Jeong Jeom-sik, floor leader of the People Power Party (PPP), called Wednesday for the chairmanship of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee to be returned to the PPP, the second-largest party, saying that "the principle of negotiations for the latter-half National Assembly composition is 'normalizing the Assembly.'" He also pledged high-intensity scrutiny of Prime Minister nominee Han Seong-sook, signaling that the new floor leadership is accelerating its offensive against the government.
Jeong held a press conference at the National Assembly that day and laid out his resolve in approaching the negotiations over the Assembly's committee composition. "The one-sided rule and dysfunction that resulted from the abnormal first-half Assembly composition carried out two years ago, during Lee Jae-myung's tenure as party leader, must now end," he said. "The Legislation and Judiciary Committee must be returned to the opposition." He added, "The economy-related standing committees—the Finance and Economy Planning Committee, the National Policy Committee, the Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee, and the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee—should be handled by the opposition."
He took direct aim at the "multi-home owner controversy" surrounding nominee Han, pledging probing scrutiny. "(Nominee Han) is not just a multi-home owner but a super multi-home owner who owns three houses in Seoul, one house in Gyeonggi Province, and a building worth 9.7 billion won," he said, demanding that President Lee Jae-myung clarify his position. Jeong warned, "President Lee likened real estate multi-home owners to devils and treated them as criminals, and in April he even said that staff members who merely make paper copies should not be multi-home owners. If the strict standard he intends to impose even on the lowest-level civil servants is not applied to the prime minister, public service discipline will collapse and this government's real estate policy will completely lose its credibility."
Jeong also finalized the appointments of his floor leadership that day, accelerating efforts to organize his ranks for the offensive against the government. He named Rep. Kim Mi-ae as senior deputy floor leader for policy and appointed Rep. Yoon Yong-keun, who entered the Assembly through a by-election, as chief of staff to the floor leader. Rep. Kim Tae-kyu also newly joined the spokesperson team. Observers say the floor leadership team was assembled by drawing on figures without strong factional ties, along with the active appointment of those elected in the by-elections.
