People Power Party floor leader Song Eon-seog sits with lawmakers at the tent sit-in set up in front of the main building of the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 23rd to push for the three special probes into administration corruption and to block the three judicial power-grab bills./Courtesy of News1

As the Democratic Party of Korea moves to convene a plenary session of the National Assembly on the 24th, the People Power Party has come out in opposition.

Song Eon-seog, the floor leader of the People Power Party, met with reporters on the morning of the 23rd in front of the National Assembly speaker's office and said, "The People Power Party requested that the plenary session be held on the 26th, as originally agreed between the ruling and opposition parties for the February extraordinary session," adding, "I told the speaker it would be desirable to handle noncontentious bills that had been agreed upon."

In particular, Floor Leader Song made clear his opposition to the three major judicial reform bills, including the law-distortion offense, that the Democratic Party has signaled it will pass. Song said, "I made it clear that there is no compelling reason at this point to force through the three evil laws that destroy the judiciary," calling them "vicious laws that significantly distort and destroy the judicial system itself."

The Democratic Party, by contrast, reaffirmed its stance that it will open a plenary session on the 24th and swiftly pass the judicial reform bills. Park Soo-hyun, the party's senior spokesperson, said, "We will make sure to pass the three judicial reform bills and the special act on administrative integration," adding, "We will work to ensure the plenary session is held on the 24th."

On whether the law-distortion offense is unconstitutional, the party said, "If we had judged there was a possibility of unconstitutionality, we would not proceed as is," adding, "Germany, an advanced judicial nation, has operated a law-distortion offense, and we have engaged in sufficient deliberation and debate to make it even clearer than the German system."

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