Han Byung-do accuses People Power Party of 'declaring boycott on people's livelihoods'

Han Byung-do, acting leader and floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, accused the People Power Party on Friday of spending the past month creating a vacuum in the National Assembly and now resorting to incitement — branding the legislature a "bulletproof Assembly" and decrying "parliamentary dictatorship" — to justify its own irresponsibility. Speaking at a supreme council meeting at the National Assembly that morning, Han said the People Power Party had "finally declared a boycott on people's livelihoods."

Han said the party had also announced it would press on with what it called "stronger struggle," holding people's livelihoods hostage to a draining political fight. "It looks less like a struggle and more like a childish tantrum," he said.

Han then pressed the People Power Party directly. "I ask the People Power Party in the gravest terms: should you not look at the lives of self-employed workers and small-business owners fighting for survival day by day, and of young people gripped by anxiety over an uncertain future?" he said. "The situation on the ground is too dire to be squandered on endless political squabbling."

Han said both ruling and opposition parties should be putting their heads together in the Assembly to stabilize prices and revive the economy. "Yet the main opposition party has no regard whatsoever for people's livelihoods — it is simply frustrating," he said. "The People Power Party, which has abandoned the lives of the people, will face judgment without fail."

He added that the party should stop its obstruction driven by narrow partisan interests and cooperate with normalizing the Assembly. "The Democratic Party will immediately convene a July extraordinary session and push hard to process the backlog of livelihood and reform legislation," Han said.