President Moon's Opening Address May Be the Latest Ever if Delayed Beyond This Week

President Moon Jaein
Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy, reporter Son Sunhee] On July 6, the Blue House began final preparations for President Moon Jaein's opening address to the 21st National Assembly, expecting it to take place within this week. With the opposition party deciding to participate in the July extraordinary session of the National Assembly, which begins today, it is anticipated that the ruling and opposition parties will start negotiating the legislative schedule, including the opening ceremony.

President Moon is expected to preside over a meeting with senior secretaries and aides at the Blue House this afternoon, where he will discuss the prompt execution of the third supplementary budget-the largest in history-passed by the National Assembly on July 3, as well as the opening of the July extraordinary session. This will be the first meeting attended by Suh Hoon, the newly appointed Director of National Security.

The Blue House had initially planned the opening address for early last month, but the delay in negotiations over the formation of the National Assembly leadership between the ruling and opposition parties has already postponed it by over a month. During this period, as national affairs and diplomatic and security situations changed rapidly, the speech underwent a total of eight revisions, including three complete rewrites. Considering the speech is over 30 minutes long, this has not been an easy process. Nevertheless, the Blue House has patiently waited in hopes that the address could be delivered in a normalized National Assembly based on bipartisan agreement.

At a briefing on July 1, Blue House spokesperson Kang Minseok said, "There is a risk that the speech, which was prepared with great care and is over 30 minutes long, may end up unused," adding, "It makes me realize that congratulating the National Assembly on its opening is by no means an easy task for the president."

President Moon's opening address is expected to focus mainly on the determination to overcome the national crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as key economic issues including the Korean New Deal.

If President Moon's opening address is delayed beyond this week, it will be recorded as the latest such address since the constitutional amendment in 1987. Until now, the latest was by former President Lee Myungbak, who delivered his address to the 18th National Assembly on July 11, 2008.

The ruling party is expected to push forward with a number of pending issues during this session, including the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) Act, which will take effect on July 15, ratification of key International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions, and review of the three major labor laws (the Trade Union Act, the Public Officials' Union Act, and the Teachers' Union Act). In particular, President Moon even sent a separate official letter to National Assembly Speaker Park Byeongseok requesting the recommendation of candidates for the head of the CIO. In addition, the schedules for confirmation hearings for National Intelligence Service Director nominee Park Jieon and Unification Minister nominee Lee Inyeong also require bipartisan agreement.

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