Cho Jeong-sik, Nam In-soon and Park Deok-heum elected as new Assembly leadership

Democratic Party vows legislative push after June 3 election win; People Power Party to elect new floor leader Tuesday

Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Cho Jeong-sik receives congratulations as he walks to the speaker's chair after being elected speaker of the National Assembly for the second half of the 22nd Assembly session, at a plenary session held Friday. [Yonhap]
Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Cho Jeong-sik receives congratulations as he walks to the speaker's chair after being elected speaker of the National Assembly for the second half of the 22nd Assembly session, at a plenary session held Friday. [Yonhap]

By Joo So-hyun, The Herald Business

The 22nd National Assembly has entered its second half following the election of new leadership, with the legislature set to resume full operations after a pause caused by the June 3 local elections and the expiration of the previous leadership's terms. The Democratic Party of Korea, looking to accelerate legislation in the second year of the Lee Jae Myung administration, and the People Power Party, which gained additional seats through by-elections, are expected to engage in a fierce tug-of-war beginning with committee assignment negotiations.

The Assembly held a plenary session Thursday and elected Democratic Party lawmaker Cho Jeong-sik — a six-term member representing Siheung in Gyeonggi Province — as speaker, with 267 votes in favor out of 276 members present. "I am deeply grateful to my fellow lawmakers who have entrusted me with the weighty responsibility of serving as speaker, and to the people who have shown their support," Cho said in his acceptance remarks.

Cho said he would regularize plenary sessions and proposed establishing Dec. 3 as "National Sovereignty Day." He also called for resuming constitutional reform discussions next year, which marks the 40th anniversary of the 1987 constitutional framework and falls in a year without nationwide simultaneous elections.

Nam In-soon, a four-term Democratic Party lawmaker representing Songpa-gu in Seoul, and Park Deok-heum, a four-term People Power Party lawmaker representing Boeun-gun, Okcheon-gun, Yeongdong-gun and Goesan-gun in North Chungcheong Province, were elected as deputy speakers. Under the National Assembly Act, the speaker and deputy speakers each serve two-year terms. By convention, the largest floor party provides the speaker and one deputy speaker, while the second-largest party provides the other.

The Democratic Party is expected to push hard on its legislative agenda after its election victory, which was widely seen as a midterm referendum on the Lee administration. The by-election results left the overall balance of seats largely unchanged: of the 14 newly elected lawmakers, nine belong to the Democratic Party, four to the People Power Party and one is independent.

The broader pro-government bloc holds 179 seats, including 161 held by the Democratic Party. When independent lawmakers who left or were expelled from the party are included, the bloc has enough votes to force an end to filibusters and to designate bills for fast-track processing.

The two sides are expected to clash sharply over committee assignments, particularly over who chairs the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. The People Power Party plans to secure the chairmanship as a check against the Democratic Party pushing through bills on its own. The judiciary committee holds authority to review the legal consistency and wording of legislation and is commonly referred to as the Assembly's "upper house." By convention, the opposition party has held the chairmanship as a counterweight to the ruling party.

The Democratic Party insists it cannot relinquish the judiciary committee chairmanship, citing pending issues including amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure ahead of adjustments to supplementary investigative powers and a special prosecutor act on fabricated indictments. "Our position is that the Democratic Party must absolutely chair the judiciary committee again in this second half — that is non-negotiable," floor spokesperson Lee Ju-hee told reporters after a Democratic Party caucus Thursday. "We will keep the rest open for negotiation."

Within the Democratic Party, there are also strong calls to retain chairmanships of economy-related committees — including those overseeing fiscal and economic planning, political affairs, and trade, industry and small and venture businesses — on the grounds that legislation was delayed when the People Power Party held those posts in the first half. There is also a prevailing sentiment that the party cannot yield the land and transportation committee chairmanship, given the need to align with the government's real estate policy.

The Democratic Party plans to launch committee assignment negotiations immediately after the People Power Party elects its new floor leader on June 9. Floor leader Han Byung-do told the caucus Thursday that the pattern of constitutional vacuums lasting 48 or 54 days had become entrenched as if it were normal practice. "Did the people ever tell us to take two months off to negotiate?" he said. "We will break this bad habit so that no constitutional vacuum occurs."


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