The leadership of the two major parties met on the 23rd to discuss the distribution of committee chairpersons and the schedule for the National Assembly’s plenary session, but they did not reach a conclusion.

Democratic Party of Korea Moon Jin-seok (left) and People Power Party Yoo Sang-beom, the Chief Floor Leader, enter respectively for a meeting related to adjustments of the plenary session schedule and negotiations on the distribution of chairpersons of standing committees at the National Assembly building in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 23rd. /Courtesy of News1

Democratic Party of Korea's Moon Jin-seok and People Power Party's Yoo Sang-bum, the deputy floor leaders, met at the National Assembly that afternoon, but they could not reach a conclusion on the current issues. They met again on this day following their meetings on the 18th and 19th, but failed to narrow the gap over the distribution of committee chairpersons, which also prevented them from agreeing on the schedule for the plenary session.

Moon, the deputy floor leader, told reporters after the meeting, "The current international situation is challenging for our economy, and the ruling and opposition parties need to join forces to hold a plenary session to pass the supplementary budget and other matters," adding, "Our stance is that we cannot afford to be delayed over the issue of committee chairperson distribution."

He continued, "The People Power Party is asking for the chairperson of the National Assembly’s Judiciary Committee, but we simply need to adhere to what the first-term floor leadership promised a year ago; this is not the time to discuss the distribution of committee chairpersons," emphasizing that there has been no change in their position.

Yoo Sang-bum, the deputy floor leader of the People Power Party, criticized, "Last year's distribution of committee chairpersons was not a consensus between the ruling and opposition parties but was unilaterally decided by the Democratic Party. Now that a new president has taken office and the Democratic Party has become the ruling party, for them to claim all the key committee chairpersons, such as the Judiciary Committee, Budget and Finance Committee, and Operations Committee, is nothing different from maintaining Lee Jae-myung’s regime of one-party rule."

The floor leaders of the ruling and opposition parties are scheduled to meet again on the morning of the 24th, chaired by National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik. The Democratic Party has stated that if it does not cooperate on the schedule for the plenary session, it will unilaterally hold the National Assembly’s plenary session this week to process the second supplementary budget.

Moon, the deputy floor leader, stated, "We cannot prolong this indefinitely; we have no choice but to hold the plenary session."