Assembly back on track with agreement on committee chief assignments

The rival political parties got the newly launched session of the National Assembly back on track Thursday by officially agreeing on the selection of all 18 committee chiefs for the first two years of the parliamentary term.

Twenty-eight days after the 22nd Assembly kicked off its term, the ruling People Power Party and the opposition parties voted in favor of the ruling party’s candidates for seven parliamentary committee chiefs, in a plenary session held in the afternoon.

The Assembly members also voted in favor of the ruling party’s decision made earlier in the day to nominate six-term lawmaker and People Power Party Rep. Joo Ho-young as deputy speaker. Of 283 lawmakers that participated in the vote, 269 voted for Joo.

The outcome of Thursday’s plenary meeting marks the normalization of the Assembly, as the People Power Party ended its weekslong boycott of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea’s decision to select 11 parliamentary committee chiefs earlier this month without consulting the ruling party.

The Democratic Party secured the chair positions for the three most powerful committees, including the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, a key panel for the passage of bills, and proposed that the ruling party take the remaining committee head roles. The main opposition had already secured the Assembly speaker position at that point, with the opposition-led parliament passing the motion to appoint five-term lawmaker Woo Won-shik for the role.

With the latest agreement between the rival parties, the official opening ceremony for the 22nd Assembly will be held on July 5.

On Monday, People Power Party Floor Leader Choo Kyung-ho announced the decision to accept the main opposition’s proposal to chair the national defense, strategy and finance, national policy, gender equality and family, industry and trade, foreign affairs and unification as well as intelligence committees.

Choo was also absent during Thursday’s plenary session after expressing his intention to resign over the main opposition’s move to chair 11 committees. Choo has remained absent from the public eye since Tuesday afternoon.

Concerned about a possible leadership vacuum ahead of the party convention scheduled for July 23, multiple People Power Party lawmakers in recent days have called for Choo to return to his role.

Both the People Power Party and the Democratic Party are gearing up to hold national conventions in the coming months to select new party leaders.

Democratic Party Rep. Lee Jae-myung resigned from his post as party chair Monday, with the move aimed at allowing himself to bid for a second term heading the party.

The People Power Party recently kicked off a four-way race heading into its convention next month, with former interim party leader Han Dong-hoon and three other heavyweight conservative politicians participating in the race.