September 13 Legislative Report: Lee Jun-seok Takes Aim at Digital Assets
Lee Jun-seok, leader of the Reform Party, will attend "EastPoint Seoul," a global digital asset event to be held in Seoul on the 28th.
At a time when the pace of institutionalizing virtual assets hinges on National Assembly legislation, an extra-parliamentary party leader's appearance at an official forum carries greater weight. Lee also delivered a congratulatory address at the launch ceremony of the Korea Association of Architectural Electrical Equipment Engineers, held at the Air Force Hotel in Seoul on the 12th. The back-to-back outreach to industry is being read as an attempt to turn emerging fields—digital assets and architectural electrical equipment among them—into political capital ahead of the next election.
The Calculation Behind a Business Card Reserved for Dongtan Residents
Lee has also had a separate set of business cards made for handling civil complaints. The cards, reserved for Dongtan residents, set the Hwaseong City mascot Koriyo against a backdrop bearing the word "Dongtan." The differentiation strategy appears tailored to the district's character, where complaints tied to the infrastructure and commercial districts typical of a massive planned city tend to pile up. Moves that juggle national politics and local administration at once are highly likely to serve as a trust-building tool for an extra-parliamentary party that has failed to clear the negotiating-bloc threshold and is seeking to expand its seat count.
Party-Line Defections on Both Sides of the Aisle
Roll-call records from plenary sessions put the cohesion of the 22nd National Assembly in numbers. In the partial revision of the Special Act on Guaranteeing Victims' Rights, Uncovering the Truth, and Preventing Recurrence of the October 29 Itaewon Tragedy, passed on September 3, four People Power Party lawmakers—Choo Ho-young, Kim Jang-gyeom, Kang Seung-gyu, and Lee Jong-wook—voted no. The same day, in the vote on a partial revision of the National Intelligence Service Act, three Democratic Party lawmakers—Jeon Jin-sook, Seo Mi-hwa, and Moon Jeong-bok—strayed from the party line, their three "no" votes standing against 94 in favor. Votes at odds with party positions are emerging on the plenary floor regardless of the ruling-opposition divide.
The August breaches were wider still. On August 20, the substitute bill to partially revise the Framework Act on the Construction Industry split the People Power Party 14 in favor and 10 against.
In the vote on the substitute construction bill, 10 of the People Power Party's 24 valid votes—42 percent—defied the party line and joined the opposition.
Ten lawmakers bolted, among them Kang Sun-young, Lim I-ja, Kwak Kyu-taek, and Kim Dae-sik. Nine more, including Kang Min-guk, Woo Jae-jun, Koo Ja-geun, and Choo Ho-young, stood on the other side on the substitute bill to amend the National Pension Act, while eight, including Yoon Jae-ok, Lee Man-hee, and Choi Bo-yoon, broke ranks on the substitute bill for the Act on Agricultural and Fishery Councils. The special bill to support mixed-use development of school sites drew five defections, including Kim Mi-ae, Kim Eun-hye, and Lee Jong-wook. What stands out is the repeated pattern: Choi Soo-jin voted no time and again on the Personnel Hearings Act revision, the agricultural and fishery councils bill, and the special bill on civil retrials for victims of the emergency decrees, while Choo Ho-young defected in succession on the Itaewon special act and the National Pension Act bill. That these are not one-off lapses but structural defections is expected to become a variable in upcoming legislation.
Bill-by-Bill Ripple Effects and the Legislative Outlook
The substitute construction bill running into 42 percent internal opposition is no small signal for the construction industry. It means interests diverged sharply between deregulation and tighter market order. With uncertainty still lingering over the follow-up enforcement decree, subordinate regulations, and the timing of implementation, builders will have to factor political risk into their bidding plans and cost calculations. Because the school-site special act backs mixed-use development of aging school grounds, it could also affect local government finances and housing supply. The nine-vote defection on the National Pension Act bill likewise confirmed that the political cost of spreading the burden across generations remains heavy. The National Assembly Research Service has previously diagnosed the need for improvements that would confine pension contribution credits to unavoidable gaps such as unemployment and child-rearing, while setting minimum participation requirements and application deadlines.
New bills kept coming. Kim Sung-won of the People Power Party led the introduction of a revision that would extend spousal childbirth leave from the current 20 days to 30 and subsidize part of the labor costs companies shoulder as a result. Broader child care support has room to win bipartisan consensus as a fertility-rate response, but how to fund it will be the crux.
Digital asset legislation is expected to catch a relatively favorable wind. As Lee's attendance at EastPoint Seoul symbolizes, the contact surface between politics and industry is widening. Still, an extra-parliamentary party has limited push, so the real pace of passage will hinge on interest coordination among the negotiating blocs. Nor can a repeat of defections over the follow-up handling of contentious bills in the regular session be ruled out. For market participants, reading the scale of defections and vote cohesion alongside whether a bill passes will become part of sound risk management.
