The 22nd National Assembly has finally taken its first shape and is poised to begin work almost a month after coming into parliament.
Our political correspondent Shin Ha-young reports.
After weeks of bipartisan wrangling, the rival parties have finally decided on how to run the 22nd National Assembly for the next two years.
The Assembly held a plenary session on Thursday to select the seven remaining Assembly committee chiefs as well as a deputy speaker from the ruling People Power Party.
“The plenary session was called through an agreement between the rival parties. We apologize to the public for the concern caused by the delay in forming the committees.”
All seven committees among 18 are now chaired by the PPP lawmakers, including Kim Seok-ki, who will lead the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee.
“In foreign affairs and security, there’s no party divide. As committee chair, I’ll address pending issues, focusing on national interests and policies to enhance South Korea’s global role.”
The PPP on Monday accepted the seven standing committee chair positions proposed by the main opposition Democratic Party, which holds the majority.
It is customary to divide the 18 standing committee chair positions in proportion to the number of seats held by each party, which would make it 11 for the DP and seven for the PPP.
The PPP had been calling for negotiations on which party would chair the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, as it is a key Assembly panel with the power to approve bills before they are put to a plenary vote.
However, the DP refused and unilaterally voted to take the position two weeks ago, along with other 10 parliamentary committee chiefs.
During the plenary session on Thursday, lawmakers elected six-term legislator Joo Ho-young as one of the two deputy speaker posts set aside for the ruling party.
The DP’s Lee Hack-young took on the position three weeks ago amid the PPP’s boycott of the vote, which claimed that the session was held without a bipartisan agreement on its agenda.
With Thursday’s plenary session, the formation of the first half of the 22nd National Assembly concluded 28 days after it commenced its four-year term.
“Now that the parliament is ready to return to work at full scale, a three-day Q-and-A session on matters of national interest is scheduled to start on Tuesday.
Shin Ha-young Arirang News.”
Source : Arirang TV, https://www.arirang.com/news/view?id=272537
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