Ruling and Opposition Parties to Negotiate Special Prosecutor Law Tomorrow... Plenary Session Postponed by One Day for Talks

People Power Party to Propose Its Own Special Investigation Law This Morning
Democratic Party: "We Will Open the Plenary Session and Wait"

The ruling and opposition parties have postponed the plenary session scheduled for the 16th to the 17th and are entering negotiations to table the so-called December 3 emergency martial law special investigation law. The parties plan to discuss the special investigation law proposed by the People Power Party tomorrow morning along with the special investigation law already proposed by the Democratic Party and other opposition parties, and aim to bring it to the plenary session on the same day.

Woo Won-sik, Speaker of the National Assembly, is taking a commemorative photo with the floor leaders of the ruling and opposition parties at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on the morning of December 23 last year. Photo by Yonhap News

Kwon Seong-dong, floor leader of the People Power Party, met with National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik on the same day, and Park Hyung-soo, the senior deputy floor leader, reported that they agreed to hold talks for negotiations between the floor leaders of the ruling and opposition parties on the special investigation law, mediated by the Speaker. Deputy Floor Leader Park stated, "The People Power Party has decided to propose the special investigation law as a party bill tomorrow morning."

The People Power Party had previously expressed opposition to the special investigation law, but due to internal dissenting votes, they decided to propose their own special investigation law excluding toxic provisions. After the party meeting, Floor Leader Kwon told reporters, "The members agreed to propose their own special investigation law, thinking that the lesser evil is better than the worst (opposition) law."

The Democratic Party plans to complete negotiations between the floor leaders as soon as the People Power Party proposes its own special investigation law tomorrow morning and immediately approve it in the plenary session. They intend to keep the plenary session open until the negotiations are completed and wait for the special investigation law to be tabled. After meeting with Speaker Woo, Democratic Party Floor Leader Park Chan-dae told reporters, "When handling the budget in the past, the National Assembly was kept open until the last moment to wait for an agreement and then processed it. We have the determination to handle the special investigation law tomorrow in the same way."

The key issues of the special investigation law are the scope of investigation and investigative personnel. The People Power Party considers the existing Democratic Party bill unconstitutional. They insist that crimes such as foreign exchange offenses and incitement of rebellion should be excluded from the proposed special investigation law. They also plan to significantly reduce the number of investigative personnel and the investigation period, differing from the Democratic Party's proposal. Deputy Floor Leader Park said, "There are quite a few other differences as well."

If negotiations fail, the Democratic Party and others expect to pass their proposed special investigation law in the plenary session even with opposition votes. Floor Leader Park said, "There is another principle that we must not delay any further," adding, "Our goal is negotiation, but we cannot wait indefinitely."

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