The leaders of the two major parties met twice on the 24th but failed to narrow their differences regarding the redistribution of standing committee chairs and the schedule for the plenary session, deciding to continue discussions.

Acting leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, Kim Byung-ki (left), and the floor leader of the People Power Party, Song Eon-seok, attend a meeting of the two parties' floor leaders, chaired by National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik, at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 24th. /Courtesy of News1

Democratic Party of Korea's Kim Byeong-ki and People Power Party's Song Eon-seok met at the National Assembly at 5 p.m. that day. This was their meeting again six hours after the earlier meeting, led by National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik, where no agreement was reached.

However, they were unable to reach a conclusion in the second meeting of the day.

The two leaders noted, "Since the differences are not narrowed, it seems we need to continue discussions," and agreed to meet again later.

Since the inception of the Lee Jae-myung administration, the ruling and opposition parties have struggled over the issue of redistributing committee chairs in the National Assembly. The People Power Party maintains that, since the ruling and opposition parties have changed, they need to hand over the chair of the Budget and Accounts Committee and the chair of the Legislative and Judiciary Committee for the balance and checks of the legislative body. On the other hand, the Democratic Party argues that the tenure for committee chairs is two years and claims it's not a subject of negotiations. The National Assembly must elect chairs for five currently vacant committees: Budget and Accounts, Legislative and Judiciary, Operations, Planning and Finance, and Culture, Sports and Tourism.

In particular, the election of the chair of the Budget and Accounts Committee is urgent to commence the review of the second supplementary budget. Therefore, Speaker Woo requested that both party leaders provide the list of Budget and Accounts Committee members and the results of the committee redistribution negotiations by the 26th.

The ruling and opposition parties are expected to continue behind-the-scenes negotiations until the 26th. If an agreement is reached, a plenary session will be held on the 27th to elect the committee chairs by consensus. If not, the Democratic Party may push to elect the committee chairs unilaterally.

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