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The National Assembly passes a bipartisan bill revising the Commercial Act during a plenary session on July 3. / Photo by Song Ui-joo

Talks between South Korea’s ruling and opposition parties over a proposed extra budget collapsed on July 4, the final day of the provisional National Assembly session, paving the way for the Democratic Party to unilaterally pass the bill later in the day.

Moon Jin-seok, the Democratic Party’s deputy floor leader for parliamentary operations, told reporters at the National Assembly that morning, “Negotiations have broken down,” adding, “The plenary session scheduled for 2 p.m. will proceed as planned.”

Moon explained that disagreements over who should receive consumer vouchers and the ratio of central government funding were the main sticking points. “There will be no further negotiations. Unless something unexpected happens, we will move forward,” he said.

Addressing controversy over the possible inclusion of special activity funds (teukhwolbi) in the budget, Moon stated, “The People Power Party sees this as a sensitive issue and said it’s not something their negotiators could decide on, so the matter wasn’t even discussed.” However, when asked if the extra budget contains such funds, he confirmed, “It does.”