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Justice Minister Kang Geum-sil converses with Hong Sa-duk, Grand National Party floor leader, during the last general meeting of the 16th National Assembly on Tuesday.
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During a plenary session Tuesday, the National Assembly passed a special act that allows investigation into pro-Japanese activities during the Japanese colonial period. With 163 out of 271 legislators attending, 151 voted in favor of the bill while two legislators were opposed. 10 lawmakers cast blank ballots.
In accordance with the bill, a pro-Japanese activity fact-finding committee will be established around September. The committee will be composed of nine members who are appointed by the president with the recommendation of the National Assembly.
The committee will operate to gather information on pro-Japanese and anti-national activities, write reports and compile historical records for three years.
In the meantime, the ruling and opposing parties agreed to increase the present number of 273 assembly members (local constituencies, 227; proportional representation, 46) to 299 members (local constituencies, 243; proportional representation, 56) during the political reform special committee session on Tuesday. The bill was presented during the National Assembly general meeting held the same day.
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Han Hwa-kap (right), Millennium Democratic Party lawmaker, greets his fellow party members at the last general meeting of the 16th National Assembly on Tuesday.
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The government party and opposing parties had originally said that the fixed number of National Assembly members would stay frozen to the current system, sensing the negative public sentiment towards the increase.
Criticism is expected to follow the National Assembly decision to go against its original promise and increase the number of its members, especially since around 100 members are currently involved in violations of political fund laws, election laws, and transference of party registries, giving the 16th National Assembly the nickname, "The Worst National Assembly Ever."
On Feb. 27, the National Assembly election constituency delimitation committee originally increased seats for local constituencies by 15, making the number 242. The government party and opposing parties have agreed on 243 seats for local constituencies, adding one more seat because of the acknowledgement that in Jeju-do's special case, large cities and provinces must have at least three local constituency members.
The government party and opposition parties have also decided to increase the number of proportional representation members by 10 to 56 members, in accordance with the increase in local constituency members. Over 50 percent of the nominees will be women.
Revisions of the discharge law and broadcasting law were also passed during the National Assembly general meeting. The new discharge law will be more restricted, as the President will have to listen to the opinion of the National Assembly when pardoning those whose sentences have been carried out for less than a year. The new broadcasting law will allow large corporations to enter the cable broadcasting industry and ease regulations restricting foreign capital investment.
A personal liability restoration bill was also passed, in which employees and self-managers under large debt can be waived of their obligations if they pay their debt for up to 8 years.
The National Assembly also strengthened penalties for sexual trafficking, where those convicted of selling a person for prostitution can receive at least three years imprisonment, and the owner of brothels can no longer have bonds over women working for them. The National Assembly also passed revisions for a private tutoring law to help small-scale or self-supporting private tutors by legalizing home tutoring.
The National Assembly established a local newspaper development committee under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, to support the development of regional newspaper agencies for the next six years. A special bill for local newspaper development funding support and "special bill for science and engineering fields support to prevent national technology panic" were also passed.
However, a bill to investigate incidents in which civilians were massacred during the Korean War -- a bill that includes compensation and honor restoration -- was rejected because of opposition from the Grand National Party.
(Lee Myung-jin, mjlee@chosun.com )
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