People Power Party lawmaker Yoon Jae-ok on Tuesday introduced a bill to amend the National Assembly Act that would require the Assembly speaker to come from the largest floor party and the Legislation and Judiciary Committee chairman from the second-largest. The measure is designed to prevent the dominant party from holding both posts simultaneously and to enshrine checks and balances within the legislature.
The bill comes amid a dispute over the formation of the 22nd National Assembly's second-half leadership. The People Power Party had called for the Legislation and Judiciary Committee chairmanship to go to the opposition, arguing that checks and balances required it since the Democratic Party of Korea had claimed the speakership. The Democratic Party rejected that demand and pushed through the election of chairmen for 11 key standing committees — including the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, which holds the power to review bills for consistency and wording — without the PPP's agreement. Assembly Speaker Jo Jeong-sik then cited the appointment deadline in Article 48 of the National Assembly Act to unilaterally assign Democratic Party members to those 11 committees and notify the parties.
In response, the PPP refused to accept the seven standing committee chairmanships the Democratic Party had assigned it and submitted formal letters of resignation for all its members on the 11 committees to the Assembly's parliamentary affairs office, deepening the standoff between the two parties over the chamber's organization.
Current Assembly law does not clearly define how standing committee chairmanships should be distributed. When parties fail to reach agreement, no institutional mechanism exists to stop the majority party from using its seat count and the speaker's authority to monopolize key committee posts.
The bill would address that gap by explicitly requiring in law that the Assembly speaker be a member of the largest floor negotiating group and that the Legislation and Judiciary Committee chairman be a member of the second-largest negotiating group — that is, the largest group that did not produce the speaker.
"The distribution of standing committee chairmanships must be based on agreement between the ruling and opposition parties," Yoon said. "When the majority party uses its seat count to seize both the speakership and the Legislation and Judiciary Committee chairmanship and then forces through committee assignments, it undermines the principle of checks and balances in the Assembly's operation."
"By enshrining in law the separate allocation of the speakership and the Legislation and Judiciary Committee chairmanship, we aim to put in place an institutional check, end the political conflicts that recur every time committees are formed, and restore a National Assembly grounded in dialogue and cooperation," Yoon said, explaining the intent behind the legislation.
mp1256@heraldcorp.com
