hankyoreh

oo Ho-young, floor leader of the ruling People Power Party, and Park Hong-keun, floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, exchange documents at a press conference held at the National Assembly on Nov. 23 where the two parties announced they would jointly carry out a parliamentary probe into the deadly Itaewon crowd crush of Oct. 29. (Kim Bong-gyu/The Hankyoreh)

Korea’s ruling and opposition parties have reached a deal to begin a parliamentary investigation on Thursday to uncover the truth about the Itaewon disaster to prevent such a tragedy from happening again. The decision comes 26 days after the disaster took place and is the first step taken at the National Assembly level to find out the truth of what happened on that fateful day.

On Wednesday, People Power Party (PPP) floor leader Joo Ho-young and Democratic Party floor leader Park Hong-keun announced an agreement to begin a parliamentary probe into the Itaewon disaster.

The probe is set to run for 45 days, starting Thursday and lasting through Jan. 7, but the period can be extended through a plenary session resolution. It was set up this way to secure the investigation period even if the budget bill is not finalized by the legal deadline of Dec. 2.

The institutions subject to the investigation, which were already the topic of hot debate, include the state affairs monitoring team of the presidential office and the national crisis management center.

The Presidential Security Service, which had been included in the original parliamentary investigation proposal by the three opposition parties, ended up being omitted and the scope of the investigation reduced to the state affairs situation room under the secretary’s office and the national crisis management center headed by the national security office.

In addition, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Personnel Management, and the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, which had also been included in the opposition’s proposal, were excluded from the scope of the parliamentary investigation.

Instead, the ruling and opposition parties included the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the Supreme Prosecutors Office, the National Police Agency, and the National Fire Agency as subject to the probe. However, additional institutions could be investigated if the parliamentary investigation special committee deems it necessary.

The special committee will be made up of 18 lawmakers including nine from the Democratic Party, seven from the PPP, and two belonging to minor opposition parties. The committee will be headed by a Democratic lawmaker. From a list that was submitted to the special committee earlier, the Democrats nominated four-term lawmaker Woo Sang-ho to serve as the committee’s chairperson.

The ruling and opposition parties plan to vote on the plan for this parliamentary investigation at a plenary session of the National Assembly on Thursday afternoon. After this, a preparation period will ensue and a full-scale parliamentary investigation, including on-site inspections and hearings, will begin immediately after the budget bill is passed.

Initially, talks regarding an investigation into the Itaewon disaster between the ruling and opposition parties were sluggish, but when the PPP floor leader suggested on Monday to conduct a parliamentary investigation after handling the budget bill, the Democratic Party floor leader responded favorably, speeding up the process.

Besides the parliamentary investigation into the Itaewon disaster, the two parties also reached agreements on other pending floor issues.

The two parties agreed to form a policy consultative body to handle the Government Organization Act and a bill aimed at finding a consensus concerning the period of the term in office for heads of public institutions at the end of a presidential term.

The parties also decided to set up three new special committees (each with a one-year period of activity) to deal with the population crisis, climate crisis and high-tech strategic industries.

They also agreed on a plan to form and operate a promotion team for common pledges made during the presidential elections to pass policies and bills that the ruling and opposition parties made common pledges for during the previous presidential election.

By Lim Jae-woo, staff reporter; Oh Yeon-seo, staff reporter

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