National Assembly completes lineup of 18 committee chiefs

SEOUL, June 13 (Yonhap) -- The National Assembly on Monday completed the lineup of parliamentary committee chiefs after days of intraparty wrangling, enabling the newly elected legislature to set the ball rolling in earnest.

The lineup for 18 committees was finalized at a plenary session of the 20th assembly, which began its four-year term on May 30.

Ruling Saenuri Party Reps. Cho Kyoung-tae, Lee Jin-bok, Yoo Jae-jung and Kwon Seong-dong were elected to lead the finance, national policy, public administration and legislation committees, respectively.

In addition, Saenuri Reps. Shin Sang-jin, Kim Young-woo and Lee Cheol-woo were picked to chair the communications, defense and intelligence committees. The party's floor leader Chung Jin-suk was elected to helm the steering committee.

Under the agreement among the ruling and opposition parties, the Saenuri Party will chair eight committees, while the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea will chair the same. The minor opposition People's Party will helm two.

Minjoo Party Reps. Kim Hyun-mee, Baek Jae-hyun, Yang Seung-jo, Cho Jeong-sik, Shim Jae-kwonent committees, respectively. Moreover, Minjoo Party Reps. Kim Young-choon and Nam In-soon were chosen to head the agriculture and gender equality committees.

People's Party Reps. Chang Byoung-wan and Yoo Sung-yop were elected to lead the trade and education committees, respectively.

Though the term for each chair is usually two years, some of the ruling and opposition party lawmakers will hold the position for one year and hand it over to their party colleagues under a decision to prevent conflict over the nomination process.

Before Monday's plenary session, each party had already nominated its assigned chiefs of committees. The nomination was finalized through an electronic voting procedure on the floor.

sshluck@yna.co.kr
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