Cheong Wa Dae on Tuesday prodded the National Assembly speaker to exercise his authority to independently propose pending bills related to business regulations and counterterrorism that have been stuck in parliamentary committees. 

Hyun Ki-hwan, senior presidential secretary for political affairs, demanded Speaker Chung Ui-hwa put the overdue bills to the vote if the two main parties failed to resolve the deadlock over the contentious bills. Chung had refused to propose them by himself, except for one related to election laws.

“I heard from news reports that the speaker would merely propose a bill related to election law. I don’t think it is enough. So I made a call and paid him a visit,” said Hyun, referring to Chung’s announcement that he would independently propose the election bill unless the parties agree on new electoral map.

Hyun told reporters that he had suggested Chung prioritize the overdue bills over the election bills that the government views as an attempt to “protect their own interest,” while relaying the government’s concern over the legislative body ignoring bills that prevent economic crisis and the threat of terrorism. Hyun refused to reveal how Chung had responded to the request. 

The presidential office’s demand came a week after Chung rejected a call from the ruling Saenuri Party to bypass the deadlocked committees and put the contentious bills up for a plenary vote. He has reiterated that the bills need to undergo the bipartisan parliamentary committee’s review before they clear the Assembly.

But Chung, a fifth-term lawmaker from the Saenuri Party, remained wary of the presidential pressure, dismissing the need for using his authority to propose business-related bills and counterterrorism bills that he said needed bipartisan consensus.

President Park Geun-hye has been upping pressure on the Assembly to pass the bills that she says would jump-start the nation’s flagging economy and prevent terrorism threats. She urged the lawmakers to swiftly pass the bills as time is running out for the 19th Assembly.

Faced with Park’s harsh criticism against the Assembly — she described the body as a “dysfunctional” organization — the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy party rebuked Park for “belittling” the legislative body and undermining democratic rules.

Experts noted that Park’s move infringes upon the Assembly’s right to legislate laws by violating the separation of powers. Assembly laws stipulate that the speaker can only independently propose legislations when there is a national emergency or consensus of the political parties.

“It is a violation of separation of powers. I am not sure whether the lawmakers’ failure to pass the contentious laws would constitute a national emergency situation (where the speaker can independently propose a bill),” said Shin Yul, a politics professor of Myongji University.

Pointing to President Park’s latest harsh attack on the Assembly, Yoon Pyung-joong, a political philosophy professor at Hanshin University, noted that the Hyun’s visit could be seen as pressure against the speaker and may infringe upon his legislative authority.

“Considering the fact that the president has made remarks that often seem to demonstrate the administrative branch’s supremacy over the legislative body, the presidential secretary’s visit to the speaker could be seen as the pressure from the president and an attempt to infringe upon the speaker’s authority,” Yoon said. 

Meanwhile, South Korea entered election mode on Tuesday as those seeking parliamentary seats began to register as preliminary candidates in the general election scheduled for April 13.

But the candidates face a major hurdle to the 120-day election cycle. They have yet to figure out which districts they will run for as the National Assembly has struggled to draw up a new electoral map amid the partisan bickering over the scheme to redraw constituencies. Their talks on Tuesday again fell through.

If the lawmakers fail to pass the bill that maps out the constituencies by Dec. 31 — a legal deadline to replace the original constituencies that were declared invalid in 2014 by the Constitutional Court of Korea — the preliminary candidates may have to run their election campaign without knowing their constituencies.



By Yeo Jun-suk (jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)