Inter-party wrangling escalates over filibuster

Rep. Kim Je-nam of the minor opposition Justice Party delivers a filibuster speech on the contentious anti-terrorism bill while the seats of the ruling Saenuri Party lawmakers remain mostly vacant, during a plenary National Assembly session, Thursday. / Yonhap

By Kim Hyo-jin

Filibuster speeches by lawmakers of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) became seeds for further inter-party conflict as lawmakers continued to stall the National Assembly plenary session Thursday for a third consecutive day in protest of a scheduled vote on the controversial anti-terrorism bill.

The MPK pressured the ruling Saenuri Party to revise the bill in a way that would curtail the excessive powers provided in it for the National Intelligence Service (NIS), the country’s spy agency.

But the Saenuri Party refused to compromise and launched an all-out offensive against the opposition parties, mounting a placard rally denouncing the legislative deadlock caused by the filibusters.

Criticism was fueled the day before the planned voting on another pending bill that redistricts constituency boundaries.

The leaders of the rival parties Monday made a deal on the rules to redraw the electoral map just 50 days before the general election, and set a deadline to endorse the revised election bill by Feb. 26.

In order to deal with the electoral map bill, the MPK should stop filibustering the session. But if it does so, the anti-terrorism bill will be automatically put for a vote and pass with the support of lawmakers from the Saenuri Party, which has 157 seats in the 300-seat Assembly.

The MPK said it will negotiate with the Saenuri Party over the contentious bill.

“If the ruling party ensures certain measures to monitor possible NIS’ abuses of power and violations of human rights, we can cooperate on the passage of the bill,” Rep. Rhee Mok-hee, the party’s chief policymaker, told reporters. “Two trains running towards each other can’t avoid a clash even if one of them stops.”

Rhee made a push with the Saenuri Party to accept the Assembly Speaker’s mediation on suggesting restrictions be included in the bill on the spy agency’s surveillance of citizens’ private communications.

The bill devised by the ruling party in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, is intended to set up a counterterrorism control tower under the authority of the NIS and allow the agency to conduct surveillance of private communications of people deemed to be potential terrorists and track their whereabouts and financial transactions.

The MPK has been in strong opposition to the bill that increases the powers of the spy agency, which was previously found to have engaged in illegal activities. In the 2012 presidential election, its agents were found to have launched a smear campaign against opposition candidates online, in favor of then presidential candidate Park Geun-hye. And last year, it was accused of using an illegal hacking program that can access private computers and mobile devices.

Parties revised the bill by agreeing to put the counterterrorism control tower under the Prime Minister’s Office and assign an official to the NIS to oversee its activities, but the MPK is still concerned about the agency’s possible unlimited surveillance of citizens.

The Saenuri Party, for its part, put its foot down on the revised draft of the bill, saying it cannot give way to the MPK anymore in order to guarantee the agency the effective tools to undertake counterterrorist action.

“The MPK paralyzed the Assembly while holding the upcoming election and people’s safety as hostages for its own interest,” Rep. Cho Won-jin said. “It’s stuck in a self-contradiction while postponing the election bill it has pushed for in a hurry.”