Democratic Party Slows Down 'Complete Prosecution Reform' at Final Stage... "No Agenda Adjustment Committee Formation Today"

Photo by Asia Economy DB

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] The Democratic Party of Korea, which had been accelerating day by day before the legislation of the Prosecutors' Office Act and the Criminal Procedure Act amendment bills known as 'Geomsu Wanbak' (complete removal of prosecutorial investigation rights), took a step back to adjust the speed on the 21st.

Park Kwang-on, Chairman of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, said in a phone interview with this outlet, "We are negotiating between floor leaders and to broaden the negotiation power, we will not form the agenda adjustment committee today."

Until the morning of the same day, the Democratic Party had planned to go straight from the agenda adjustment committee and the plenary session of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee to the plenary session of the National Assembly the next day. Floor leader Park Hong-geun publicly urged Speaker Park Byeong-seok at the policy coordination meeting, saying, "Please convene the plenary session on the 22nd."

However, since Speaker Park Byeong-seok is advocating for negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties, the party decided to respect this and took a step back.

Chairman Park said, "(Speaker Park) wants to mediate between the ruling and opposition parties, and we do not want to spoil that atmosphere. The leadership shares the same view."

Earlier, Representative Cho Eung-cheon predicted on CBS Radio that "(Speaker Park) will not simply exercise his authority to bring the bill to the floor, but will keep calling both sides to 'bring a concession proposal.' Then, he will present a compromise, a third proposal. In this way, he will seek bipartisan agreement before submitting it."

Accordingly, it is known that the floor leaders of both parties are conducting behind-the-scenes negotiations under Speaker Park's mediation.

However, since the position that the bill needs to be passed within April has not changed, if an agreement fails to be reached, the bill is expected to be pushed through forcibly.

Floor leader Park plans to hold a party meeting on the morning of the 22nd to share the 'next step strategy' with the members.

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