The main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy withdrew its boycott of the National Assembly on Friday, ending a four-day protest against the government and the ruling party’s push to introduce state-authored textbooks.

The opposition lawmakers will return to parliamentary committees to resume the work of reviewing bills Monday, the NPAD said after a general meeting.

New Politics Alliance for Democracy chairman Moon Jae-in (right) and floor leader Lee Jong-kul attend a general meeting with the party’s lawmakers at the National Assembly on Friday. (Yonhap)
“Today, we decided to normalize all parliamentary sessions starting on Nov. 9 only to prioritize the people’s livelihood just for the sake of the livelihoods of the people,” said NPAD floor leader Rep. Lee Jong-kul. 

The party whip said the party would continue to hold outdoor rallies to gain support from the public, but pushed lawmakers, saying the party needs to come up with a “special strategy” to resist the government’s history textbook plan.

“We will take all necessary measures until the government and the ruling party scrap their plan to issue state-authored history textbooks,” Lee said.
The decision came after the party said it was considering enacting a law to ban the government’s move, and also filing suit with the Constitutional Court. 

NPAD chairman Moon Jae-in, however, said the party needs some time to review legal matters before bringing it to the top court. 

Since Tuesday, the opposition lawmakers have been refusing to attend the sessions, including the Assembly’s budget committee to review next year’s budget. The opposition, however, faced a dilemma as to whether to continue the boycott or not, as it faced backlash from the ruling party denouncing their parliamentary hold-up as an act of abandoning people’s livelihoods.

Despite the NPAD’s boycott, the ruling Saenuri pushed ahead with the parliamentary review of next year’s budget Thursday. The budget committee has to finish the review of the budget by Nov. 30 and the bill must be endorsed by the parliament no later than Dec. 2.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)