South Korea's National Assembly Special Committee on U.S. Investment reached consensus on several contentious issues as lawmakers race to finalize legislation before their mandate expires on January 9.
The committee held plenary and subcommittee sessions on Saturday to resume deliberations on the special bill governing Korea's planned investment in the United States.
"A certain level of consensus has been formed," said Rep. Jeong Tae-ho of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, who serves as the committee's floor leader. "Today's bill proposal, general debate, and subcommittee proceedings are expected to proceed without issues."
Rep. Park Soo-young of the opposition People Power Party, the committee's minority floor leader, confirmed the progress in a KBS radio interview. "Even while the National Assembly has been gridlocked, floor leaders gathered to clearly sort out the key issues," he said.
The most significant breakthrough concerns the organizational structure for managing the investment. Park said lawmakers agreed to establish a new Korea-U.S. Strategic Investment Corporation rather than housing operations within the existing Korea Investment Corporation.
"We agreed that creating a new corporation has its merits, but it should be established with minimal scale," Park said. "We reached a broad agreement to minimize personnel, budget, and authority."
Transparency measures emerged as another key issue. Park noted that a previous bill submitted by former floor leader Kim Byung-ki "had very weak provisions for ensuring transparency," with clauses on information disclosure, National Assembly reporting, and Board of Audit and Inspection oversight "all excluded."
"We agreed on the broad direction of ensuring transparency to satisfy the public's right to know," Park said.
On legislative oversight, lawmakers are moving toward requiring "reporting" rather than "prior approval" for individual investments. Park cited expert testimony from public hearings warning that mandatory approval for every investment would significantly reduce flexibility and slow decision-making.
The committee also agreed to establish a triple-layer risk management system: a project committee chaired by the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy for project selection; an operations committee chaired by the Minister of Economy and Finance for secondary evaluation; and a new risk management committee of experts within the investment corporation.