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The final plenary session of the outgoing 19th National Assembly just begun.
Korea's three main political parties have agreed to pass more than one-hundred undisputed
bills,... but the 19th assembly, dubbed the 'vegetative parliament', has failed to strike
deal on thousands of other remaining bills. Ji Myung-kil has more.
After eleventh-hour negotiations,... the three major parties agreed to pass 134 non-contentious
bills on Thursday. However, around ten-thousand bills have been
scrapped as they failed to receive final parliamentary approval.
Government-backed bills such as the four labor reform bills and a bill to promote Korea's
service industry did not reach the floor due to the opposition's dissent.
The ruling Saenuri Party had been pushing these bills, saying they would serve as key
tools to revitalize the economy... but the opposition bloc said they would merely serve
to widen the gap between rich and poor. The opposition parties had been asking for
revisions to a special law to extend the operation period of a investigation into the 2014 Sewol-ho
ferry disaster,... but failed to reach an agreement with the ruling bloc.
The outgoing 19th National Assembly has the dubious honor of being dubbed a vegetative
legislature by critics who point out that it passed a record low number of bills.
The floor leaders of the three leading parties will meet on Thursday afternoon to discuss
on how to fill more than a dozen parliamentary panels for the incoming 20th National Assembly.