National Assembly to hold belated opening ceremony; Yoon unlikely to attend

The 22nd National Assembly was set to formally kick off with an opening ceremony Monday, more than three months after it came into operation, with President Yoon Suk Yeol expected to skip the ceremony amid tensions with the opposition. Yoon's decision to sit out the ceremony to open the new Assembly and its first regular session came amid the opposition party's push to pass controversial bills unilaterally. It will mark the first time since 1987 that a president will be absent from such a ceremony. During the regular session, the rival parties are expected to bicker over the government's 2025 budget proposal of 677 trillion won (US$505 billion), a 3.2 percent hike from the previous year, with the main opposition Democratic Party calling for massive cuts. On livelihood issues, the rival parties are likely to clash over controversial bills, including legislation on distributing cash handouts to the entire population and a bill mandating a special counsel investigation into the military's response to a Marin e's death. The rival party leaders held their first official talks Sunday and agreed on a set of livelihood-related issues in a rare show of bipartisan cooperation but failed to reach an agreement on some key agendas. The National Assembly passes a nursing bill that calls for nurses to play greater roles during a plenary session in Seoul on Aug. 28, 2024. (Yonhap) The 22nd Assembly was inaugurated on May 30, but it took 95 days for the official opening ceremony to take place -- the longest delay since 1987. The ceremony, originally set for July 5, was previously boycotted by the ruling People Power Party amid intense partisan strife over the special counsel probe bill and a hearing over Yoon's impeachment petition. The ceremony had been put off indefinitely, until the rival parties agreed to hold the event in conjunction with the start of the 22nd Assembly's first regular session. The unicameral parliament opens its regular session every September for 100 days. Monday's regular session is the first unde r the 22nd Assembly after the country held its general elections in April. Source: Yonhap News Agency