Pres. Yoon skips National Assembly's opening ceremony

President Yoon Suk Yeol was absent from the opening ceremony of the National Assembly on Monday, just a day after the ruling and opposition leaders met. This marks the first time Yoon has missed an opening ceremony. The presidential office stated that “normalization of the National Assembly, which is overusing special counsel probes and impeachment procedures, should come first.” Still, the Democratic Party of Korea criticized, saying, “President Yoon should be normalized.” Even within the ruling People Power Party, it was pointed out that “President Yoon should have attended the opening ceremony to show his willingness to cooperate with the National Assembly.”

On the same day, leaders of the ruling and opposition parties publicly commented on the previous day's meeting, with Han Dong-hoon of the PPP stating that they “agreed on restoring politics and centering politics on people's livelihoods,” and Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea noting that they “made considerable progress in dialogue and reached a consensus.” However, on the first day of the September regular session, the ruling and opposition parties clashed over the so-called martial law speculations raised by Lee on Sunday and pursued by the Democratic Party of Korea in earnest on Monday, raising concerns that the National Assembly “may have squandered a hard-won opportunity for cooperation.”

A senior official at the presidential office responded sharply to the call, stating, “Is it worth celebrating the opening of the 22nd National Assembly when the opposition party has been acting unilaterally, imposing a legislative dictatorship from the start of its term? This is the worst National Assembly since democratization.” The perception of the presidential office is that “the overuse of special counsel probes and impeachment procedures, which have pushed the National Assembly into abnormality, caused President Yoon's absence,” the official said.

In response, the Democratic Party commented that “presidents have participated in the opening ceremony regardless of the severity of conflicts between the ruling and opposition parties,” adding that “no excuse can justify the disgrace of a sitting president's absence from the opening ceremony of the National Assembly since democratization.”


Jun-Il Kim jikim@donga.com