The race for speaker of the National Assembly for the latter half of the 22nd National Assembly, to succeed Speaker Woo Won-sik, has kicked off in earnest. Three lawmakers from the Democratic Party of Korea — Kim Tae-nyeon, Park Ji-won and Cho Jung-sik — held a press conference at the National Assembly on the 4th to declare their bids.
The candidates running for the next speaker launched their full-fledged campaigns with a press conference at the National Assembly on the 4th. After the briefing, Kim said, "The National Assembly is fundamentally a place that produces results through dialogue, negotiation and compromise," adding, "Dogged negotiation and putting my heart into brokering deals are what I do well."
Kim added, "If we remain stuck in negotiations and, in this time of great transition, fail to address the grueling lives of the people, I will make a bold decision," and said, "I believe I have shown in the political process that I am a politician who is good at both negotiating and deciding."
He also said, "Our society faces many national tasks to resolve, and social conflict is growing," adding, "There is a need to codify and institutionalize social dialogue on a standing basis."
Park highlighted political experience and maturity as his strengths. He said, "I have been recognized for my political skill, maturity, experience and ability in the National Assembly, the administration, intelligence and inter-Korean relations," adding, "I was loyal to those who entrusted me and I did my jobs well."
He continued, "Because I have a broad network and a wealth of experience, I am the only person capable of being pro-U.S., pro-North and pro-China at the same time," and added, "I will try to pierce even a needle hole through the completely blocked inter-Korean relationship."
Park also said, "With 78 seats as the opposition, we achieved a historic change of government, and through cooperation we brought along 62 ruling party lawmakers and even impeached Park Geun-hye with a 170-seat broader opposition," emphasizing, "Cooperation, impeachment and constitutional amendment are, in the end, about political skill." He added, "As a level-9 politician, I can do it best."
Cho put the swift completion of the formation of standing committees as the top priority. He said, "Both the 20th and 21st National Assemblies took two months to form the committees," pointing out, "That wastes three months." He added, "As a result, we repeatedly face the regrettable and abnormal situation where various bills are rushed through only in December."
Cho went on to say, "Under no circumstances will we delay; we will finish forming the committees in June, convene an extra session in July, handle urgent livelihood and state affairs within July, and accelerate within December to resolve the state agenda of the Lee Jae-myung administration."
He added, "We will make the latter half of the Assembly a National Assembly of popular sovereignty and people's livelihoods so that the public can feel a sense of efficacy."
The Democratic Party will continue the race for speaker through the 13th. After candidate registration is completed by that day, the party will hold an online vote of Democratic Party dues-paying members on the 11th, which will count for 20%, and on the 13th select its speaker nominee through a vote of all 152 Democratic Party lawmakers.