Constitution Day (July 17) will be reinstated as a public holiday for the first time in 18 years.
The National Assembly on the 29th held a plenary session and passed the Partial Amendment to the Act on Public Holidays, which reassigns Constitution Day as a public holiday, with 198 in favor, 2 against, and 3 abstentions out of 203 lawmakers present.
Under current law, among the five national foundation days, public holidays are limited to March 1 Independence Movement Day, Liberation Day, National Foundation Day, and Hangeul Day, excluding Constitution Day. The core of the amendment is to expand the national foundation days designated as public holidays under current law to all national foundation days. Accordingly, Constitution Day has regained its status as a public holiday.
Constitution Day commemorates July 17, 1948, when the Constitution was promulgated, and was designated a national foundation day, but it was excluded from public holidays starting in 2008. This resulted from the 2005 revision of the Regulations on Public Holidays of Government Offices during the Roh Moo-hyun administration, reflecting concerns about reduced working hours following the introduction of the five-day workweek.
Since then, steady criticism has noted that the significance of enacting the Constitution, the foundation of the democratic republic, has faded and that Constitution Day has effectively become a "forgotten day."
President Lee Jae-myung has also expressed support for designating Constitution Day as a public holiday. Presiding over a senior secretaries' meeting on July 17 last year to mark the 77th Constitution Day, Lee said, "Although Constitution Day commemorates the enactment and promulgation of the Constitution, it is the only state commemoration called a 'jeol' that is not a holiday," adding, "We should consider options to designate it as a public holiday."
This bill was separately introduced by Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers Im Oh-kyung, Yoon Ho-jung, Choi Ki-sang, Lee Yong-woo, and Kwak Sang-eon, and People Power Party lawmakers Na Kyung-won and Kang Dae-sik, and the National Assembly Public Administration and Security Committee integrated and adjusted them to prepare a committee substitute.
The amendment will take effect three months after promulgation. Accordingly, the public holiday will apply starting with this year's Constitution Day.
Choi Ki-sang of the Democratic Party of Korea, who spearheaded the related bill, said, "Constitution Day was the only one among the five national foundation days excluded from public holidays," and added, "By reassigning Constitution Day as a public holiday, we aim to reaffirm constitutional values so that the people, the owners of the state, commemorate the Constitution and state power exercises its authority in accordance with the Constitution."