The Democratic Party of Korea nominated the Chairpersons of The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, the Public Administration and Security Committee, and the Health and Welfare Committee, whose posts became vacant because the incumbents are running in local elections. Seo Young-kyo was nominated for the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, Kwon Chil-seung was nominated for the Public Administration and Security Committee, and So Byung-hoon was nominated for the Health and Welfare Committee.
On the 31st, Democratic Party floor spokesperson Kim Hyun-jung announced the appointments of standing committee chairpersons at the National Assembly press briefing room. The relevant committees became vacant after Commissioners Choo Mi-ae, Shin Jung-hoon, and Park Ju-min expressed their intention to step down.
Kim, the floor spokesperson, said, "Because there are many bills to handle, including the supplementary budget and livelihood legislation, we are electing chairpersons even though two months remain," and explained, "For the second half, standing committee chairpersons are to be appointed by the floor leader to be newly elected in May, so the chairpersons selected this time will serve only two months."
Kim added, "It has been customary to exclude those who previously served as a Minister or as another standing committee chairperson from being selected as chairperson, but because we need to swiftly process the supplementary budget and livelihood bills, we did not follow that custom and made selections from within the currently active committees."
At first, the National Assembly's Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee was also to see a change in its chairperson, but as Chairperson Ahn Ho-young dropped his bid for North Jeolla governor, the current structure will remain.
The motion to elect the standing committee chairpersons will be placed on the agenda at the National Assembly plenary session the same day. In addition, about 60 livelihood-related bills, including the law designating Labor Day as a public holiday agreed upon by the ruling and opposition parties, are also scheduled to be introduced at the plenary session.