Heads of Legislative, Administrative Branches Meet

Prime Minister Han makes courtesy call to Speaker Kim before his tour of the Middle East

Speaker Kim Hyong-o of the National Assembly received a visit from Prime Minister Han Seung-soo at his office at the National Assembly building in Yeouido, Seoul, on March 10.
Han made a courtesy call to Speaker Kim before his scheduled travel to the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Turkey and requested the parliamentary speaker's help in passing a number of key legislative drafts up for parliamentary approval.
The speaker said he hoped that the prime minister's mission to those three countries would have the expected outcome, reminding that he also made visits to those countries early in the year, and Turkey, in particular, is very friendly to Korea as a country that sent troops to help fight the communist invasion during the Korean War. He said Turkey has an enormous influence over its neighboring countries in the Middle East and Central Asia in terms of race and culture. Over two-thirds of the 530 Turkish legislators are members of the Korea-Turkey Friendship Association, Kim added.
On pending law drafts before the legislature, the speaker said the supplementary budget is the most important issue at the next session of the parliament. "There have been many discussions on the additional budget as to its scale; some say it is too large, while others don't agree. But it should be approved at the parliament, if is to help the national economy. The amount is not important, it should make the public feel that it will help the economy and create jobs, Kim said.
Kim said he hopes the ruling party will always try to hold a dialogue with the opposition and convince the people to agree with what they are doing to help the country and its people. The National Assembly has both ruling and opposition parties, meaning that the government should always hold talks with both sides and try to seek agreement on its legislative moves and policies.
The prime minister said this time the supplementary budget was put together in a bottom-up style instead of top-down. He and cabinet ministers toured the jobsites to decide on the scale of the budget, the prime minister said. He said the administration included some of the proposals made by the opposition and reflected them in the budget as the government intends to create as many jobs as possible this year. The administration will try to listen to both ruling and opposition camps and include them in its policies as much as possible.
Kim said no one would oppose plans to create jobs and reinvigorate the economy for the stable livelihood of the people. Anyone should be allowed to compete on works like that, the speaker said. But the parliament has the right and responsibility to examine where the money is going and legislators need enough time to review the budget and, therefore, the government should give them enough time.
Han asked the speaker to help pass those legislative pieces designed to revive the economy as soon as possible.
Kim said both sides of the aisle should help the government in its efforts to overcome the economic crisis. On the other hand, the government should also submit the legislative cases to the parliament on a timely basis, that is, considering the time required to thoroughly deliberate proposed legislation.
In the closed session of the meeting, the speaker and the prime minister discussed further ways to create jobs and revive the economy for about 20 minutes.
Speaker Kim also informed the prime minister what he discussed with various leaders he met during his tour of the Middle East early in January including the UAE and Turkey. He told Han that UAE leaders showed huge interest in nuclear power plant technologies that Korea has and Korea should try hard to export nuclear plants and technologies to the Middle East country. Korea should also seek a deal with the UAE on solar energy R&D, as the Arab country shown a deep interest in solar. nw

Speaker Kim Hyong-o, right, of the National Assembly is meeting with Prime Minister Han Seung-soo who paid call on the parliamentary leader March 10 at his office in Yeouido, Seoul.