The Democratic Party of Korea urged the main opposition to end its boycott, saying the seven standing committees it left for the opposition in the second-half restructuring of the 22nd National Assembly are "committees the People Power Party wants and prefers."
Lee Joo-hee, the Democratic Party's floor spokesperson, met with reporters after a policy coordination meeting held at the National Assembly Wednesday. "Dividing the standing committees 11 to 7 is based on the standards for seat allocation," she said. "The committees we left behind are also the People Power Party's preferred committees, which we identified through several rounds of negotiations."
"So we believe the boycott the People Power Party is currently conducting will not last long," she said. "Nevertheless, if the People Power Party continues this situation through its plenary meeting or floor leadership today, it can only be seen as political strife aimed at partisan interests. We believe they will make a wise judgment."
The Democratic Party recently held more than a dozen rounds of negotiations with the opposition during the second-half restructuring process, but failed to reach an agreement as the two sides ran parallel over the chairmanship of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. The Democratic Party has unilaterally convened a plenary session and passed a plan under which it would take 11 standing committees and the People Power Party would take seven.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party plans to first convene meetings of the 11 standing committees whose chairs have been elected to address livelihood issues. "The Democratic Party will convene an extraordinary July session of the National Assembly," Floor Leader Han Byung-do said the same day. "Ensuring that policies are implemented in a timely manner without a legislative vacuum is the role of the National Assembly now."
