The Democratic Party of Korea will single-handedly elect Chairpersons for 11 standing committees in the second half of the 22nd National Assembly, including The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee. With the ruling and opposition parties locked in a standoff over the Chairperson of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, the ruling party ultimately decided to push ahead on the last day of June with forming 11 standing committees on its own.
Kim Han-gyu, the Democratic Party floor policy senior deputy leader, said on the 30th afternoon that "we finalized 11 standing committees and sent them to the speaker's office." The plenary session to elect standing committee Chairpersons was delayed from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Seo Young-kyo will take the Chairperson post of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, which the ruling and opposition parties clashed over. Cheon Jun-ho, the Democratic Party floor operations senior deputy leader, told reporters, "She performed the duties of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee Chairperson for the last three months of the first half, and we judged it would be better to proceed consistently with temporary continuity of duty until major reform tasks, including prosecutorial reform, are completed."
The Democratic Party finalized the Chairpersons of 11 standing committees, including the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. The National Policy Committee will be Rep. Yoo Dong-soo; the Strategy and Finance Committee will be Rep. Jo Seoung-lae; the Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee will be Rep. Song Ki-heon; the National Defense Committee will be Rep. Jin Sung-joon; the Public Administration and Security Committee will be Rep. Kim Young-jin; the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee will be Rep. Lee Jae-jung; the Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee will be Rep. Seo Sam-seok; the Environment and Labor Committee will be Rep. Kim Jeong-ho; the House Steering Committee will be Rep. Han Byeong-do; and the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts will be Rep. Lee Kwang-jae.
Senior Deputy Leader Cheon Jun-ho explained, "Based on the seat ratio, we split them 11 to 7, and we selected mainly the standing committees deemed necessary to push ahead with state tasks," adding, "Traditionally, the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee and the Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee are highly preferred, and we prioritized allocating these Chairpersons to the opposition party."
Although the Democratic Party said it took the opposition into consideration in distributing standing committees, the People Power Party maintains it cannot give up the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. Options under discussion include rejecting the seven standing committee Chairperson posts allocated by the Democratic Party. The People Power Party plans to hold a general meeting of lawmakers around 7 p.m. to discuss how to respond to the ruling party's unilateral election of standing committee Chairpersons.