ID :
37486
Fri, 12/26/2008 - 10:46
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http://m.oananews.org//node/37486
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Opposition party seizes main Assembly hall over reform bills
By Yoo Cheong-mo
SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's rival parties on Friday escalated their disputes over a dozen media and economic reform bills, with lawmakers of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) forcibly seizing the National Assembly's plenary session hall to block voting on the disputed bills.
In a blitzkrieg style move, about 50 DP legislators rushed into the Assembly's
plenary session hall early Friday morning after an intra-party meeting and shut
down all entrances to the hall, insisting that the ruling Grand National Party
(GNP) may attempt to unilaterally pass all the contested bills before the year's
end.
The 83-seat DP has long feared that the GNP controlling 172 seats in the
298-member unicameral parliament may convene a unilateral session by the end of
December to ram the controversial bills through the Assembly.
"The GNP is certain to mobilize its parliamentary majority power, including the
power of the Assembly speaker, to push through various disputed bills. We had no
other option but to seize the main Assembly hall to block their legislative
attempts," a DP lawmaker said after the incident.
Earlier on Friday, DP Chairman Chung Sye-kyun vowed at a breakfast seminar to
mobilize all possible means to blockade the parliamentary passage of
GNP-initiated "evil" reform bills.
The rival parties staged a bloody fist fight in front of global media last week,
as the ruling camp submitted a bill on Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) to a
parliamentary subcommittee for deliberation.
Besides the FTA bill, the rival parties are deadlocked over a long list of reform
proposals, including the GNP's attempts to allow conglomerates and newspapers to
acquire a controlling stake in local television broadcasters, toughen punishment
for cyberspace mudslinging, ban demonstrators from wearing masks in street
rallies and expand legitimate wiretapping by law-enforcement authorities.
The GNP and DP are also clashing over various tax cuts for the wealthy, expanding
industrial conglomerates' equity ceiling in banks, easing industrial regulations
in the Seoul metropolitan areas and privatizing the state-run Korea Development
Bank, for instance.
The GNP has recently selected a list of 112 priority bills, including the media
and economic reforms, for parliamentary passage within the year.
The DP has particularly reacted angrily to the media reform bill and put up
slogans opposing conglomerates' management control of local broadcasters around
the Assembly plenary session hall after their seizure.
SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's rival parties on Friday escalated their disputes over a dozen media and economic reform bills, with lawmakers of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) forcibly seizing the National Assembly's plenary session hall to block voting on the disputed bills.
In a blitzkrieg style move, about 50 DP legislators rushed into the Assembly's
plenary session hall early Friday morning after an intra-party meeting and shut
down all entrances to the hall, insisting that the ruling Grand National Party
(GNP) may attempt to unilaterally pass all the contested bills before the year's
end.
The 83-seat DP has long feared that the GNP controlling 172 seats in the
298-member unicameral parliament may convene a unilateral session by the end of
December to ram the controversial bills through the Assembly.
"The GNP is certain to mobilize its parliamentary majority power, including the
power of the Assembly speaker, to push through various disputed bills. We had no
other option but to seize the main Assembly hall to block their legislative
attempts," a DP lawmaker said after the incident.
Earlier on Friday, DP Chairman Chung Sye-kyun vowed at a breakfast seminar to
mobilize all possible means to blockade the parliamentary passage of
GNP-initiated "evil" reform bills.
The rival parties staged a bloody fist fight in front of global media last week,
as the ruling camp submitted a bill on Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) to a
parliamentary subcommittee for deliberation.
Besides the FTA bill, the rival parties are deadlocked over a long list of reform
proposals, including the GNP's attempts to allow conglomerates and newspapers to
acquire a controlling stake in local television broadcasters, toughen punishment
for cyberspace mudslinging, ban demonstrators from wearing masks in street
rallies and expand legitimate wiretapping by law-enforcement authorities.
The GNP and DP are also clashing over various tax cuts for the wealthy, expanding
industrial conglomerates' equity ceiling in banks, easing industrial regulations
in the Seoul metropolitan areas and privatizing the state-run Korea Development
Bank, for instance.
The GNP has recently selected a list of 112 priority bills, including the media
and economic reforms, for parliamentary passage within the year.
The DP has particularly reacted angrily to the media reform bill and put up
slogans opposing conglomerates' management control of local broadcasters around
the Assembly plenary session hall after their seizure.