Lee Won-wook: "A Ghost Parliament That Couldn't Even Organize, Should Return Their Salaries"

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] On the 16th, Lee Won-wook, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, urged the floor leaders of both ruling and opposition parties to "quickly conclude negotiations and organize the floor" regarding the delay in the formation of the second half of the 21st National Assembly, saying, "If the floor is not organized tomorrow, it will be the 19th day."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the same day, Lee said on Facebook, "If you visit the National Assembly website, the composition of all standing committees by the Speaker of the National Assembly is shown as '0 members.' Both the standing committee chairpersons and members are all blank," pointing out, "There are members of the National Assembly, but it is a strange ghost-like situation where there are no members affiliated with the National Assembly."

He continued, "The National Assembly, which should solve all these issues such as inflation, household debt problems, high oil prices, the government's lack of educational philosophy, suspension of media reform, infringement of the government's legislative power, and the discharge of Fukushima nuclear power plant contaminated water into the ocean, has come to a halt," and criticized, "The bigger problem is that although we are watching the negotiations between the floor leaders of both parties, there seems to be no way out."

Lee said, "If a bus on the road stops for just 18 minutes, citizens will suffer severe traffic inconvenience, but the National Assembly has been stopped for 18 days," and criticized, "Both ruling and opposition parties promise to create a working National Assembly and working parties during elections. Now that the election is over, is it because they no longer need to consider the public's opinion?"

He then addressed the floor leaders of both parties, saying, "Kwon Seong-dong (People Power Party) and Park Hong-geun (Democratic Party of Korea), aren't you ashamed before the people?" and held them responsible, asking, "Isn't it enough to just give way a little?"

Lee also said, "The salary increases by 422,369 won per member per day. All of it should be returned," and added, "Let's declare no work, no pay and return the salary."

The ruling and opposition parties have been unable to form standing committees while continuing a tug-of-war over the chairmanship of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. The People Power Party, as the majority party, insists that if the Democratic Party takes the Speaker position, the People Power Party should take the chairmanship of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee and that both should be elected simultaneously. On the other hand, the Democratic Party demands that the authority of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee to review the system and wording be reduced as a precondition and proposes to elect the Speaker first and then resume negotiations on the standing committees, leading to repeated deadlock in the National Assembly.

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