President Yoon Suk Yeol was set to return to Seoul on Friday after spending his summer vacation in provincial regions and will ready himself for a busy week of handling contentious bills railroaded by the opposition and preparing a Liberation Day address, aides said.
Several contentious bills await Yoon’s signature after the main opposition Democratic Party unilaterally passed them through the National Assembly last week, including four bills aimed at changing the governance structure of public broadcasters.
Yoon is widely expected to exercise his veto power against them by endorsing the Cabinet’s approval of a motion calling for parliamentary reconsideration of the bills. In the previous parliament, Yoon vetoed similar bills.
In order to override Yoon’s veto, the Assembly should pass the legislation again with two-thirds support. As the ruling People Power Party holds just a little more than one-third of the Assembly seats, the bills are expected to be ultimately scrapped.
Also at issue are a pro-labor
bill that limits companies from seeking damages against labor strikes, dubbed the “yellow envelope bill,” and another bill on providing cash handouts to the entire population. Yoon is also expected to reject the two bills.
“(President Yoon) remains firm on the principle of exercising his right to demand parliament reconsider the unconstitutional bills that were unilaterally passed without bipartisan agreement,” a senior presidential official said.
At the upcoming Cabinet meeting, Yoon plans to sign off on a list of candidates for special pardons recommended by the justice ministry, aides said, marking the fifth set of presidential pardons since Yoon’s inauguration in May 2022.
Eyes are on whether Yoon will grant a special pardon to former South Gyeongsang Gov. Kim Kyoung-soo, a close confidant of former President Moon Jae-in and a high-profile figure in the main opposition Democratic Party.
Kim had served a two-year prison term in an online public opinion rigging case and was pardoned in late 2022 without
reinstatement, which prevents him from running for public office until 2027.
On Thursday, Yoon plans to deliver a Liberation Day speech, which is expected to unveil the government’s new vision for unification between the two Koreas and deliver a message on ties with Japan, according to sources familiar with the preparation.
His address comes amid heightened tensions between the two Koreas over Pyongyang’s sending of trash-carrying balloons across the border and ahead of annual joint military drills between South Korea and the United States later this month.
Source: Yonhap News Agency
