A national assembly is a legislature and a representative
organization whose members are elected by the people. Such an assembly has
been regarded as a necessary organization for a democratic country because
such organizations have developed within the Western democracies in the
modern era. Especially when a country undertakes a parliamentary system of
government, the national assembly undertakes the key political role in the
country. Korea has a presidential government, but it is not the same as
the American presidential system because it has also encompasses some of the
characteristic of a parliamentary government. Here are some examples. The
government has the right to make laws, the members of the National Assembly
can become Ministers of State at the same time and the president's
nominations for Prime Minister must be approved by the National Assembly.
Presently, Korea has a single-chamber system now, although it had a brief
history of a two-chamber system in the 1960's with a parliamentary system of
government with cabinet ministers selected from members of the National
Assembly, The U. S. U. K., Germany and Japan have a two-chamber system.
The procedures for the elections of the National Assembly Members
are as follows. Voters must be Korean citizens over twenty years of age.
Elections are direct, equal, with universal suffrage and secret voting.
Candidates for National Assembly members must be Korean citizens over
twenty-five years old. There are 299 seats in the National Assembly and the
three-fourths of the candidates for these seats are elected under the small
constituency system and the rest are elected under the large nationwide
constituency system according to the propotion of votes obtained by the
political parties. They serve a four-year term. The members of the fifteenth
National Assembly are serving a term which began May 3, 1996 and ends May
29, 2000.
The Speaker and two Vice-Speakers are elected by secret ballot
of the National Assembly Members and must get the majority of the members
on the register. They serve two-year term. There are seventeen Standing
Committees, which lead discussions in the National Assembly, as well as two
Special Committees. They are as follows: the House Steering Committee (24
members), the Legislation and Judiciary Committee (15 members), the
Government Administration and Local Autonomy Committee (16 members), the
Finance and Economy Committee (30 members), the Unification, Foreign Affairs
and Trade Committee (24 members), the Home Affairs Committee (30 members),
the National Defense Committee (20 members), the Education Committee (16
members)], the Physical Education Committee (15 members), the Agriculture,
Forestry, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Committee (24 members), the Trade
Committee (18 members), the Science, Technology, Information and
Telecommunication Committee (18 members), the Environment and Labor
Committee (18 members), the Health and Welfare Committee (16 members),
Construction and Transportation Committee (30 members), the Intelligence
Committee (12 members), the Special Committee on Ethics (15
members), the Special Committee on Women's Affairs (19 members), the Special
Committee on Budget and Accounts (50 members).
The National Assembly Act, amended in 1994, set forth concrete
measures and the changes which made the more efficient operation of the
National Assembly possible. For example, one of the changes was that if the
National Assembly Members are also employed by outside companies or
organizations, they can not become a member of any committee which covers
the same interests as these companies and organizations- a part of the
ethical code.
A plenary session of the National Assembly is called once a
year on September 10th (in the case of a holiday, it is postponed until the
next day). A plenary consists of a regular session, which can not be
extended over one hundred days, and a extraordinary session, which the
President or one quarter or more of the members on the register of the
National Assembly demand. The extraordinary session can not be extended for
more than 30 days.
A bill becomes a law upon passage by the National Assembly,
except as otherwise provided by the Constitution and other laws. It must be
passed by a majority of the members present, with a quorum of a majority of
all elected members established. In the case of a tie, the bill is
rejected. Deliberations in the National Assembly are public, in order to
ensure that the views of the people are reflected in the deliberations and
that the National Assembly session is conducted by the will of the people.
Having the sessions open to the public can make this possible. In order to
insure fairness and transparency, two principles govern a session of the
National Assembly: one is the principle that the same matter is not debated
twice during the same session; the other is the "continuity of session"
principle to guarantee adequate deliberation on issues..
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