The ruling and opposition parties discussed the schedule for the National Assembly plenary session and the supplementary budget on the 31st as agenda items but could not reach an agreement. The two sides decided to meet again at 4 p.m. that day to continue negotiations.
People Power Party Chief Deputy Floor Leader Park Hyung-soo and Democratic Party Chief Deputy Floor Leader Park Seong-jun met with reporters after a meeting of the floor leaders of both parties held in the morning, presided over by National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik.
Park Hyung-soo stated, "(The plenary session schedule and other issues) could not be agreed upon between the ruling and opposition parties, so we decided to meet again at 4 p.m. to continue negotiations."
The main agenda of the meeting that day was the government's proposed "10 trillion supplementary budget." Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choi Sang-mok stated, "If the ruling and opposition parties agree with the intent of the supplementary budget, I will promptly submit the budget proposal."
However, the ruling and opposition parties still failed to bridge their differences regarding the scale and specific items of the supplementary budget, engaging in a power struggle.
Democratic Party Floor Leader Park Chan-dae stated during the meeting that the government's "10 trillion" supplementary budget is "merely an empty shell with no substance," and urged for a substantial and bold budget proposal. On the other hand, Floor Leader Kweon Seong-dong said that "this supplementary budget contains only urgent responses to the wildfires and budgets for dealing with AI (artificial intelligence) and trade issues, which are areas with no points of contention between the ruling and opposition parties," adding that it must be passed as soon as possible.
The People Power Party believes there should be "targeted support" for small business owners and vulnerable groups in terms of livelihood assistance. To this end, it advocates for ▲expanding credit card cashback ▲providing 1 million won energy vouchers per small business owner ▲issuing prepaid cards ranging from 250,000 to 500,000 won for basic and lower-income recipients ▲supporting up to 2 million won for small business facilities improvement and equipment purchases. In contrast, the Democratic Party proposed a supplementary budget plan totaling 34.7 trillion won, which includes consumption coupons for livelihood recovery (13.1 trillion won) and local currency discounts (2 trillion won) aimed at all citizens. Recently, due to the wildfire situation in the Yeongnam region, they also clashed over the "increase in disaster reserves."
The method of discussing the supplementary budget was also a point of contention. The People Power Party intends to pass the supplementary budget proposal in the plenary session after scrutinizing it through the usual standing committees and the National Assembly's Special Committee on Budget and Accounts, while the Democratic Party argued that, considering the urgency, they should skip the standing committee reviews and handle it directly in the plenary session.
Park Hyung-soo stated, "The supplementary budget should be addressed first in the standing committee and then go through the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts to reach the plenary session. However, to jump straight to the plenary session, as the Democratic Party suggests, does not align with the past traditions of the National Assembly and is not legally appropriate."
They also did not find a compromise regarding the schedule for the plenary session. The National Assembly had initially planned to hold a plenary session on the 27th, but it was postponed due to the large wildfire situation.
Thus, the People Power Party positions itself to conduct a plenary session on the 3rd, when the March special National Assembly ends, to handle urgent major agenda items and agreed to further discuss the April special National Assembly schedule later. In contrast, the Democratic Party demanded that there must be a plenary session held for four consecutive days from the 1st to address current issues, including the supplementary budget, wildfire countermeasures, and issues regarding the sensitive country designation by the U.S. The Democratic Party stated that if an agreement on the plenary session schedule cannot be reached that day, they would convene the National Assembly's Committee on Operations to unilaterally vote on the plenary session schedule.
Park Hyung-soo stated, "I informed Speaker Woo Won-shik that we could hold a plenary session on April 3rd and if necessary, conduct urgent inquiries on current issues for about a day afterward."
On the other hand, Park Seong-jun stated, "Regarding the contents of the supplementary budget claimed by the government, the wildfire countermeasures, and the sensitive country issues in diplomatic terms, along with the problem of Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok's attitude on purchasing U.S. Government Bonds during an economic crisis, and moreover, issues like the violation of constitutional order, I suggested to Chair Woo that it would be better to hold regular plenary sessions starting April 1st."
The People Power Party views that the background behind the Democratic Party's demand for consecutive plenary sessions is a strategic intention to push for a "double impeachment" against President Han Duck-soo, the acting Prime Minister, and Deputy Prime Minister Choi, since impeachment motions must be voted on within 72 hours after being reported to the plenary session, necessitating the scheduling of consecutive sessions.
Park Hyung-soo claimed, "The Democratic Party is demanding that we hold the plenary session starting April 1st and conduct urgent inquiries on current issues, but the issues of the sensitive country and the wildfires should be dealt with in the standing committees, not in the plenary session. The objective of the Democratic Party's insistence on current inquiries is to pressure the Constitutional Court."