Assembly faces arduous April

The National Assembly’s April extraordinary session that kicked off Tuesday is expected to become a battlefield for rival parties as they lock horns over contentious issues including the reform of public servants’ pension system, a probe on resource diplomacy, and controversy surrounding the Sewol tragedy.

Lawmakers from the ruling and the main opposition party are also expected to intensify attacks on each other ahead of the by-elections scheduled later this month, as the event is seen as a barometer of public sentiment.

The ruling Saenuri Party has set its priority on passing a bill aimed at overhauling the current pension system for public officials, a plan proposed by President Park Geun-hye to reduce the hefty financial burden on future generations. The plan, however, has been facing vehement resistance from the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy. The NPAD has been taking sides with public servants, lashing out at the government and the ruling party for failing to convince officials to endorse the plan that forces them to increase their contribution and receive less by the time they retire.

“The (Saenuri) party has been threatening to pass the bill within a deadline, without putting efforts to persuade public servants,” said NPAD Rep. Seo Young-kyo.

Lawmakers engaged in a war of nerves on the first day of the extraordinary session as they held a controversial confirmation hearing on Park Sang-ok, a nominee for Supreme Court judge.

NPAD lawmakers pressed Park during the grilling session to withdraw his nomination, saying the former prosecutor was unqualified to represent the top court. The hearing was held after more than two months of political wrangling over the candidate’s alleged ethical misdeeds.

The opposition lawmakers had refused to hold the session citing his role in the 1987 investigation of police officers accused of torturing a student activist to death. The prosecution had come under fire after a revelation by Catholic priests that there were more police officers involved in the torture than those it had indicted. The NPAD has claimed that the justice nominee was responsible for the cover-up and urged him to voluntarily withdraw his nomination.

Park expressed regret to the family of the student activist, but said he was not aware of the police’s attempt to whitewash the incident at the time.

“I want to deliver words of consolation (to the victim’s family) and blame myself that I had no power at that time to identify (the cover-up),” he told lawmakers at the grilling session.

The rival parties agreed to continue the parliamentary probe into resource diplomacy until early next month.

The probe has hit a stumbling block as parties failed to agree on the witnesses to be called for the parliamentary hearing since late last month.

The NPAD called on former President Lee Myung-bak, and his older brother Lee Sang-deuk, Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan who was then energy minister, former Vice Energy Minister Park Young-june and Energy Minister Yoon Sang-jick to appear as witnesses.

The Saenuri Party rejected the demand and in turn urged NPAD chairman Rep. Moon Jae-in, former chief of staff at the presidential office during the Roh Moo-hyun administration, to appear as a witness.

The opposition party is also expected to escalate its criticism against the ruling party over the government’s botched response for the Sewol crisis. April 16 marks the first anniversary of the tragic accident that left more than 300 killed last year.

Some of the victims’ families have demanded that the government scrap its ordinances drafted for the Sewol special bill that passed late last year. They claimed the ordinances would hurt the neutrality of a planned probe into the government’s rescue operation during the ferry disaster. The Maritime Ministry has proposed to include a number of its officials on the investigative team.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)