong from the start to try to negotiate other committees while forcibly taking our party's rightful chairmanships of the Legislation and Judiciary and Steering Committees. Return everything to square one."
The Democratic Party is also standing firm on not relinquishing the chairmanships of the Legislation and Judiciary, Steering, and Science and Technology Committees. They strongly pressured the opposition, stating that if no agreement is reached, the opposition will have no choice but to elect the standing committee chairpersons unilaterally.
On the afternoon of the same day, the Democratic Party submitted the list for 11 standing committees allocated to their party out of the 18 total committees first. They plan to continue negotiations over the weekend, but if no agreement is reached, they intend to request Speaker Woo to convene a plenary session on the 10th and elect the standing committee chairpersons unilaterally.
The most likely scenario is that the 11 standing committee chairpersons, including those of the Legislation and Judiciary, Science and Technology, and Steering Committees, which the Democratic Party aims to secure first, will be elected initially, but the possibility of electing all 18 standing committees at once cannot be ruled out.
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