Yoon Kwan-seok and Kim Kyung-hyup Decline Standing Committee Chair Positions... "Industry, Environment, and Budget Committee Chairs to Be Elected in June"

Yoon Kwan-seok Resigns as Industry Committee Chair
Kim Kyung-hyup Decides Not to Take Environment Committee Chair
Budget Committee Chair to Be Elected at June Special Session

The Democratic Party of Korea announced on the 30th that Yoon Kwan-seok, Chairman of the National Assembly's Industry, Trade, Energy, Small and Medium Enterprises Committee (Independent), has expressed his intention to resign. Kim Kyung-hyup, a Democratic Party lawmaker who was expected to take the position of Chair of the Environment and Labor Committee, also stepped down. Accordingly, the Chairpersons of the National Assembly's Special Budget Committee, Industry Committee, and Environment and Labor Committee will be elected during the June session of the National Assembly.

Kim Han-gyu, the Democratic Party's floor spokesperson, stated in a briefing that "The Chairpersons of the Budget Committee, Industry Committee, and Environment and Labor Committee are planned to be elected in the June National Assembly session," adding, "Yoon Kwan-seok accepted the Democratic Party's request to resign as Industry Committee Chair, and Kim Kyung-hyup accepted the floor's request to step down as Environment and Labor Committee Chair."

Earlier, after a floor strategy meeting at the National Assembly, Kim told reporters, "There will be no vote today in the plenary session to replace the Industry Committee Chair," and added, "The Democratic Party has requested Yoon to resign, but he has refused. I want to make it clear that the Democratic Party is not cooperating to allow Yoon to maintain his standing committee chairmanship nor making efforts to protect him through that."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

When rumors surfaced that the Democratic Party was delaying Yoon's resignation from the Industry Committee to protect him, the party's floor leadership completely denied this. Kim also mentioned, "The Industry Committee Chair is a Democratic Party position, and if Yoon resigns, the party will go through the process of selecting an appropriate candidate." It appears that Yoon decided to resign considering the internal party atmosphere.

Regarding the Budget Committee Chair, the Democratic Party explained that the election was delayed due to circumstances within the People Power Party. Kim said, "Our party has already selected a candidate, but the People Power Party said they need time internally to select theirs, so the election has been postponed to the June National Assembly session."

Accordingly, at the plenary session at 2 p.m. that day, only the chairpersons of four committees?the Science, Technology, Information and Communications Committee, the Administration and Security Committee, the Health and Welfare Committee, and the Education Committee?are expected to be replaced.

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