Yoon approves Sewol support but vetoes four other bills

Politics

Published: 29 May. 2024, 18:19

Yoon approves Sewol support but vetoes four other bills

The Sewol Victim Support Act is passed by the National Assembly on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday approved a bill extending medical support for victims of the 2014 sinking of the Sewol ferry but also vetoed four others that his Cabinet had sent back to the National Assembly for reconsideration.

The Sewol Victim Support Act extends financial support from the government for medical expenses incurred by people affected by the Sewol sinking, including both survivors and families of the 304 people who perished when the Jeju-bound ferry capsized in April 2014 near Jindo, an island off the southwestern coast of Korea.

Most of the victims were second-year students from Danwon High School in Ansan, Gyeonggi.

However, that law was the only one endorsed by the Cabinet, which called on the National Assembly to reconsider the other four bills pushed through the legislature the previous day by the liberal Democratic Party (DP), which controls a majority.

Observers expected the Yoon administration to reject all five bills after the conservative People Power Party (PPP) expressed opposition.

“As a government responsible for defending the country and the interests of all its people, we cannot ignore the possibility that bills entailing an enormous financial burden and potential to generate considerable social conflict and unintended consequences was passed unilaterally [by the National Assembly],” Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said at Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting.

President Yoon Suk Yeol exercised his veto against the four contentious bills by signing off on the Cabinet motions hours before the term of the current 21st National Assembly expires at midnight on Wednesday.

Yoon has exercised his veto 11 out of 14 times thus far.

Bills that have been vetoed before the end of the legislature’s term are scrapped automatically and cannot be immediately presented for a revote when the new National Assembly convenes on Thursday.

The other four bills include a compensation scheme that requires the government to pay victims of jeonse rental fraud if they cannot recover their deposits from landlords.

Under the jeonse system, which is largely unique to Korea, people can live rent-free in a residence for a fixed period in exchange for a deposit that is often close to the value of the property. However, many jeonse property investors found themselves unable to pay back their tenants' deposits last year as real estate prices declined and the central bank undertook a policy of rapid monetary tightening.

Although the DP has argued the state should cover losses incurred by tenants when landlords fail to return their deposits, the PPP has argued the government should not use public money on damages that result from private transactions.

The two parties have also clashed over the Democratic Merit Act, which would award state benefits to former democracy activists who have not yet been registered as National Meritorious Persons.

The PPP has argued that the bill could bestow recognition — and state benefits — upon individuals who violated the National Security Act and their descendants.

The other two bills support farmers of Korean beef cattle and establish a representative group for farmers and fishermen.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]