Parliament opens extra session despite opposition protest

SEOUL, June 26 (Yonhap) -- A 30-day parliamentary session opened belatedly at the
National Assembly on Friday after the ruling party decided to unilaterally begin
session to handle disputed bills despite protest from the opposition.

The extraordinary session was initially scheduled to begin at the start of the
month but was postponed following the death of former President Roh Moo-hyun, who
took his own life in late May amid an intensifying corruption probe implicating
him and his family. The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) and Roh's
supporters have claimed the investigation was politically motivated.
After weeks of wrangling with the DP, the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) on
Tuesday sought a unilateral opening of the parliamentary session. The party
controls a majority 169 seats in the 299-seat parliament.
The DP vowed to block all Assembly activity until the government and the ruling
party first meet its five demands, which include an apology from President Lee
Myung-bak over the former president's death.
More than a dozen hardline junior DP lawmakers have been staging a sit-in at a
hall in front of the Assembly's main chamber since Tuesday.
The government and the ruling party say hundreds of thousands of non-regular
workers could lose their jobs next month unless a proposed labor law revision is
passed within the month.
Under the current law that took effect on July 1, 2007, companies with 100 or
more employees that want to continue employing non-regular workers who have
served for longer than two years must change their job status to "regular."
Without a revision of the law, domestic companies will be forced to dismiss large
numbers of non-regular workers with employment periods of over two years in order
to avoid escalating labor costs.
The ruling party is seeking to pass the bill during a plenary session scheduled
for Monday.
The GNP is also pushing revisions to media laws to allow cross-ownership of
newspapers and broadcasting companies.
Opposition parties are demanding that the revisions be fully negotiated and
agreed upon before being passed.
odissy@yna.co.kr
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