National Assembly Back on Track

Speaker Chung Ui-hwa of the National Assembly is about to open the plenary session of the National Assembly on Oct.2 in Yeouido, Seoul.

By Oh Chung-sook

Speaker Chung Ui-hwa of the National Assembly has played a key role in bringing the opposition parties led by the New Politics Alliance for Democracy(NPAD) back to attend the plenary session of the National Assembly on Sept. 30 by warning that the ruling Saenuri Party legislators will unilaterally approval all the 91 bills submitted for parliamentary approvals even if they boycott the session.

The speaker, a member of the ruling Saenuri Party, said he hoped that both ruling and opposition parties would be able to able to agree on the outline of the Sewol Special Law by the time the plenary session of the parliament is opened on Sept. 30. The opposition parties have been doggedly insisting the special law must be agreed by all parties including the ruling party before the plenary session of the National Assembly takes place.

The National Assembly with all of its 300 members attending passed the some 90 bills including bills pending before the parliament such as the revised Electronics Financial Transaction Law and the New Electric Communication Law on Sept. 30. Also included in the bills passed by the parliament was the revised Rehabilitation of Debtors and Bankruptcy.

The National Assembly opened its plenary session on Oct. 2 and approved the Government Budget Settlement Accounts for 2013 in just half an hour without a debate session more than a month passed the deadline(Sept. 1) for the parliamentary approval for the budget expenditure for the fiscal year 2013 submitted by the administration.

Sec.-Gen. Park Hyung-jun, 3rd R, of the Secretariat of the National Assembly hangs

the name board for the Government Audit Situation Office at the National Assembly with his staff.

Normally, it has to be reviewed by the Government Budget and Accounts Committee and turned over to the plenary session of the National Assembly with the administration submitting the budget settlement accounts for approval on Many 30. But, the parliament had not been able to take up the matter on time due to the June 4 local election and the by-elections for the National Assembly on July 30. The government budge settlement accounts proposal was finally turned over to the parliament during July and August.

The legislature will begin the government audit from Oct. 7 for 21 days until Oct. 27 on 672 government organizations including all ministries with 626 organizations including all ministries to come under the audit by the committees of the parliament, as announced by Sec-Gen. Park Hyung-jun of the Secretariat of the National Assembly. In the meantime, Speaker Chung left for a visit to a number of Latin American countries on Oct.3 including Uruguay, Mexico and Ecuador and returns to Seoul on Oct. 13.

The situation in the Republic of Korea has not been easy lately, the speaker said.

The speaker said we, legislators, have a duty to the nation to do what they have to do responsibly and on time. We have to put an end to all of our bickerings and be responsive to what the people want which is to return to the parliament and take care of all the pending bills, especially, those that are related to the livelihood of the people and the parliamentary audit of government agencies and related organizations without a hitch.

At home, we have suffered from a series of tragic accidents. Growing social inequality is spreading a sense of insecurity across the country. The economy has slowed, leaving more people facing tougher conditions.

Despite this unstable climate, we are staying on course to becoming one of the world's leading countries. With the solid footing of a peaceful Korean Peninsula, the Republic of Korea will stand firm as a leader on the international stage.

At the center of our endeavors toward achieving this goal is the National Assembly. We believe that when our legislature changes, so does the nation.

Prof. Lim Named as Chief of National Assembly Research Service

Chief Lim Seong-ho of the National Assembly Research Service

who has been appointed on Oct. 2 by Speaker

Chung Ui-hwa of the National Assembly.

Speaker Chung Ui-hwa of the National Assembly has named Professor Lim Seong-ho of the Kyunghee University as the chief of the National Assembly Research Service on Oct. 2.
A politica and diplomacy major from Sogang University earned his doctorate degree in politics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, the United States and has been with the Kyunghee University from 1996.