The
National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, often shortened to the National
Assembly in domestic English-language media, is the unicameral national legislature of South
Korea.[2] Elections to the National Assembly are held every four years. The latest legislative
elections were held on 15 April 2020. The National Assembly has 300 seats, with 253
constituency seats and 47 proportional representation seats; 30 of the PR seats are assigned on
additional member system, while 17 PR seats use the parallel voting method.
The unicameral assembly consists of at least 200 members according to the South Korean
constitution. In 1990 the assembly had 299 seats, 224 of which were directly elected from single-
member districts in the general elections of April 1988. Under applicable laws, the remaining
seventy-five representatives were elected from party lists. By law, candidates for election to the
assembly must be at least thirty years of age. As part of a political compromise in 1987, an
earlier requirement that candidates have at least five years' continuous residency in the country
was dropped to allow Kim Dae-jung, who had spent several years in exile in Japan and the
United States during the 1980s, to return to political life. The National Assembly's term is four
years. In a change from the more authoritarian Fourth Republic and Fifth Republic (1972–80 and
1980–87, respectively), under the Sixth Republic, the assembly cannot be dissolved by the
president.
Current composition[edit]
See also: 2020 South Korean legislative election and List of members of the National Assembly
(South Korea), 2020–2024
Parties in the 21st National Assembly
Group Floor leader Seats % of seats
▌Democratic Park Hong-keun 167 55.6%
▌People Power Kweon Seong-dong 115 38.5%
▌Justice 6 2.0%
▌Basic Income 1 0.3%
▌Progressive 1 0.3%
▌Transition Korea 1 0.3%
▌Independents 9 3.0%
Total 300 100.0%
Notes:
1. Negotiation groups can be formed by 20 or more members.
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Structure and appointment[edit]
The National Assembly Building in Seoul
Speaker[edit]
The constitution stipulates that the assembly is presided over by a Speaker and two Deputy
Speakers,[3] who are responsible for expediting the legislative process. The Speaker and Deputy
Speakers are elected in a secret ballot by the members of the Assembly, and their term in office
is restricted to two years.[4] The Speaker is independent of party affiliation, and the Speaker and
Deputy Speakers may not simultaneously be government ministers.[4]
Negotiation groups[edit]
Parties that hold at least 20 seats in the assembly form floor negotiation groups (Korean:
교섭단체, Hanja: 交涉團體, RR: gyoseop danche), which are entitled to a variety of rights that are
denied to smaller parties. These include a greater amount of state funding and participation in
the leaders' summits that determine the assembly's legislative agenda.[5]
In order to meet the quorum, the United Liberal Democrats, who then held 17 seats, arranged to
"rent" three legislators from the Millennium Democratic Party. The legislators returned to the
MDP after the collapse of the ULD-MDP coalition in September 2001.[6]
Legislative process[edit]
This graph traces the recent origins of all six main political parties currently in the Republic of Korea. All of
which have either split from or merged with other parties in the last four years. They have emerged from
four main ideological camps, from Left to Right: Progressive (socialist), liberal, centrist, and conservative.
To introduce a bill, a legislator must present the initiative to the Speaker with the signatures of at
least ten other members of the assembly. The bill must then be edited by a committee to ensure
that the bill contains correct and systematic language. It can then be approved or rejected by the
Assembly.[7]
Committees[edit]
There are 17 standing committees which examine bills and petitions falling under their respective
jurisdictions, and perform other duties as prescribed by relevant laws.[8]
House Steering Committee
Legislation and Judiciary Committee
National Policy Committee
Strategy and Finance Committee
Science, ICT, Future Planning, Broadcasting and Communications Committee
Education Committee
Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee
Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee
National Defense Committee
Security and Public Administration Committee
Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee
Trade, Industry and Energy Committee
Health and Welfare Committee
Environment and Labor Committee
Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee
Intelligence Committee
Gender Equality and Family Committee
Election[edit]
Allocation of seats within the electoral system. Red and green: parallel voting; 253 FPTP seats and 17 PR
seats. Blue: additional member system for 30 seats
See also: Legislative elections in South Korea
The National Assembly has 300 seats, with 253 constituency seats under FPTP and 47
proportional representation seats. With electoral reform taken in 2019, the PR seats
apportionment method was replaced by a variation of additional member system from
previous parallel voting system, although 17 seats were temporarily assigned under parallel
voting in the 2020 South Korean legislative election.[9]
As per Article 189 of Public Official Election Act,[10][11] the PR seats are awarded to parties that
have either obtained at least 3% of the total valid votes in the legislative election or at least 5
constituency seats. The number of seats allocated to each eligible party are decided by following
formula:
where
nAssembly = total number of seats in the National Assembly.
nineligibles = number of seats obtained by ineligible parties and independents.
nobtained constituencies = number of constituency seats obtained by the party.
nams = total number of seats allocated for additional member system.
If the integer is less than 1, then ninitial is set to 0 and the party does not get any seats. Then the
sum of initially allocated seats are compared to total seats for additional member system, and
recalculated.
Final seats are assigned through the largest remainder method, and if the remainder is equal, the
winner is determined by lottery among the relevant political parties.
The voting age was also lowered from 19 to 18 years old, expanding the electorate by over half a
million voters.[12]
Legislative violence
