The ruling and opposition parties decided not to hold the National Assembly's plenary session that had been expected on the 8th. The decision took into account President Lee Jae-myung's trip to China and the Democratic Party's floor leader election schedule. The next plenary session is scheduled for the 15th.

Democratic Party of Korea Moon Jin-seok and People Power Party Yoo Sang-bum, the senior deputy floor leader for floor operations, talk as they attend the first plenary meeting of the House Steering Committee of the 430th National Assembly (extraordinary session) at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 18th. The House Steering Committee passes a resolution to form the Special Committee on Political Reform at the plenary meeting the same day./Courtesy of News1

Moon Jin-seok, senior deputy floor leader for operations of the Democratic Party of Korea, and Yoo Sang-beom, senior deputy floor leader for operations of the People Power Party, met at the National Assembly on the afternoon of the 7th to discuss the plenary schedule.

After the meeting, Yoo told reporters, "We discussed whether to hold a plenary session tomorrow (the 8th), and it was decided that we will not hold a plenary session tomorrow," adding, "The next plenary session is planned for around the 15th."

At first, the Democratic Party planned to convene a plenary session on the 8th, the last day of the December extraordinary session, to push for the passage of the second omnibus special counsel bill and the Unification Church special counsel bill. The Democratic Party is expected to convene the January extraordinary session on the 15th, hold a plenary session, and pass the second omnibus special counsel and the Unification Church special counsel.

Accordingly, The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee also appeared to pick up speed by holding a full committee meeting that day to discuss the two special counsel bills. However, as the plenary session was pushed back, the two special counsel bills were referred to the agenda coordination subcommittee of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee.

The delay of the plenary session took into account the president's overseas schedule, among other factors. After the meeting of the ruling and opposition floor leadership, the National Assembly speaker's office notified, "Unilaterally convening a plenary session amid the interparty discussions and with the ruling party's new floor leader election imminent is not appropriate when considering the National Assembly's future operations."

It added, "In particular, it is necessary to consider that this is a grave moment when the president is on an important diplomatic tour for the national interest," and "As soon as the Democratic Party's new floor leader is elected, the National Assembly speaker will chair a meeting of the ruling and opposition floor leaders to discuss urgent items that have not been handled."

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