The Democratic Party of Korea met with National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik on the 26th and requested to hold the National Assembly plenary sessions on the 27th and 30th. While negotiations regarding the plenary session schedule with the main opposition People Power Party have been stalled due to the issue of reallocating committee chair positions, the Democratic Party has decided to proceed with the plenary session alone if necessary to elect the committee chairs, including the vacant chair of the Budget and Accounts Committee, and expedite the review of the supplementary budget.

Kim Byeong-ki, the acting representative and floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea (in the center), is giving a briefing after concluding a meeting with National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik regarding the composition of the committee on the 26th at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul. /Courtesy of News1

Democratic Party floor leader Kim Byeong-ki, chief deputy floor leader Moon Jin-seok, and spokesperson Moon Geum-joo visited the Speaker's office at 2:30 p.m. on that day. During this meeting, the floor leadership requested Speaker Woo to hold plenary sessions on the 27th and 30th for the election of committee chairs and the handling of the confirmation of Prime Minister nominee Kim Min-seok, respectively.

Floor leader Kim said, “We have been in direct and indirect communication with Speaker Woo, and the Speaker is well aware of the current situation. We made our request based on a comprehensive assessment of the process so far, and (Speaker Woo) promised to make a decision tomorrow morning.”

Earlier, the ruling and opposition parties held a luncheon meeting on that day to discuss the reallocation of committee chair positions, the convening of plenary sessions, and the confirmation of the nominee. However, no agreement was reached. The People Power Party has demanded that the chair of the Judiciary and Legislation Committee or the Budget and Accounts Committee be conceded to the opposition, while the Democratic Party has firmly rejected this. Subsequently, Speaker Woo proposed another afternoon meeting of the ruling and opposition parties, but the People Power Party did not attend.

Chief deputy floor leader Moon said, “We met five times to somehow agree on convening the plenary session. The Speaker judged that there was no progress and arranged a meeting of the ruling and opposition parties, but the People Power Party unilaterally did not participate in today’s session, so we could not mediate.”

If an agreement for the plenary session cannot be reached by the morning of the 27th, the Democratic Party plans to hold the plenary session alone to initiate the election process for the four committee chairs allocated to the Democratic Party.