Democratic Party Unilaterally Passes Special Judicial Reform Committee Proposal in Steering Committee: "Legal" vs "Illegal" (Comprehensive)

National Assembly Steering Committee Passes Proposal to Form Special Committee on Judicial Reform to Discuss Establishing the Serious Crime Investigation Agency
People Power Party: "Forcibly Convening the Steering Committee Violates the National Assembly Act"
Democratic Party: "Calling It Tyranny After Scrapping the Agreement Is Utterly Absurd"

[Asia Economy, reporter Oh Jooyeon] On April 29, the Democratic Party of Korea unilaterally passed a proposal to form the Special Committee on Judicial Reform (Saege Special Committee), which will discuss the establishment of the Serious Crime Investigation Agency (Jungsucheong), through the National Assembly Steering Committee. The People Power Party boycotted the vote, arguing that forcibly convening the Steering Committee violated the National Assembly Act, and expressed its opposition by not participating. However, the Democratic Party countered that it was actually the People Power Party that had completely scrapped the Speaker's arbitration proposal. The proposal to form the Saege Special Committee, which passed the Steering Committee on this day, is expected to be submitted to the plenary session scheduled for May 3.

Park Honggeun, chairman of the National Assembly Steering Committee, is presiding over the full meeting of the Steering Committee held at the National Assembly on the 29th. On this day, the Steering Committee passed a resolution to establish the Special Committee on Judicial Reform (Saege Special Committee) as a National Assembly special committee to discuss the launch of the Serious Crime Investigation Agency (Jungsucheong), with the People Power Party absent. Photo by Yoon Dongju doso7@

On this day, Song Eonseok, the People Power Party's chief deputy floor leader, stated in a procedural speech before the proposal was introduced, "The National Assembly Act stipulates that agenda items must be determined through consultations between the floor leaders of the negotiation groups. Today, the People Power Party clearly stated that we do not agree to the opening of the meeting itself," adding, "Nevertheless, the Democratic Party forcibly convened the Steering Committee. Isn't this a violation of the National Assembly Act?" he criticized.

He then said, "It seems to me that this is legislative dictatorship by the tyranny of an overwhelming majority," and left the meeting.

Park Honggeun, the Democratic Party's floor leader, refuted this by saying, "Today's convening of the meeting followed proper procedures under the National Assembly Act."

He continued, "Even though it is clear to the public that, after the Speaker asserted his authority and approved the arbitration proposal, the floor leaders signed it in front of the public, the People Power Party completely scrapped it for some reason in less than three days. For those who should actually apologize to and take responsibility before the public to now call this tyranny is utterly absurd," he countered.

After the Steering Committee's decision, Park spoke to reporters and explained, "The core of today's resolution passed by the Steering Committee is that, if the two amendment bills to the Prosecutors' Office Act and the Criminal Procedure Act are passed in the plenary session, the prosecution's direct investigative authority will be reduced from six to four major crimes. The remaining two direct investigative authorities will be addressed through legislation by the Saege Special Committee within the next two months to establish a Korean-style FBI, that is, the Serious Crime Investigation Agency, and it has been agreed that the agency will be established and operated within one year after that."

Regarding the future schedule, he said, "We could address this as early as tomorrow (at the plenary session) or next Tuesday, but since a filibuster could be launched against this proposal, we have no choice but to handle each item step by step. After dealing with the amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act at the next plenary session, we will be able to bring up this proposal," he said.

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