Assembly speaker calls legislature and administration 'partners sharing one destiny'

Newly elected National Assembly Speaker Cho Jung-sik said Tuesday that the legislature and the administration are "partners and a community sharing one destiny in improving people's lives and advancing the national interest." He made the remarks at a meeting with Cheong Wa Dae Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik and Political Affairs Secretary Hong Ik-pyo.

Referencing President Lee Jae Myung, who departed the country Tuesday, Cho said he expected the trip to yield significant results. "The president left today for diplomatic work in the national interest, and I look forward to great outcomes," he said. He also asked the two officials to convey his deep gratitude to the president for sending congratulations on his inauguration as speaker.

Cho added that he had watched President Lee's first-anniversary press conference on Monday. "I believe the past year has been a breathless sprint toward normalizing and elevating the country, and that it has produced many achievements," he said.

Against the backdrop of a rapidly shifting international order, Cho stressed that "this is a critical moment for driving South Korea's economic growth and advancing the national interest." He pledged that the Assembly would "do its utmost to build an effective legislature — one that actively responds to this era of transformation and swiftly processes livelihood and reform legislation so that the public can feel real change."

On his vision for the second half of the Assembly's term, Cho said the four pillars he outlined upon his election last week — livelihood effectiveness, popular sovereignty, future advancement and national-interest diplomacy — aligned with the Lee Jae Myung administration's stated values of popular sovereignty, pragmatism and swift governance. He called on the government to respect the Assembly and strengthen cooperation with it, saying the legislature stood ready to collaborate wherever possible.

Chief of Staff Kang raised the recent ballot shortage during the local elections, urging the speaker to take an active role in resolving the crisis. "This was an incident in which citizens' sovereign right to vote was violated due to the election commission's inadequate preparations," Kang said. "We earnestly ask the National Assembly to step forward and help ensure that the people's sacred right to political participation is fully protected."

Kang also said bipartisan cooperation in the Assembly was more urgently needed than ever, given that the international order had entered an era of unlimited competition. He asked the speaker to give special attention to moving forward with livelihood legislation on which the ruling and opposition parties have no disagreement.