'If PPP shows no change by Friday, we will take all committee chairs,' floor leader warns

Democratic Party of Korea floor leader Han Byung-do holds an emergency press briefing at the National Assembly on Wednesday regarding the breakdown of negotiations over the formation of the 22nd Assembly's second-half standing committees. [Yonhap]
Democratic Party of Korea floor leader Han Byung-do holds an emergency press briefing at the National Assembly on Wednesday regarding the breakdown of negotiations over the formation of the 22nd Assembly's second-half standing committees. [Yonhap]

By Joo So-hyun, The Herald Business

Amid stalled negotiations over forming the second-half standing committees of the 22nd National Assembly, the Democratic Party of Korea asked Assembly Speaker Cho Jeong-sik to convene a plenary session and complete the election of standing committee chairs before the end of this week, saying the Assembly must be put back to work.

Democratic Party floor leader Han Byung-do held an emergency press briefing Wednesday, saying the People Power Party had "paralyzed the entire National Assembly over a single issue — the chairmanship of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee," and that the speaker's final deadline for completing the committee formation process had passed without result.

Earlier, Speaker Cho had met with Han and People Power Party floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik on June 22 and urged both sides to submit their lists of standing committee members by noon Wednesday. Cho arranged another meeting between the two floor leaders Wednesday afternoon, but negotiations made no progress.

"If we let this month pass, July will slip away in more negotiations, August will be put off with the excuse of the summer recess, and the Assembly will be effectively shuttered until the regular session opens in September," Han said. "The national audit and next year's budget review both begin in the standing committees — do they really intend to leave us without a single standing committee for a quarter of the year?"

Recounting the course of the negotiations, Han said the Democratic Party had waited until June 10 out of consideration for the PPP's new floor leadership transition, after which seven rounds of formal talks had been held starting June 11. "The PPP merely responded with irresponsible criticism — both to the Democratic Party's first deadline of May 18 and to the speaker's final deadline of noon Wednesday," he said.

Han went on to say that if the PPP ultimately refused to comply with the law and cooperate, the Democratic Party would proceed with the committee formation process on its own in accordance with the National Assembly Act. "If the PPP does not even submit its list of standing committee members, we will make the decision to take responsibility for operating all 18 standing committees ourselves," he added.

Asked about the possibility of the Democratic Party taking all 18 standing committee chairs, Han said the party could have discussed how to divide the economic committees, but that talks had been blocked entirely by the dispute over the judiciary committee. "We have to take them all and do the work responsibly," he said. He added that while committee chairs are normally allocated in proportion to seat counts, no such numerical negotiation had taken place because talks with the PPP had not progressed.

Han also said the Assembly could no longer be allowed to remain in a state of paralysis. "If there is no change from the PPP by Friday, we will take all the committee chairs and move forward," he said.


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