Senior ruling Saenuri Party officials on Tuesday were torn over how to proceed with a controversial North Korea human rights bill amid fierce protest from the main opposition party.

One group supports unilaterally passing the bill using the party’s parliamentary majority. Another faction wants to continue talks with the New Politics Alliance for Democracy to avoid a struggle that could block legislation of other bills.

The latter group holds the upper hand, as parliamentary laws require the majority party to present a unanimous front for the divisive bill to pass. The party has 158 of the parliament’s 295 members.

The main parties have been divided over the bill since 2005. The Saenuri Party supports a hard-line version that could be used to prosecute Pyongyang officials after unification. The NPAD backs a bill urging Seoul to “persuade” Pyongyang to improve its rights record through regular talks.

Saenuri chair Rep. Kim last Thursday suggested ending the near-decade-old partisan impasse by using the so-called fast-track clause in the National Assembly Act, sparking a backlash from NPAD members who called the Saenuri proposal a “bullying tactic.”

A draft bill that is designated a fast-track bill is automatically sent up for final vote to a plenary session in 330 days, at which point the majority party can use its superior numbers to approve the law.

But labeling it as a fast-track bill requires the support of three-fifths of the parliamentary committee overseeing the legislation. For the North Korea human rights bill, that is the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, where the governing party holds 14 of the 23 seats.

If all 14 Saenuri lawmakers vote for the Saenuri version of the human rights bill, it will pass. But two senior Saenuri legislators on the panel have openly expressed their opposition to designating the human rights bill as a fast-track legislation.

“I see no reason to make a fuss out of this bill,” Saenuri Rep. Choung Byoung-gug said. “There are so many more key bills that we need to pass. I see no reason to draw the ire of the NPAD on this symbolic bill.”

Saenuri Rep. Yoo Ki-june, the foreign affairs committee head, expressed a similar opinion.

“It will take 330 days to reach the parliament’s full session. By then, this National Assembly will be approaching the end of its term,” he said. The next parliamentary elections are in April 2016, with candidates expected to be announced as early as next January.

By Jeong Hunny ()


koreaherald@heraldcorp.com