Ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, the National Assembly on the 12th opened a plenary session and, led by the broader pro-government camp, passed 66 items including livelihood-related bills.
The ruling and opposition parties initially agreed to handle 82 livelihood-related bills that day, but it ultimately fell apart due to a boycott by the People Power Party. The People Power Party boycotted the plenary session in protest after a judicial reform bill led by the Democratic Party of Korea passed The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee the previous day.
In the end, led by the Democratic Party, 63 livelihood-related bills; the adoption of the 2025 National Assembly inspection result report; a request for an audit of the Board of Audit and Inspection related to the 2025 Land Infrastructure and Transport Committee National Assembly inspection; and the adoption of the investigation report into the truth of the Dec. 29 airliner disaster were handled.
The measures passed include the Essential Medical Care Act to strengthen support for essential medical services; the Civil Act to strip the rights of egregiously immoral heirs; the Personal Information Protection Act to impose a penalty surcharge of up to 10% of sales for repeated and serious personal data leaks; and the Special Act on Creating Retirement Villages to improve quality of life and housing stability for older adults.
The People Power Party, while absent from the plenary session, held a rally condemning the ruling party in the National Assembly Rotunda under the slogan "Overturning President Lee Jae-myung's trial, unconstitutional four-tier appeals system."
Song Eon-seog, the People Power Party floor leader, said at the event, "Yesterday, the worst law destroying the judiciary in history, trampling the Constitution and destroying Korea's judiciary, passed the Legislation and Judiciary Committee," adding, "One is a litigation-appeal system that changes the three-tier appeals system respected by the Constitution to a four-tier one, and the other is an amendment to the Court Organization Act that nearly doubles the number of Supreme Court justices from the current level."
In response, Han Byung-do, the Democratic Party of Korea floor leader, met with reporters immediately after the plenary session and said, "We condemn the ruthless behavior of the People Power Party for dousing the public's hopes for a recovery in livelihoods ahead of Seol, the great national holiday," adding, "We will no longer tolerate the People Power Party's behavior of taking people's livelihoods hostage to stage a legislative hostage drama."