The Democratic Party of Korea will push through 12 bills including the three judicial reform bills at the National Assembly plenary session on February 24, despite fierce opposition from the opposition party.
People Power Party floor leader Song Eon-seok met with Democratic Party floor leader Han Byeong-do and National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik until the last minute, urging postponement of the plenary session, but failed to stop the ruling party's hardline approach.
The People Power Party plans to apply the brakes through filibuster, but the ruling party intends to hold daily plenary sessions until early March to overcome opposition resistance, making parliamentary gridlock inevitable.
The National Assembly Steering Committee held a plenary meeting on February 23 and passed the February extraordinary session agenda, including the February 24 plenary session, led by the Democratic Party. The People Power Party, which had argued for a February 26 plenary session based on prior bipartisan agreement, walked out in protest of the ruling party-led vote.
The Democratic Party has already designated 12 bills for priority processing at the February 24 plenary session: the three judicial reform bills (judicial distortion offense, constitutional complaint against court rulings, Supreme Court justice expansion), third Commercial Act revision, National Referendum Act, Child Allowance Act, Real Estate Transaction Reporting Act, Urban Maintenance Act, and three regional administrative integration bills. Anticipating opposition filibuster, the party plans to hold daily plenary sessions until March 3 for "salami-style" incremental voting.
The Democratic Party forcibly passed related bills at the Public Administration and Security Committee and Legislation and Judiciary Committee meetings held the same day. The Public Administration Committee processed the National Referendum Act, which guarantees voting rights for overseas Koreans in national referendums—prerequisite legislation for constitutional revision. The revision was immediately brought to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee plenary meeting that afternoon and passed under Democratic Party leadership. The party plans to bring the revision to the February 24 plenary session and pass it within the current extraordinary session.
The People Power Party protested that the revision violated procedure by skipping subcommittee review before being brought to the plenary meeting, and boycotted the vote. At the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, the three regional administrative integration bills, Local Autonomy Act, and third Commercial Act revision that had passed the Public Administration Committee were also advanced under ruling coalition leadership.
The People Power Party separately met with Speaker Woo to argue for postponing the plenary session, but efforts to check the ruling party's unilateral advance proved futile. Floor leader Song said at the party's general meeting, "The Democratic Party says it will hold National Assembly plenary sessions starting February 24 to forcibly pass destructive judicial bills. Our party once again strongly demands holding a normal plenary session on February 26 to process livelihood bills agreed upon by both parties."
The People Power Party plans to respond with all available means including filibuster if the Democratic Party's legislative unilateralism becomes reality. The party also resumed tent protests in front of the National Assembly main building from the same day. The People Power Party has characterized the Democratic Party-led parliamentary operation as "legislative rampage" and declared it will not cooperate on any bill scheduling, including non-controversial legislation.
Despite opposition resistance, the Democratic Party maintains it cannot delay reform legislation any longer. Democratic Party leader Jeong Cheong-rae said at the Supreme Council meeting, "We must hold tomorrow's plenary session to process urgent livelihood reform bills. If processing livelihood reform bills is delayed, the damage falls entirely on the people." He added, "We will process the three judicial reform bills according to our timetable within this extraordinary session without setback and without compromise."
The Democratic Party is also considering processing the "filibuster prevention bill" (National Assembly Act revision) that would block the opposition's response strategy itself. The bill would allow the National Assembly Speaker to halt filibuster if fewer than one-fifth of registered members (60 people) are present. It awaits plenary session introduction after passing the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. However, opposition from the ruling coalition's ally, the Rebuilding Korea Party, remains a variable.
The Democratic Party, which holds numerical superiority in parliament, also has concerns. There are political burdens in unilaterally processing numerous controversial bills, and some argue that bills like the Chungnam-Daejeon administrative integration could provoke local resident backlash and backfire ahead of the June 3 local elections. This is reportedly why Representative Jeong suddenly proposed ruling-opposition party leader talks with People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok to discuss administrative integration.
A key Democratic Party parliamentary official said, "Whether to proceed with forced processing of the Chungnam-Daejeon administrative integration bill despite filibuster if agreement with the opposition fails will be decided after careful deliberation."