National Assembly Plenary Session Opens Amid United Party Absence... Ruling Party Elects 6 Standing Committee Chairs

Joo Ho-young Floor Leader "I Will Give Up All 18 Standing Committee Chairmanships" Strongly Opposes

In the plenary session of the National Assembly held on the 15th to elect the first standing committee chairpersons of the 21st National Assembly, members of the United Future Party were absent. (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ji-hee] The plenary session to elect the chairpersons of the standing committees for the first half of the 21st National Assembly convened on the 15th. The United Future Party strongly opposed and did not participate in the vote.

Speaker Park Byeong-seok opened the plenary session around 6 p.m. and proceeded with the voting process to elect chairpersons for six of the 18 standing committees. The committees subject to the vote were the Legislative and Judiciary Committee, Planning and Finance Committee, Industry, Trade, Small and Medium Enterprises and Startups Committee, Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, National Defense Committee, and Health and Welfare Committee, all of which were allocated to the Democratic Party.

Members of the United Future Party boycotted the plenary session in protest of the forced vote. Since the full list of standing committee members is required to elect the chairpersons, Speaker Park Byeong-seok forcibly assigned the six committee member lists that the United Future Party did not submit. This marks the first time in 53 years, since 1967, that chairpersons were elected amid the absence of the main opposition party.

Before presenting the agenda, Speaker Park said, "It is very regrettable that some standing committees are being formed without bipartisan agreement. We postponed the plenary session twice over the past week to urge negotiations and went through a period of deep reflection, but concluded that if it is for the people and national interest, we must bear the responsibility."

In response, only Floor Leader Joo Ho-young of the United Future Party attended the session, strongly criticizing the convening of the plenary session while his party members were absent. In a procedural speech before the vote, Floor Leader Joo said, "Since the Constituent Assembly in 1948, this is the first time in constitutional history that standing committee members from the opposing party have been forcibly assigned without consent," and protested, "We will give up all 18 standing committee chair positions."

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party had already nominated Representative Yoon Ho-jung for the chair of the Legislative and Judiciary Committee, Representative Yoon Hu-deok for the Planning and Finance Committee, Representative Song Young-gil for the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, Representative Min Hong-chul for the National Defense Committee, Representative Lee Hak-young for the Industry, Trade, Small and Medium Enterprises and Startups Committee, and Representative Han Jeong-ae for the Health and Welfare Committee at the party meeting held just before the plenary session.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.