Democratic Party Negotiating Passage of 100 Bills with Opposition on 29th... Vows Sincere Dialogue after Reform Legislation

Democratic Party Holds Closed Supreme Council Meeting
Approves Local Candidate Recommendation Committees

The Democratic Party of Korea plans to process around 100 bills at the plenary session on the 29th through negotiations with the People Power Party. This move is intended to accelerate the legislative process in response to President Lee Jaemyung's remarks about the slow pace of legislation, by working with the opposition party to speed up the passage of bills.

Suhyun Park, Chief Spokesperson of the Democratic Party, conveyed this on the 28th after a closed Supreme Council meeting held at Seoul National University Hospital. Although the Democratic Party had initially planned to minimize party affairs and focus on the funeral of former Prime Minister Lee Haechan, urgent party matters required the Supreme Council to convene privately on this day.

Regarding President Lee's criticism about the slow legislative process, Chief Spokesperson Park stated, "It is certainly true that the overall legislative processing rate of the 22nd National Assembly has been sluggish," and added, "Since Byungdo Han took office as the Democratic Party's floor leader, the process has been moving swiftly and efficiently." He continued, "We are currently negotiating with the opposition party regarding the plenary session on the 29th, and about 60 bills are under discussion. We will work together to increase this number to 100 through bipartisan efforts."

Suhyun Park, Chief Spokesperson of the Democratic Party of Korea Photo by Yonhap News Agency

He also explained that once the reform legislation is completed, the party plans to strengthen cooperation with the opposition. Chief Spokesperson Park said, "The Democratic Party aims to complete the so-called reform bills in February and will devote all efforts to passing people's livelihood bills," adding, "Under this roadmap, we will do our best and engage in sincere and genuine dialogue with the opposition."

The previous day, President Lee stated during a cabinet meeting at the Blue House that, while discussing measures to improve the effectiveness of delinquent tax collection, "The legislative process in the National Assembly is so slow that nearly eight months have passed, and even basic government policy bills have only been enacted at a rate of 20 percent," adding, "The National Assembly is so slow right now that it is impossible to get any work done."

In addition, the Democratic Party's Supreme Council approved the establishment of the Provincial and Municipal Party Candidate Recommendation Management Committees on this day. Chief Spokesperson Park explained, "In the past, the local candidate recommendation committees were composed of more than half incumbent lawmakers and local party heads, with the remainder being external members in a largely formal capacity," adding, "This time, the central party issued guidelines to minimize the inclusion of incumbent lawmakers and local party heads. As a result, the local candidate recommendation committees have been formed with almost no incumbent lawmakers or local party heads, and instead consist of external members to ensure objectivity and neutrality." Park added, "In Gyeonggi Province, where there are too many local committees, some incumbent lawmakers were included, but in the other provincial and municipal parties, almost no incumbent lawmakers were included."

He further stated, "The Central Party Candidate Recommendation Committee held a meeting yesterday and established rules regarding the formation and meetings of the candidate recommendation committees, screening, operation, record preservation, and disposal of meeting and screening records," adding, "Records will be preserved for the next four years."

Meanwhile, it was reported that the Supreme Council did not discuss a potential merger with the Rebuilding Korea Innovation Party on this day.

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