Parties set for clash over bills as Assembly gets back to business

The 22nd National Assembly held a plenary meeting in western Seoul on Thursday. (Yonhap)

The two largest political parties here are likely to wrangle over several bills in upcoming months, despite their recent agreement on the formation of parliamentary standing committees.

The ruling People Power Party on Thursday officially ended its weekslong boycott of the National Assembly over the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea’s decision to take 11 out of the total 18 standing committee chair positions, including that of the key legislation and judiciary committee, without their consent.

In a plenary session held Thursday afternoon, the ruling party took over the remaining seven committees through a vote, completing the leadership assignment of all 18 standing committees nearly a month after the term of the 22nd National Assembly kicked-off.

But the two main parties are expected to continue to clash, with the Democratic Party planning to railroad several contentious bills, as the key committees it took charge of play crucial roles in the legislative process.

“In the upcoming months, an intense clash between the rival parties is projected to play out, with the Democratic Party trying to push through everything with the 175 seats it secured in the 300-seat 22nd Assembly, while the ruling party and the Yoon Suk Yeol administration expected to boycott and veto the main opposition’s plans,” Cho Jin-man, a politics professor at Duksung Women's University said.

The Democratic Party is currently trying to railroad several contentious bills, including the one that mandates a special counsel probe of the Yoon administration’s alleged interference in a Marine Corps’ internal investigation following the death of a young Marine in July last year. The main opposition plans to reintroduce the bill after Yoon exercised his veto power on the bill in May.

On top of it, Rep. Jang Kyung-tae, an outspoken two-term lawmaker of the Democratic Party of Korea, recently claimed that the president could be subject to impeachment if he is found to have exerted influence over the Marine Corps' internal probe, which prompted criticisms from the ruling party.

Earlier this week, the Assembly’s legislation and judiciary committee already passed three controversial bills that seek to reduce government influence over public broadcasters by reforming their governance structure. The committee’s chair Jung Chung-rae and the opposition members within the committee unilaterally passed the bills despite opposition from the ruling party lawmakers.

Pointing to the mounting tension, an expert warned that the rival parties must join forces rather than lock horns for the Assembly to earn back the public trust.

“The public could turn their backs on the Democratic Party if it continues to push forward with their contentious agendas,” said Park Sang-byung, a political commentator.

“It is why the rival parties must stop fighting and start thinking about what the public wants,” he added.