Negotiations on the National Assembly Organization Ultimately Fail... Democratic Party Likely to Independently Review Supplementary Budget

Kim Tae-nyeon, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is entering the Speaker's office on the 29th to attend a meeting between the Speaker and floor leaders of negotiation groups for the organization of the 21st National Assembly./Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy reporters Lee Ji-eun, Kang Na-hum, and Lim Chun-han] The ruling and opposition parties, which had been engaged in a tug-of-war over the formation of the National Assembly, including the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, throughout the weekend, failed to reach an agreement on the formation even after a meeting on the 29th. This is analyzed to be due to the failure to narrow the perception gap between the two parties. The opposition proposed to split the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, but the ruling party insisted that they could not give up the committee. Even within the opposition, voices expressing skepticism about the effectiveness of splitting the Legislation and Judiciary Committee emerged.

Kim Tae-nyeon, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, and Joo Ho-young, floor leader of the United Future Party, held a meeting at 10 a.m. on the 29th at the National Assembly, presided over by Speaker Park Byeong-seok, to conduct final negotiations on the formation of the National Assembly, but the talks broke down.

The failure to narrow differences over who would take control of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee was cited as the cause. Earlier, Floor Leader Joo proposed a compromise plan to separate the term of the chairperson of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, with the first half of the term going to the Democratic Party and the second half to the United Future Party. In response, the Democratic Party, as the ruling party victorious in the presidential election, countered with a proposal to take the chairpersonship in the latter half of the term. Despite meetings over the weekend under Speaker Park's chairmanship, the floor leaders of both parties failed to produce a final agreement. They met once more on the morning of the 29th for final negotiations but ultimately failed to reach a consensus.

Not only the Democratic Party but also within the United Future Party, skeptical views about splitting the Legislation and Judiciary Committee were raised. United Future Party lawmaker Cho Hae-jin said on CBS Radio's "Kim Hyun-jung's News Show" that "If the United Future Party takes the chair first, whether for one year or two years, it has meaning, but if the ruling party takes it first, it has no meaning."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

With the negotiations on the 29th also falling through, the ruling party is expected to push ahead with a unilateral review of the supplementary budget. Earlier, the Democratic Party announced that regardless of the formation agreement, it would begin reviewing the supplementary budget bill worth 35.3 trillion won starting on the 30th. If the agreement fails, the party plans to fill the standing committee chairpersons and members with its own lawmakers and proceed with the budget review. Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun is also reportedly preparing a government policy speech in anticipation of the standing committees being formed.

Floor Leader Kim said at the Supreme Council meeting that day, "The Democratic Party's patience is at its limit. Whatever decision the United Future Party makes, the Democratic Party will finalize the formation and ensure the third supplementary budget is passed in this extraordinary session." Another Democratic Party official told reporters, "Once the standing committees are formed, comprehensive policy questioning of the government will begin from tomorrow (the 30th)."

Although the supplementary budget review is moving forward quickly, criticism of a "hasty review" seems unavoidable. Speaker Park had set the deadline for the supplementary budget approval as the day before the last day of the session, June 3. Even if the review starts immediately the next day, the review period would be only four days.

Unlike the second supplementary budget for emergency disaster relief payments, this supplementary budget is vast and complex not only in scale but also in content, requiring more meticulous scrutiny than the previous supplementary budget. The National Assembly Budget Office also pointed out deficiencies in the 5.1 trillion won Korean New Deal budget included in this supplementary budget and expressed concerns about hasty processing.

The Budget Office particularly diagnosed that the Ministry of Science and ICT's "AI Voucher Support (331.5 billion won)" project and "Big Data Platform and Network Construction (85.9 billion won)" project have "uncertain project effectiveness." It also criticized the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' "Fostering Promising Green New Deal Companies (5.2 billion won)" project for failing to finalize detailed criteria for selecting support targets, which is a crucial issue. If the supplementary budget is passed within this extraordinary session as intended by the Democratic Party, it is expected to be physically difficult to address all these pointed issues. Both the review and the content may pass as a "shoddy construction."

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