'One-Way' and 'Half'... Frequent Confrontations Between Ruling and Opposition Parties at Legislative Hearings

From the First Day of the 22nd National Assembly Normalization, Opposition Party Runs Solo
Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee's Jeonse Fraud Hearing, People Power Party Absent
Welfare and Environment Committees Likely to End Halfway

On the 25th, when the 22nd National Assembly completed its organizational formation and effectively entered a normalization trajectory, clashes occurred in various places due to the ruling party's unilateral dominance.

On the 25th, a hearing on support measures for victims of jeonse fraud was held at the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, with ruling party members absent. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

On that day, the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee held a legislative hearing on support measures for victims of jeonse fraud, but it ultimately ended up being a half-hearted event. Members of the People Power Party demanded a postponement, claiming that the hearing schedule had not been agreed upon, but the opposition party refused. As a result, People Power Party members did not attend the schedule that day.

The hearing was originally scheduled to start at 11 a.m., but due to disagreements between the ruling and opposition parties over the schedule, it began around 11:54 a.m., about an hour later.

Before the hearing, the ruling and opposition party secretaries engaged in a verbal dispute while negotiating the agenda. Kwon Young-jin, a People Power Party member appointed as the party secretary, said to Moon Jin-seok, a Democratic Party member, “(Since the organizational formation agreement on the 24th) ruling party members have entered the standing committees, so shouldn’t we negotiate and set the agenda?” He added, “We are not saying to cancel the hearing, but to postpone it for about a week so that both parties can participate together.”

In response, Moon said, “If you want to postpone the hearing, there should be a justification, but there isn’t one.” Kwon retorted, “Why is there no justification? We have now come to the standing committee, so isn’t it possible to negotiate?” Kwon then stated, “(People Power Party members) cannot agree to attend a hearing unilaterally scheduled without consultation, so we have decided not to participate,” and left the venue. Consequently, the hearing proceeded with only members from the Democratic Party, the Party for People's Innovation, and the Progressive Party attending. Political circles believe that upcoming legislative and issue hearings scheduled by various standing committees are also likely to end up as ‘half-hearted’ events.

For example, the People Power Party believes that the ‘hearing on the medical emergency situation’ announced for the 26th at the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee should be formally held as a plenary meeting at the committee level with issue questioning, based on an agreement between the ruling and opposition party secretaries. A Health and Welfare Committee official said that Chairperson Park Ju-min is reviewing whether to postpone the hearing schedule through negotiations between the ruling and opposition party secretaries and hold a plenary committee meeting later to conduct issue questioning.

However, if Chairperson Park, who belongs to the Democratic Party, pushes ahead with the hearing, it is highly likely that clashes between the ruling and opposition parties will occur in the Health and Welfare Committee hearing, similar to what happened in the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee hearing that day. The legislative hearing related to the Yellow Envelope Act (amendments to Articles 2 and 3 of the Labor Union Act), scheduled to be held on the 27th at the Environment and Labor Committee, is also likely to end up as a half-hearted event.