Presidential Office National Audit on the 8th... Political Circles Postpone Meetings and Bill Schedules Due to 'Itaewon Tragedy'

Democratic Party's 'Change and Innovation' Forum Postponed
Bill Proposals Also 'Plummet'

Park Hong-geun, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is attending the party strategy meeting held at the National Assembly on the 1st and delivering opening remarks. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] The political sphere has come to a halt following the Itaewon tragedy. Due to the burden of refraining from political strife during the mourning period and political judgment that all issues could be sucked into a black hole, schedules are being postponed.

The Democratic Party of Korea postponed political schedules such as endorsing the amendment to the Board of Audit and Inspection Act as the party's official stance at the party meeting on the 1st. Park Hong-geun, the floor leader of the Democratic Party, only stated at the floor strategy meeting held at the National Assembly that day, "We will discuss urgent livelihood legislation such as the delivery price linkage system and the Kakao outage prevention law." Originally, the Democratic Party planned to endorse the amendment to the Board of Audit and Inspection Act, which focuses on preventing abuse of authority by the Board of Audit and Inspection, as the party's official stance at the meeting, but decided to postpone it. A Democratic Party official explained, "We decided to delay politically contentious issues."

The Democratic Party also proposed to the People Power Party to postpone the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee's audit of the Presidential Office from the 3rd to the 8th, changing the schedule. Floor leader Park explained, "Since the Presidential Office is the control tower of this tragedy, it is a priority to thoroughly manage related measures."

On the same day, the People Power Party unusually made all remarks except those by the floor leader and the policy chief confidential during the floor strategy meeting. Usually, this meeting involves discussions on current issues by standing committees, but they removed opportunities for related remarks. Joo Ho-young, floor leader of the People Power Party, explained, "I thought it was not appropriate to publicly discuss various issues by standing committees at the floor strategy meeting, so we did so," adding, "There were discussions on follow-up measures and safety measures."

The political schedules of lawmakers were also affected. The Democratic Party's 'Change and Innovation' forum, which began after the party's defeat in the presidential and local elections, was postponed that day. It was originally scheduled to be held under the theme "How to Reform the Administrative State," but was canceled. A Democratic Party lawmaker explained, "We postponed it because we judged it would be better to refrain from political remarks after experiencing the tragedy."

Legislative bill filing schedules were also delayed. Justice Party lawmaker Bae Jin-kyo had planned a press conference to announce the filing of the 'Platform Antitrust Act' on the same day. This schedule was also postponed. Lawmaker Bae explained, "We postponed it to next week due to the political situation."

The political sphere clearly shows a tendency to be cautious about remarks during the national mourning period.

Floor leader Park asked Democratic Party lawmakers, "Please refrain from sharing information rashly on SNS or making untimely remarks," once again. Floor leader Joo also reaffirmed his stance of silence when asked by reporters about the controversy over Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min's remarks, saying, "It is better to avoid political strife during the mourning period and not express opinions until the 5th."

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