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President Yoon Suk-yeol gives a policy briefing and press conference at the presidential office’s briefing room in Seoul on Aug. 29, 2024. (pool photo)

President Yoon Suk-yeol did not attend the opening of the 22nd National Assembly on Monday.

This makes him the first president since South Korea’s democratization in 1987 to sit out the ceremony.

Explaining to reporters on Sunday about Yoon’s plan not to attend, an official with the presidential office said, “The right thing to do would be to invite [the president] after first normalizing the National Assembly, which has been issuing a flurry of special prosecutor and impeachment [legislation].”

The office’s view is that it would not be appropriate for Yoon to attend the opening ceremony of the National Assembly at a time when the dominant opposition has been passing bills for impeachments and special prosecutors to investigate the first lady and others associated with the president.

The same official blamed the opposition for Yoon’s decision to sit out the ceremony.

“How can [the president] attend [the ceremony] when there is no doubt that they are summoning him only to hold picket signs and try to shame him?” they asked.

They also bristled that there had been “no apology for [the opposition] not hesitating to make ‘murder’ comments” toward the presidential office.

In response to the death of an Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission anti-corruption bureau director surnamed Kim in connection with the handling of an investigation into first lady Kim Keon-hee’s acceptance of a luxury handbag as a gift, Democratic Party lawmaker Jeon Hyun-hee described Kim Keon-hee as a “murderer” — a point that the presidential office has repeatedly taken issue with.

On Aug. 14, the office called on the Democratic Party to issue a formal apology for the remarks.

The opening ceremony for the 22nd National Assembly was originally supposed to take place on July 5 but ended up not being held after the ruling People Power Party (PPP) announced plans to boycott over the Democratic Party’s passage of an act for a special prosecutor to investigate the Marine Corps’ response to a corporal’s death during flood rescue efforts last year. The PPP also asked Yoon not to attend at the time.

Amid the ongoing confrontation between the two sides, the ceremony was indefinitely put off until recently, when they reached an agreement to hold it on Sept. 2. Speaker Woo Won-shik announced to the ruling and opposition sides that the opening ceremony would be held jointly with the ceremony to mark the beginning of the session.

Meanwhile, the presidential office commented the same day on talks between PPP leader Han Dong-hoon and Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung, calling their outcome a welcome development.

Following the announcement of results from the two leaders’ meeting on Sunday, a senior official with the presidential office told reporters, “We hope these talks between leaders will lead to normalization of the National Assembly.”

“This regular session needs to be a first step toward the ‘livelihood politics’ that the two sides’ leaders pledged to the public,” they added.

“Most importantly, this needs to be a ‘livelihood fast-track National Assembly’ when it comes to livelihood-related legislation where the ruling and opposition sides don’t differ very much,” they said.

By Lee Seung-jun, staff reporter

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