Controversy flares over Cheong Wa Dae influence

With Cheong Wa Dae and the parliamentary speaker remaining firm on introducing pending bills in the National Assembly, controversy has heated over whether the presidential office exceeded its authority and infringed upon that of the legislative body.

The parliamentary office and the opposition camp argued that Cheong Wa Dae was exercising undue pressure upon the law-making body, while the presidential office defended its position.

“It was a legitimate performance of duty,” presidential spokesperson Jeong Yeon-guk told reporters Wednesday.

His words came in defense of Hyun Ki-hwan, senior presidential secretary for political affairs, who demanded on the previous day that parliamentary speaker Rep. Chung Ui-hwa put contentious bills to a vote without the mutual agreement of the main parties.

The spokesperson added further pressure Thursday by claiming that it is Chung’s responsibility to normalize the deadlocked National Assembly.

The parliamentary speaker had indicated that he would push the revision bill of the election to redefine the current electoral map to a vote. But Cheong Wa Dae’s stance is that other pending bills, including those on the economy, labor reforms and counterterrorism, should be pushed through first and foremost.

President Park Geun-hye, too, had pushed the Assembly on a daily basis over the last week, hurling insults for their “negligence of duty.”

“Stagnant industries, unless urgently restructured, will face a bigger crisis, including mass unemployment,” the president said Monday, urging for the passage of the pending economic bills.

Despite the increasing pressure, speaker Chung turned down the call Wednesday, referring to it as an “overstepping action that will cause confusion to the nation and its economy.”

The opposition camp stood in line with the parliamentary speaker.

“(Hyun’s remark) is an insult to the parliament and an infringement on the nation’s legislative power,” said Rep. Jun Byung-hun of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy.

The given dispute has now evolved beyond a mere bipartisan conflict into a constitutional argument on the range of the administration’s authority.

“The separation of powers means that the legislation, administration and the judiciary respectively hold the power to curb the power abuse of one another,” said Lee Sang-don, professor at Chung-Ang University.

“Every single lawmaker should function as an independent constitutional body, not as an affiliate to the presidential office.”

Lee previously served as member of the ruling Saenuri Party’s special committee for political reform, acting as a core adviser to then-party head Park Geun-hye. Over recent years, however, he has been raising his voice against the president and her strong-armed way of communication.

Despite the rising sense of resentment, the presidential office remains determined to have the bills passed by any means, leading to speculations that it may end up issuing an emergency financial order on presidential authority.

Article 73 of Constitutional Law states that the president can make orders with legal effects when emergent action is considered necessary for financial and economic reasons.

The last time that such order took effect was in 1993 when the late President Kim Dae-jung pushed ahead with the real-name financial transaction system.

Speaker Chung, upon dismissing Cheong Wa Dae’s pressure, claimed that the current economic situation was not so serious as to constitute a crisis.

The ruling party, along with some pessimistic economic scholars, lashed back.

“The U.S. Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate by 0.25 percentage points, which ended the zero-rate trend for the first time in nine years and increased global insecurity,” said Saenuri Party leader Rep. Kim Moo-sung Thursday.

“This is a crisis alarm for our economy and I urge the opposition party to pay attention and respond to it (by agreeing on the economic bills).”

By Bae Hyun-jung  (tellme@heraldcorp.com)