Democrats: "Impeachment Motion Against Lee Dong-gwan Must Be Passed at the Plenary Session on the 30th... Regret Over Cancellation of the Plenary Session"

Previous Day National Assembly Judiciary Committee, Unilateral Adjournment by People Power Party
Democratic Party Criticizes "To Prevent Impeachment of Broadcasting Commissioner Lee Dong-gwan"
"Plenary Session Scheduled as Planned on 30th and 1st of Next Month"

The Democratic Party of Korea announced that it will process the impeachment motion against Broadcasting and Communications Commission Chairman Lee Dong-gwan at the National Assembly plenary session on the 30th. The party also expressed strong regret, stating that the originally scheduled plenary session on the 23rd was canceled due to the People Power Party unilaterally canceling the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee meeting the day before.

Hong Ik-pyo, the Democratic Party floor leader, said at the policy coordination meeting held at the National Assembly that morning, "I urge the prompt normalization of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee today to urgently process urgent livelihood bills," adding, "The Democratic Party plans to hold the plenary session as scheduled on the 30th of this month and will definitely process the impeachment motion against Lee Dong-gwan."

Hong Ik-pyo, the floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is speaking at the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly on the 22nd. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

Floor leader Hong criticized, "Yesterday, the Legislation and Judiciary Committee had to promptly review about 130 livelihood bills passed from other standing committees, regardless of the plenary session," and said, "In this situation, the statement by the committee chairman that the full committee meeting would not be held to 'sabotage the impeachment motion against Broadcasting and Communications Commission Chairman Lee Dong-gwan' is a clear overreach and abuse of authority." He also said, "It is rare to see a committee chairman arbitrarily cancel the entire schedule of the standing committee agreed upon by the ruling and opposition party secretaries," and directed a sharp remark at Kim Do-eup, the People Power Party member and chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, saying, "You must act according to the Constitution and the National Assembly Act, not to protect the regime or for party interests."

The Democratic Party plans to hold plenary sessions on the 30th of this month and the 1st of next month to process livelihood bills along with the appointment consent motion for the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court and the impeachment motion against Broadcasting and Communications Commission Chairman Lee Dong-gwan.

Floor leader Hong reiterated, "I want to make it clear that this plenary session schedule is not linked to the budget agreement." This statement is interpreted as an effort to prevent the postponement of the plenary session schedule by the People Power Party, which insists that the ruling and opposition parties must reach an agreement by the legal deadline for budget processing (December 2). He added, "The Democratic Party will do its best to meet the legal deadline for the budget."

The day before, the ruling and opposition parties engaged in a tense standoff over the impeachment motion against Broadcasting and Communications Commission Chairman Lee Dong-gwan, which the Democratic Party planned to propose, at the full meeting of the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee. Before the meeting began, the People Power Party argued for canceling the committee meeting, claiming that the plenary session schedule was not agreed upon between the ruling and opposition floor leaders, while the Democratic Party submitted a request to open the meeting and proceeded.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The meeting, which started about 30 minutes later than originally scheduled, saw So Byung-chul, the opposition party secretary and Democratic Party lawmaker, say, "Suddenly, around 11 a.m. today, I received a call from the ruling party secretary. They said they hoped the Legislation and Judiciary Committee would not be held due to issues between the ruling and opposition floor leaders," adding, "I said, 'The secretaries of both parties have already agreed, so what does the issue between the floor leaders have to do with this? We need to process livelihood bills quickly, so let's hold the committee.' To be precise, the committee was unilaterally canceled due to the People Power Party's circumstances."

Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Young-bae also criticized, saying, "I wonder if there has ever been such a case in constitutional history," and added, "In a situation where many livelihood-related bills are piled up, unilaterally canceling the Legislation and Judiciary Committee is an unacceptable outrage." He further said, "I cannot understand this situation except that the government affairs are being neglected and the only goal is to block the impeachment of Lee Dong-gwan." This explanation refers to actions taken to prevent the impeachment motion against Chairman Lee from being submitted.

Ruling party secretary Jeong Jeom-sik, a People Power Party lawmaker, said, "It is regrettable that the Legislation and Judiciary Committee's agenda was not carried out as planned," but added, "The committee was canceled as a result of the failure to properly negotiate the agenda for tomorrow's plenary session." He said, "They say livelihood bills were neglected, but what was the result of the Constitutional Court's impeachment trial on Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min, which the Democratic Party pushed for? It was unanimously dismissed," and added, "Even after that, the Democratic Party announced impeachment motions one by one every day."

Kim Do-eup, a People Power Party member and chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, said, "The impeachment motion against Chairman Lee was proposed and then withdrawn at the plenary session on November 9," and said, "Shouldn't this be called an outrage? The secretaries should negotiate," before adjourning the meeting.

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