[One Month Since the 22nd Opening] ① The National Assembly Became the 'First Ever' Disgrace in Constitutional History

Producing Embarrassing Records Such as Solo Openings
Massive Disregard for Conventions of Cooperation

It has been a month since the 22nd National Assembly opened. Since the opposition party's landslide victory in the general election, the National Assembly has produced unprecedented records in constitutional history. Contrary to the public's hope for the restoration of politics through compromise and negotiation, extreme conflicts between the ruling and opposition parties continued.

On the 5th of last month, the National Assembly held a plenary session and elected Woo Won-sik, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, as Speaker of the National Assembly, and Lee Hak-young as Deputy Speaker. Although they were elected within the legal deadline, this was the first time in constitutional history that the National Assembly opened solely by the opposition party without the ruling party's participation. Chu Kyung-ho, floor leader of the People Power Party, said before the plenary vote, "Although the plenary session was held, it cannot be considered valid or lawful because there was no agreement on the agenda between the ruling and opposition parties," emphasizing, "The public mandate from the general election is the restoration of cooperation. This is the people's command." The People Power Party did not nominate a candidate for the Deputy Speaker position allocated to their party in protest of the unilateral agenda.

Chu Kyung-ho, floor leader of the People Power Party, is making a procedural statement at the first plenary session of the 22nd National Assembly held at the National Assembly on the 5th. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

Speaker Woo said, "If legislative power is not properly exercised in the 22nd National Assembly, the crisis of trust will deepen, and the crisis of people's livelihood and reform will exceed the critical point," adding, "Even if opinions differ, let's follow the agreed standards." He further stated, "The minimum standards are broadly the Constitution and specifically the National Assembly Act." Subsequently, Speaker Woo and the Democratic Party pressured for the formation of the Assembly based on the deadline set by the National Assembly Act.

The opposition party's unilateral dominance continued in the distribution of standing committee chairmanships. On the 10th of last month, the Democratic Party also unilaterally elected the Chairpersons of the Steering Committee and the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. Following the Speaker who presides over the plenary session, the Democratic Party took the Chairperson positions of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, which effectively acts as the upper house, and the Steering Committee, which oversees the Presidential Office. This is the first time in constitutional history that the opposition party has taken all the positions of Speaker, Chairperson of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, and Chairperson of the Steering Committee. The Democratic Party unilaterally elected 11 out of 18 standing committees, marking the first time the opposition party has unilaterally elected standing committee chairpersons.

Speaker Woo, who was required to prove his clarity since the Democratic Party's internal primary, pushed forward the election of standing committee chairpersons citing compliance with the National Assembly Act. The ruling party's anger was directed at the Speaker. The ruling party submitted a resolution urging the Speaker's resignation just six days after his inauguration. This is also the shortest period in constitutional history for a resolution urging the resignation of the Speaker.

Customs were broken in standing committees and others.

In the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, where the ruling and opposition parties clashed most sharply during the formation negotiations, the customary allocation of the second-largest party's share was not granted, and all four subcommittee chairpersons were filled exclusively by Democratic Party members. In the Environment and Labor Committee, although the standing committee chairperson is Ahn Ho-young, a Democratic Party member from the opposition, the subcommittee chairpersons were divided equally between the ruling and opposition parties, which is a completely different approach.

Additionally, the opposition party pressured government officials to attend by utilizing the legislative hearing system, which had not been used by the National Assembly before. This was done to prevent government officials from not attending briefings and other matters due to the lack of agreement on the agenda between the ruling and opposition parties, by using a dormant provision.

As a result of this unilateral handling of the agenda by the opposition party, the Special Prosecutor Act for Chae Sang-byung, the three Broadcasting Acts (Broadcasting Act, Broadcasting Culture Promotion Act, Korea Educational Broadcasting System Act amendments), and the amendment to the Broadcasting and Communications Commission Act, which strengthens the decision-making requirements of the Broadcasting and Communications Commission, passed the thresholds of the standing and legislation and judiciary committees and were brought to the plenary session. In the past, even using fast-track procedures, these laws would have taken at least eight months to process. However, this time, all deliberation systems were ignored, allowing the bills to be placed on the plenary session agenda within one month of the Assembly's formation.