Democrats' 'Segwasi' Causes Disruption in 8 Standing Committees... Failure to Pass 'Four Laws for Restoring Teachers' Authority'

Unable to Hold 8 Standing Committee Meetings Including the Judiciary Committee Full Session on the 18th
Excluding Welfare, Public Administration, and Agriculture, Food and Fisheries Committees

The Democratic Party of Korea boycotted all National Assembly schedules on the 18th, when party leader Lee Jae-myung, who had been on a prolonged hunger strike, was transferred to the hospital, causing disruptions in meetings of eight standing committees.

According to political circles on the 18th, the Democratic Party either canceled or sent only the floor leaders to explain their absence in eight standing committees, including the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, where bills such as the 'mugshot disclosure' bill and the four laws for restoring teachers' authority were pending.

Among the 11 standing committees scheduled that day, all except the Health and Welfare Committee’s plenary meeting?held to refer the amendment to the Child Welfare Act related to protecting teachers' authority to a subcommittee?the Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee’s bill subcommittee, and the Public Administration and Security Committee’s first bill subcommittee, were disrupted.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Originally, the Personal Information Disclosure Act, which includes the disclosure of mugshots, and the four laws to protect teachers' legitimate educational activities (amendments to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Early Childhood Education Act, Teachers' Status Act, and Framework Act on Education) were expected to be approved by the Legislation and Judiciary Committee that day and processed at the plenary session on the 21st. However, due to the Democratic Party’s absence, their passage became uncertain.

So Byeong-hoon, the Democratic Party’s floor leader in the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, said, "The National Assembly should proceed, but today is not the only day; other days are possible. I apologize to the government officials, public servants, and People Power Party members who attended today, but I hope today's meeting will be postponed."

In response, People Power Party members urged the Democratic Party to attend and proceed with the meeting. Kim Do-eup, the ruling party’s chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, also proposed that only the unsubmitted original bills, such as the Special Act on Punishment of Child Abuse, be introduced and referred to the first bill subcommittee that day. However, after discussions between the floor leaders of both parties, no agreement was reached, and the plenary meeting was adjourned. Jeong Jeom-sik, the People Power Party floor leader, expressed regret, saying, "It is very regrettable that the Democratic Party floor leader opposes referring the bills to the subcommittee in the absence of Democratic Party members."

The plenary meeting of the Industry, Trade, and Small and Medium Enterprises Committee, scheduled to discuss the adoption of the personnel hearing report for nominee Bang Moon-kyu, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, was also canceled.

Ruling party members of the Industry, Trade, and Small and Medium Enterprises Committee criticized in a statement, "The ruling party made a decision to accommodate the opposition by postponing the president’s resubmission of the hearing report and agreed to adopt it today, but the opposition broke this promise. It is right to criticize the anti-parliamentary and anti-people behavior that completely ignores the public promises made to the people and treats the National Assembly as a playground for the major opposition party."

Additionally, plenary meetings of the Strategy and Finance Committee, National Defense Committee, Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, Special Committee on Advanced Strategic Industries, as well as the National Defense Committee’s Petition Review Subcommittee and the Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee’s bill subcommittee, which were scheduled to discuss and adopt major bills and audit schedules, were canceled that day.

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