Assembly speaker presses parties to submit committee chiefs list by noon Wednesday

National Assembly Speaker Cho Jeong-sik told rival parties on Monday to reach an agreement and submit their agreed list of nominees for the chairs of 18 standing parliamentary committees amid a prolonged deadlock over the formation of the second half of the Assembly.

Speaker Cho made the call during a meeting with the floor leaders of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), asking them to submit their list by noon on Wednesday.

"I am making this request out of a sense of urgency as we cannot indefinitely delay the normalization of the National Assembly and must comply with the National Assembly Act," he said. "I strongly urge both parties to settle the issue from a broader point of view."

The DP and the PPP have been wrangling over which party should head which parliamentary committees for the second half of the 22nd National Assembly.

The two sides have been especially at loggerheads over the chairmanship of the parliamentary legislation and judiciary committee, a key Assembly panel that has the power to approve bills before they are put to a plenary vote.

Both parties have insisted that they should head the key committee, with the PPP claiming that it is customary for a lawmaker from the second-largest party to chair the committee.

After the meeting, DP floor leader Han Byung-do told reporters that his party will submit the list by the date requested by the Assembly speaker, while PPP floor leader Jeong Jeom-sig expressed "strong regret" over the speaker's request.

Rep. Jeong argued that the negotiations have not been unduly delayed and protested what he described as the DP's attempt to unilaterally form the Assembly in violation of the fundamental principle of bipartisan compromise.

Earlier in the day, Han, the DP floor leader, pointed to two options if the deadlock continues: dividing the committee chairmanships according to the number of seats each party holds in parliament or having the DP unilaterally allocate the chairmanships.

With 161 out of 300 seats in the Assembly, the DP has the majority needed to unilaterally elect standing committee chiefs.

Yonhap