Bipartisan meeting yields little agreement on 'sensitive country' listing, pension reform
Published: 18 Mar. 2025, 15:11
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- LEE SOO-JUNG
- [email protected]
![Conservative People Power Party floor leader Kweon Song-dong, left, National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik, center, and liberal Democratic Party floor leader Park Chan-dae return to their seats after taking a photograph during a bipartisan meeting at the National Assembly in western Seoul on March 18. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/03/18/537ecc5e-8324-43e2-9ddf-ae3f4bbb6896.jpg)
Conservative People Power Party floor leader Kweon Song-dong, left, National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik, center, and liberal Democratic Party floor leader Park Chan-dae return to their seats after taking a photograph during a bipartisan meeting at the National Assembly in western Seoul on March 18. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]
The floor leadership and policy chiefs from the conservative People Power Party (PPP) and liberal Democratic Party (DP) discussed state affairs at the National Assembly in western Seoul.
Park Sung-joon, vice floor leader from the DP, said the U.S. Department of Energy's designation of Korea as a "sensitive country" marked the “biggest diplomatic failure,” likening it to a “fall” in the nation's ability to conduct foreign affairs.
While the DP suggested holding an emergency questioning session at the parliament on Friday to devise solutions to remove Seoul from Washington’s sensitive country list, the PPP argued that such a move lacked due process.
Park Hyeung-soo, vice floor leader of the PPP, said parliamentary standing committees such as the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee should discuss the matter first. Park added a decision to host the emergency questioning session should be made during a later plenary session.
Regarding pension reform, both parties debated whether to include an expression of “agreement” in the provisions governing the parliamentary special committee for pension reform.
The DP said it was “meaningless” to put the clause mandating agenda to be passed through “agreement” in the statute as a PPP lawmaker will chair the committee, which is already designed to pass bills upon which both parties agree.
The PPP refuted that it is “hard to understand” the DP’s objection as the expression was included in the governing principle for the then-special committee for pension reform at the previous 21st National Assembly. The PPP’s vice floor leader said the expression “connotes bipartisan will to reform the national pension scheme through negotiation.”
However, the parties grew closer to an agreement on increasing this year's state budget.
The DP said it would ask the government to submit a plan to allocate the increased budget by this month upon bipartisan request, while the PPP said the parliament could make such a request but “cannot force” the government to do so.
The two parties have clashed over the scale of the budget expansion since the DP attempted to include money for party chief Lee Jae-myung's pledge to distribute 250,000 won ($172) to every individual, a move the PPP has criticized as "populist."
BY LEE SOO-JUNG [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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