hankyoreh

Speaking in connection with the physical conflict generated in the process of independently presenting the ratification agreement bill for the South Korea-United States free trade agreement, National Assembly Speaker Kim Hyong-o expressed his regrets Friday for the Grand National Party’s approach of pushing through legislation one-sidedly.

In a statement released Friday with the title “The Speaker’s Perspective on Recent Situations,” Kim wrote that the GNP “needs to reflect and retrace whether it was necessary to present the bill so one-sidedly and to engage in such extreme obstruction efforts.”

Kim added, “It is needless to say that the primary responsibility (when dialogue and compromise do not work) is with the ruling party, which leads the national administration.”

Kim also wrote that it would not be too late if the FTA ratification agreement bill were to be discussed and settled sufficiently by the ruling and opposition parties. “But the public welfare bill, which is needed to overcome the economic crisis, must be dealt with as a priority within this extraordinary session,” Kim noted.

“As we’ve seen recently in the media, the ruling party is claiming that things like easing of the separation between finance and industry, abolition of the total amount limit system for investment, simultaneous operation of newspapers and broadcast media and amendment of the National Intelligence Service law are legislation to keep the economy going, but these are bills with points of contention between the ruling and opposition parties,” said Kim Chang-ho, the speaker’s senior spokesman, in a phone conversation with The Hankyoreh.

These pieces of legislation should be more sufficiently discussed by the ruling and opposition parties, and the remaining bills, which have the comprehensive sympathies of both sides, should be quickly resolved, senior spokesman Kim said.

When asked if the speaker has no intention of using direct authority to present legislation on matters such as the FTA and the separation of finance and industry even if asked to do so by the ruling party, Kim said, “That’s the right way to look at it. That must be discussed by the ruling and opposition parties. (The speaker) is not fixing an examination date to settle them by the end of the year.”

With the speaker expressing his negative attitude toward the GNP’s stance in attempting to settle contentious legislation within this term, even if it means independent presentation and resolution, it appears some restraints will be applied to the GNP’s “one-way” method of conducting business.

In response to this, Democratic Party spokesman Cho Jeong-sik said in a briefing Friday that his party “enthusiastically agrees with the speaker’s opinion when he says that it is not too late for the ruling and opposition parties to sufficiently discuss and settle the FTA ratification agreement bill.” Cho added that the GNP must immediately accept the speaker’s exhortation.

Cho also said that if the speaker promises that direct authority will not be invoked to present the FTA ratification agreement bill or any other controversial legislation with points of contention between the ruling and opposition parties, the protest in his office would immediately be called off.

In contrast, GNP floor leader Hong Joon-pyo kept mum, saying he would not give any separate opinion.

The tense confrontation between the ruling and opposition parties continued Friday. With a plenary session scheduled for that day, opposition party lawmakers affiliated with the Public Administration and Security Committee and National Policy Committee entered the meeting room, early in the morning and late the previous night respectively, closing the door and blocking the entry of ruling party members at the source. GNP lawmakers in the National Policy Committee sat in front of the meeting room door and held a protest.

Meanwhile, National Assembly Secretary-General Park Kye-dong declared that in order to prevent the recurrence of habitual acts of disruption to parliamentary proceedings using physical strength, those party to violent activities would be charged with contempt for the speaker, damages to government property and injurious disruption to special government affairs.

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