Future United Party refuses to elect National Assembly Deputy Speaker... 'Return the Judiciary Committee Chairmanship'

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] The United Future Party reaffirmed its principle that it will not recommend a deputy speaker of the National Assembly unless the chairmanship of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee is returned to the opposition party.

At a closed-door party meeting held on the 8th, a hardline view emerged that it would be inappropriate to elect only the deputy speaker while giving up the standing committee chairmanship.

According to attendees of the meeting, Representative Kim Tae-heum said, "Even if we do not elect a deputy speaker, we can still hold a confirmation hearing for the National Intelligence Service chief," and Representative Park Dae-chul urged a tough response, saying, "Many of those who fought during the fast-track process lost, but many were also ultimately elected."

The party leadership did not express a position for or against the election of the deputy speaker and put the matter up for discussion. Eventually, toward the end of the meeting, as the majority of lawmakers leaned toward opposing the election, Floor Leader Joo decided to follow this consensus.

Jeong Jin-seok, the opposition party's nominee for deputy speaker, said as he left the meeting, "I asked them not to recommend a deputy speaker, and the party leadership accepted it." Jeong posted on Facebook, "A tiger does not eat grass even when hungry."

After the party meeting, the United Future Party stated in a briefing, "A standing committee without the Legislation and Judiciary Committee is meaningless. The deputy speaker position is part of the same issue," adding, "We have decided internally not to elect a deputy speaker."

This implies that if the ruling party renegotiates the chairmanship of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, the issue of electing the deputy speaker can also be discussed together.

Emergency Committee Chairman Kim Jong-in responded to the remark that "the United Future Party has given up the deputy speaker position" by saying, "This is the first time I am hearing about it."

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