Speaker Moon Hee-sang.

Speaker Moon Hee-sang declared the opening of the first plenary session in the second half of the 20th National Assembly with a call for making the parliament gain public trust on Sept. 3.

Speaker Moon noted that 10,600 measures out of a total of about 14,000 bills submitted to the 20th National Assembly are pending. He maintained that the National Assembly should humbly accept the public criticism of calling the parliament a “negligent” or opened but not working” one.

Speaker Moon stressed the importance of subcommittee’s activities to enhance productivity and ways of invigorating subcommittees and regularizing them.
Regarding regularizing subcommittees, Moon said that subcommittees should be operated with expertise and high standing like in the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific and International Cybersecurity Policy.

On the direction of the operation of the 2nd half of the 20th National Assembly, Moon expressed a willingness to act on the revision of the Constitution and reform bills. Speaker Moon called for the parliament’s aggressive actions, saying that the institutional accomplishment of candle revolution can be complemented with the revision of the Constitution and the approval of reform bills.

He opened up the possibility of revamping election regimes, saying that he was confident of the system to overhaul parliamentary elections. Speaker Moon also emphasized the parliamentary approval of the April 27 Panmunjom Declaration, agreed during summit talks between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. He appealed for bipartisan efforts to build peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Starting with an opening message by Speaker Moon, the National Assembly embarked on a 100-day parliamentary plenary session journey, to be followed by the parliamentary interpellation of the government, acting of bills and the passage of the 2019 government budget.

Ruling and opposition parties are expected to be at loggerheads with the super 471 trillion won budget bill. The Minju Party of Korea (MPK) demands the parliamentary approval of the budget bill to accomplish income-led growth, but opposition parties have threatened to thoroughly scrutinize the bill.

Speaker Moon, Six-Term, Veteran Politician

Speaker Moon, a six-term lawmaker, is a seasoned politician. During his colorful 40-year political career, he held such prominent positions as Cheong Wa Dae senior secretary for political affairs, presidential chief of staff, planning and coordination chief of the National Intelligence Service, party chairman, vice speaker and speaker.

Speaker Moon of the Minju Party of Korea played the role of “relief pitcher” to save the party twice when it was in a crisis by serving as chairman of the emergency committee of the party – in January 2013 following a defeat in the 18th parliamentary general polls and shortly after a defeat in the July 30, 2014 by-election.

In an interview with the JoongAng Daily, Moon stressed the Chinese saying “bulpa bullip,” meaning that none cannot stand straight without breaking the old mould. The root cause of “impeaching the conservative” is compared to the proverb depicting “a frog that is forever inside a well” without knowing the unprecedented candle spirit of the times and soul-searching, he said.

Conservative forces’ crumble in the June 13 local polls could be dubbed their collapse, not the annihilation of conservatives, and the MPK once was brought back after collapsing. Conservatives’ value crusading for liberty always comes along with progressive forces’ value for equality, Speaker Moon said.

In an interview with the Munwha Daily News, Speaker Moon said, the President Moon government is entering a “startup stage” following the so-called candle revolution. The government’s efforts to eliminate corruption and malpractices needs to be institutionally supported by the parliament with role-sharing among government, parliament, ruling and opposition parties.