Rival lawmakers pass livelihood bills despite ongoing clash over media, union legislation

The National Assembly passed a raft of legislation to address livelihood issues on Thursday even as the main political parties continued to clash over various contentious bills.

Members of the liberal Democratic Party exit the main chamber of the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, after all six of the party's bills that had been vetoed by President Yoon Suk Yeol failed to pass in a revote on Thursday afternoon. [YONHAP]

The National Assembly passed a raft of legislation to address livelihood issues on Thursday even as the main political parties continued to clash over various contentious bills.

One of the bills is an amendment to the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes, which sets a minimum prison sentence of three years or a fine of 30 million won ($22,500) for people caught possessing or watching so-called deepfake pornographic material despite being aware it was created without consent from the people depicted.

The bill,which passed with support from 241 out of 249 lawmakers present, came in response to the discovery of multiple online chatrooms and social media channels where the faces of unknowing people — mostly women — had been grafted onto sexually explicit images and videos using AI tools.

However, the bill excludes individuals who “unknowingly” stored or viewed such materials from facing punishment.

The amendment also holds the government responsible for tracking down illegal material and helping victims return to everyday life.

Another bill due to be passed by the legislature extends the length of parental leave guaranteed by the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act from two to three years.

The bill also increases the length of paid leave for new fathers from the current 10 to 20 days.

The legislation is intended to relieve the pressure of balancing work and child care responsibilities on the country’s young married couples.

The country’s total fertility rate, or the average number of children expected to be borne by a woman over her lifetime, came to a record low of 0.71 in the second quarter of 2024, according to government statistics released on Wednesday.

That figure is far below the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman needed to maintain a stable population without immigration.

Although the bills tackling deepfake pornography and increasing parental leave passed with cooperation between the conservative People Power Party (PPP) and the liberal Democratic Party (DP), which controls a 175-seat majority in the 300-member legislature, the two parties did not come to an agreement regarding other DP-backed legislation that had been vetoed by President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Four bills intended to revamp governance of the state media watchdog and public broadcasters were scrapped on Thursday after each won support from less than 190 out of 299 lawmakers present.

To override a presidential veto, bills must garner support from at least two-thirds of lawmakers in a re-vote in which more than half of National Assembly members are present.

Three of the bills were aimed at increasing the number of board directors at public broadcasters KBS, MBC and EBS, while one required decisions by the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) to have been voted on by four of the commission’s five standing members, up from the current two.

The DP also failed on Thursday to muster enough support to override Yoon’s veto of its amendment to the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act — also known as the “yellow envelope bill” in domestic media — which prevents companies from suing workers for losses incurred during legal strikes.

The legislation’s nickname was derived from yellow envelopes containing 47,000 won ($34) that were donated by civic groups to unionized workers at SsangYong Motor after they were ordered by the Supreme Court in 2014 to pay 4.7 billion won in compensation to their company for losses it incurred when they went on a strike, which was later ruled illegal, to oppose mass layoffs five years earlier.

The bill was scrapped after 183 lawmakers voted in favor, while 113 voted against.

Another previously vetoed bill to distribute 250,000 won to every person in the country was scrapped after it won support from 184 lawmakers.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]