South Korea's ruling Minjoo Party (Democratic Party of Korea) unilaterally elected chairs for 11 of the National Assembly's 18 standing committees on the evening of 30 June, using its parliamentary majority to break a monthlong deadlock over the formation of the second-half legislative session.
The plenary session, presided over by National Assembly Speaker Jo Jeong-sik, named Minjoo lawmakers to lead 10 standing committees plus the Budget and Accounts Special Committee. The most contested appointment was the chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee which went to Rep. Seo Yeong-gyo. Other chairs confirmed that evening included Rep. Yun Dong-su for the Policy Coordination Committee, Rep. Jo Seung-rae for the Finance and Economy Planning Committee, Rep. Song Gi-heon for the Science, Technology, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, Rep. Jin Seong-jun for the National Defense Committee, and Rep. Kim Yeong-jin for the Interior and Safety Committee. Rep. Han Byeong-do, who serves concurrently as the party's floor leader and acting party chief, was elected chair of the Assembly Operations Committee, while Rep. Yi Gwang-jae was named chair of the budget panel.
The conservative People Power Party (PPP) boycotted the vote and staged a placard protest on the chamber floor. Floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik accused the Democrats of 'old-style backroom politics,' saying the seat allocation had been decided among themselves without genuine negotiation. The PPP also formally submitted resignation notices for its members who had been assigned to the 11 committees by Speaker Jo, a step the party described as a protest against what it called a forced assignment.
Speaker Jo separately assigned PPP lawmakers to the relevant committees and notified the party, according to multiple sources; the PPP characterised this as a coercive move.
Also at the session, a motion confirming Han Seong-suk, Korea's nominee for prime minister, was passed, again with Minjoo votes and PPP absent. President Yi Jae-myung subsequently signed the appointment, making Han the country's second woman to serve as prime minister, according to Newsis.
Speaking at a party leadership meeting on 1 July, Han Byeong-do said the two sides had met 17 times to negotiate the committee structure but that the PPP had 'only repeated the demand to hand over the judiciary committee chair.' He called on the PPP to cooperate in filling the remaining seven committee chairs that Minjoo has so far left vacant, warning that if the opposition continued to obstruct the legislature, the party would 'use every available means to complete normalisation of the National Assembly.' He also signalled plans to tighten rules governing filibusters and to streamline the fast-track bill procedure.
PPP lawmaker Yi Yang-su pushed back on social media, arguing that the convention of giving the judiciary committee chair to the second-largest party exists as 'a minimum safeguard against unilateral legislative excess' and that the Democrats, as a former minority party and beneficiary of that convention, had abandoned it the moment they became the majority.