Current President Absent for the First Time in 11 Years… Consideration of Myung Tae-kyun’s Recording and Special Prosecutor’s Act Standoff
At a National Assembly plenary session on October 4, the ‘Special Prosecutor Act on Kim Geon-hee and Private Kim’ returned to the National Assembly at the request of President Yoon Seok-yeol. The bills related to this issue were rejected.
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo will deliver a policy speech on next year’s government budget in place of President Yoon at the National Assembly on the 4th. This marks the first time in 11 years since a sitting president will not attend the speech, with the Prime Minister stepping in instead.
Jin-seok Jeong, the Chief Presidential Secretary, stated during the National Assembly’s Steering Committee inspection that the Prime Minister would deliver the speech and clarified that the President does not give a budget speech every year as the Prime Minister sometimes substitutes.
Traditionally, the policy speech to present the budget was first started by former President Roh Tae-woo in 1988. Until the Lee Myung-bak administration, the President gave the budget speech only in their first year of office, with the Prime Minister doing so in subsequent years. The practice of the sitting president attending every year began with the Park Geun-hye administration in 2013.
The decision for President Yoon’s absence appears to be due to concerns that his policy speech could be used politically amidst severe clashes between ruling and opposition parties, including issues surrounding conversations between President Yoon and Myung Tae-kyun and the Special Prosecutor Act on Mrs. Kim. Additionally, impeachment discussions by opposition parties contributed to the decision.
Previously, President Yoon also did not attend the National Assembly’s opening ceremony in September for similar reasons. This was the first time since democratization in 1987 that a sitting president missed such a ceremony.