Assembly Passes Additional National Budget Plan
After an overnight protest and boycott by the ruling Saenuri Party, the National Assembly has finally passed the 11 trillion won (US $9.92 billion) additional budget on Friday.
The Korea Herald reported that Saenuri Floor Leader Representative Chung Jin Suk and Speaker Chung Sye Kyun both agreed to pass the bill first over a telephone conversation. Upon the Party's request, Vice Speaker Park Joo Sun was selected to preside over the session in place of Chung.
Chung had provoked the lawmakers of the Saenuri Party to start a protest and walk out of the first plenary meeting of the 20th Assembly after giving some unsolicited remarks in his speech about Senior Presidential Secretary Woo Byung Woo and the U.S. antimissile deployment in South Korea.
Saenuri Party accused the Speaker of violating neutrality as he castigated Woo for refusing to resign despite his corruption controversy and ongoing probe, and the method the decision regarding the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system was done. Chung is a former member of the opposition party The Minjoo Party of Korea but is presently unassociated with the party obeying the Assembly rules.
Following one night of confrontation at Chung's office, the lawmakers of the ruling party asked for Chung's apology.
Meanwhile, Chung said that his comments were only speaking on behalf of the people and offered an apology for delaying the passage of the 11 trillion won extra budget.
The bill was scheduled to be approved by August 12 but has been delayed for the third time as the opposing parties were not able to agree on some details. The Assembly is also slated to start analyzing the proposed budget for next year on Friday.
The National Assembly Budget Office said that if the additional budget is not implemented within the third quarter, it might lead to 3,000 job losses and a 0.02 percentage point drop in economic growth rate.
