Physical clash looms over sensitive bills

SEOUL, Dec. 27 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's ruling Grand National Party (GNP) on
Saturday fine-tuned its strategy to get a set of controversial media and economic
bills passed in parliament as opposition lawmakers continued to occupy its floor
in an effort to head off a potential GNP attempt to railroad the bills through.

The conservative GNP, which holds 172 seats in the 299-member National Assembly,
reaffirmed its plan to handle the bills by the end of this year, but the main
opposition Democratic Party (DP) called for more time to negotiate. The liberal
DP has only 82 seats.
"There is no change in our plan to handle those bills within this year," GNP
floor leader Hong Joon-pyo said. "The number of bills in focus will be around
100."
Last Thursday, lawmakers from the GNP barricaded themselves into a parliament
subcommittee room, resulting in a physical fight between GNP and opposition
lawmakers. Although prosecutors have begun a probe into the clash, the DP did not
rule out the possibility of another altercation if the GNP attempts to force
bills through again.
The bills at issue include those seeking to remove restrictions on large
companies' investment in their affiliates, ease restrictions on investment by
non-financial firms in local banks, allow print media and other companies to
enter the broadcasting industry and expand the state intelligence agency's
surveillance authority.
The GNP also wants to ban street protesters from wearing masks and introduce
harsher punishments for online defamation.
Opposition parties claim that the bills reflect Lee Myung-bak's "anachronistic,
bulldozer-style" administration without listening to the voices of critics.
(END)