Lawmakers will kick off February’s extraordinary session of the National Assembly on Monday.
This month’s session features Prime Minister nominee Lee Wan-koo’s confirmation hearing on Feb. 9, and ongoing parliamentary investigations into accusations that former President Lee Myung-bak squandered billions in his so-called “resource diplomacy” policy.
But the focus is on a key anticorruption bill known popularly as the Kim Young-ran bill, which awaits its de facto final parliamentary review. If it is passed, lawmakers, government officials, and possibly journalists, among others, will be subject to strict penalties for graft.
The bill is named after its initial proposer, who served as a Supreme Court Justice and the head of the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission, a government body. It proposes penalizing civil servants and their families found to have received gifts, however small.
That would include officials who take ostensibly innocent gifts such as Christmas or birthday presents.
The bill also proposed putting non-government officials working for the public good subject to the bill, such as members of the media and teachers in private secondary schools.
Critics have alleged that the bill is unnecessarily overreaching.
The governing Saenuri Party and the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy have conducted intermittent debates on the bill, trying to narrow its sweeping nature.
Lawmakers at the National Assembly’s National Policy Committee passed a version of the bill that put the bar at 1 million won ($907) on Jan. 8. Officials who receive more than that amount will face criminal charges, while those taking lesser gifts will face fines.
The bill is pending before the Legislation & Judiciary Committee, which is the final debating ground for the main parties, before a draft law is voted on at a plenary session.
Debates over controversial bills at plenary sessions are often symbolic, as partisan divisions over such bills are ironed out beforehand at the Assembly’s judiciary panel.
Judiciary committee chief NPAD Rep. Lee Sang-min has hinted that his panel could take some time before OK’ing the bill, due to its overreaching character, despite bipartisan support for the legislation.
More divisive partisan battles this session are expected elsewhere.
The special investigative committee on the Lee Myung-bak administration’s resource diplomacy policy will hold a meeting Monday to decide on witnesses to testify before the panel.
NPAD officials have consistently demanded key administration officials testify, including incumbent Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan, and former officials in the Korea National Oil Corporation, Korea Resources Corporation, and other public bodies that participated in the policy.
Saenuri Party officials have consistently refused, citing that calling in such officials is “unprecedented.”
Ex-President Lee and top officials in his administration are accused of investing public money into risky foreign ventures on energy development.
Prime Minister nominee Lee’s confirmation hearing will also present the main parties with grounds for political fighting. He faces accusations of real estate speculation in Gyeonggi Province and Tower Palace, a luxury apartment complex in the Gangnam District of Seoul.
By Jeong Hunny ()
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
