The main political parties concluded the work of forming the 20th National Assembly on Wednesday, ending weeks-long debate over the distribution of key parliamentary positions including the Assembly speaker and chiefs of standing committees.
The three mainstream parties’ floor leaders decided to give the speakership to the main opposition The Minjoo Party of Korea. In return, the ruling Saenuri Party would chair the key standing parliamentary committees, including the house steering committee as well as the legislation and judiciary committee.
Floor leaders Rep. Chung Jin-suk (from left) of the Saenuri Party, Rep. Park Jie-won of the People’s Party, and Rep. Woo Sang-ho of The Minjoo Party of Korea pose before their meeting at the National Assembly on Wednesday. (Yonhap)
The whips also agreed that the Saenuri Party’s lawmakers would assume the top posts of the committees in strategy and finance; national policy; security and public administration; science, ICT, and future planning; broadcasting and communications; and national defense and intelligence.
The Minjoo Party’s lawmakers, on the other hand, would become the chairpersons of committees in foreign affairs and unification; environment and labor; health and welfare; land, infrastructure and transport; agriculture, food, rural affairs, oceans and fisheries; and gender equality and family.
The third biggest People’s Party would secure the chief posts of the education, culture, sports and tourism committee and trade, industry and energy Committee. The centrist party would earn the post of vice Assembly speaker alongside the Saenuri Party.
The decision came after the Saenuri Party decided to forgo its bid to hold the post of the Assembly’s speaker early Wednesday.
The Saenuri Party’s floor leader Rep. Chung Jin-suk said that his party has decided to “yield” on the speaker seat and offer it to the main opposition party. The Saenuri party had previously insisted that it is “customary” for the ruling party to keep the top job in the Assembly.
“In order to make a breakthrough in the negotiation to form the Assembly, we decided to yield on the seat for the speaker,” Chung told reporters. “We hope that our decision will get the Assembly up and running and take care of the people’s livelihood,” he said.
The Saenuri Party’s turnaround came on the heels of Rep. Suh Chung-won’s last-minute decision to quit the race for the speaker’s seat. The eighth-term lawmaker was viewed as the party’s front-runner for the seat that is usually taken by the most senior lawmaker.
In a speech on Wednesday morning, Seo announced that he would leave the contest and urged his party to “give away” the speakership to the opposition party that now holds the largest number of parliamentary seats. The 73-year-old politician is the longest-serving incumbent lawmaker in the 20th Assembly.
By Yeo Jun-suk (
jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)