The country’s main parties vowed on Sunday to conclude negotiations over the special Sewol bill by October, amid concerns lawmakers could run into another political standstill over the legislation.
“We will do our best to pass the special bill in a timely manner,” an official with the governing Saeuri Party said. An opposition official agreed to do the same, echoing comments by the floor leaders of the main parties, Reps. Lee Wan-koo and Woo Yoon-keun, on Friday.
Earlier this month, the Saenuri Party and the main opposition party New Politics Alliance for Democracy agreed to pass the Sewol bill before November, ending a months-long political stalemate.
Partisan bickering over the bill had halted legislative affairs at the National Assembly, sparking public criticism over the backlog of thousands of pieces of draft legislation.
But an already-tight parliamentary schedule and ambiguous wording in earlier agreements over the Sewol legislation hint that lawmakers will have their hands full, and that a final deal over the Sewol bill could come after this month.
The Sewol bill proposes setting up a prosecution team to investigate the government’s allegedly failed rescue efforts when the 6,800-ton Sewol ferry began sinking in the West Sea. Critics of the rescue operations allege that the government could have done more to save at least some of the 304 presumably killed in the accident. Ten bodies remain unaccounted for.
The opposition has supported giving investigators prosecutorial powers, while the governing party has opposed it. The opposition also supports giving families of the victims some say in appointing members of the inquiry panel.
Saenuri lawmakers say that doing so would lead to a “victims’ justice.”
The NPAD and the Saenuri Party signed off on a preliminary deal over the bill late last month. The parties agreed to create an appointing committee that would recommend candidates to lead the investigation. In accordance with related laws, President Park Geun-hye will have the final say on nominating the lead investigator.
However, the agreements postponed a deal over whether and how much power to allow the bereaved families in recommending the lead investigator candidates to the president.
The public welcomed the breakthrough. Some 7,000 draft bills await review, while annual parliamentary audits of the government originally scheduled to kick off in August finally began last Tuesday.
But with the audits set to continue until Oct. 27, the main parties will have four days to live up to their agreement to finalize details of the bill by Nov. 1.
Agreements over two related bills also must be finalized. President Park proposes disbanding the Coast Guard, for its alleged failure in the rescue operations. The opposition and some Saenuri lawmakers have opposed the idea, saying the proposal requires more debate.
Lawmakers from both the NPAD and the Saenuri Party, however, agree on amending the Act on Regulations of Punishment of Criminal Proceeds Concealment. Proposed amendments to the law aim to force Chonghaejin Marine Co., the operator of the Sewol, to pay for expected costs of recovering the ship, which sank off southwestern Korea.
By Jeong Hunny (hj257@heraldcorp.com)
