South Korea Assembly Passes Election Law to Add 3 Incheon District Council Seats

Ruling and opposition parties on the 28th approved revisions to the Public Official Election Act to adjust the number of basic local council members in Incheon ahead of an administrative system overhaul. Under the bill, Incheon’s total will increase by three seats, to 128 from 125.

The National Assembly passed the measure at an afternoon plenary session, revising the number of basic local council seats for the June 3 local elections. Of 246 lawmakers present, 234 voted in favor and 12 abstained.

Rep. Bae Jun-young of the People Power Party, explaining the proposal, said the administrative overhaul set to take effect in July revealed that some districts would lose seats under current constituency lines. He said the outcome failed to reflect population growth and changes from the reorganization.

Bae said the Assembly’s special committee on political reform concluded additional seats were needed to ensure resident representation and equal voting value. He said the plan would also raise the nationwide total number of district and county council members from 3,003 to 3,006.

The bill is a follow-up to a version introduced and processed at a plenary session on the 18th, after lawmakers argued the earlier draft did not fully reflect the administrative overhaul that adds Yeongjong-gu in Incheon and that the council-seat count needed adjustment.

Also at the plenary session, the People Power Party delivered a floor statement on a motion recommending the dismissal of Unification Minister Jeong Dong-young, after controversy over his remarks mentioning a uranium enrichment facility in North Korea’s Kangsong city.

Rep. Kim Geon said Jeong, since those remarks, had continued to make what he called uncoordinated, unilateral statements on diplomacy and security policy, creating discord with the president, the Foreign Ministry and the Defense Ministry and causing friction with ally the United States.

Kim criticized Jeong for not issuing an official apology or presenting steps to prevent a recurrence despite what he described as diplomatic risks between South Korea and the United States.

Kim said Jeong had publicly referred in the Assembly to a South Korea-U.S. intelligence matter, creating diplomatic and security risks, and that afterward even information sharing on North Korea had been halted, raising concerns about alliance trust and security coordination. He said Jeong was shifting blame outward rather than offering an apology and prevention measures.

Kim urged that the dismissal motion not be treated lightly and called for a plenary session vote, saying, “There is no ruling or opposition party when it comes to national security.”



* This article has been translated by AI.

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