A three-day session of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee scheduled to open starting on the 5th was canceled just before it began. The Democratic Party, which had set the schedule saying it would convene the committee, unilaterally reversed course. In political circles, some said, "There has been criticism that the Legislation and Judiciary Committee led by the Democratic Party caused incidents every time President Lee Jae-myung had a major diplomatic schedule, so during this trip to China they may be reading the room." Lee is on a state visit to China from the 4th to the 7th.
At the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, talk of "postponing the full committee meeting" began to surface from the morning. Among Democratic Party committee members, the cancellation of the full meeting was said to have been announced around 10:20 a.m., and in the committee's administrative office around 11:15 a.m. Meetings of the committee set for the 6th to 7th were all canceled.
Kim Hyun-jung, the Democratic Party floor spokesperson, met reporters at the National Assembly and said, "We planned to discuss the second comprehensive special counsel and the Unification Church special counsel at the Legislation and Judiciary Committee before the 8th, but we decided that holding the committee during the president's trip to China would not be appropriate." Both the "second comprehensive special counsel bill" and the "Unification Church special counsel bill" are controversial because the opposition party has not agreed to them.
Previously, whenever President Lee Jae-myung had major diplomatic events, hard-liners in the Democratic Party on the committee led a series of contentious bills, prompting figures in the ruling camp to say that "diplomatic achievements were buried."
At the committee, during the United Nations General Assembly in New York last September, there was the "Jo Hee-de confirmation hearing," and during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju last November, there was a push for a "presidential trial suspension law." Also, when Lee toured the Middle East and Africa last November, ruling party members of the committee filed complaints against 18 chief prosecutors who protested the decision to forgo an appeal in the Daejang-dong case.
Each time, the presidential office and the Democratic Party leadership issued stern warnings to hard-line committee members. When the trial suspension bill moved forward during the APEC summit, the presidential office said, "Do not drag the president into the center of political strife." And when the committee filed complaints against the chief prosecutors who protested giving up the Daejang-dong appeal, then–floor leader Kim Byung-kee said, "Shouldn't this have been coordinated? The committee should handle the fallout."
With the Democratic Party postponing the committee during the president's China trip this time, political circles are reacting that "it seems like a calculation not to face further criticism for burying diplomatic achievements." They also say, "The ruling party would have known the president's China schedule in advance, so it is hard to accept that they set the committee schedule for that period only to unilaterally overturn it."
The People Power Party held a press conference condemning the ruling party's committee cancellation. Na Kyung-won of the People Power Party said, "The reason the committee meeting was unilaterally canceled is that the committee was about to overshadow the China trip news," adding, "It is not normal for schedules to be unilaterally canceled depending on internal discord and interests within the Democratic Party."