National Assembly (South Korea)


The National Assembly of the Republic of Korea is the unicameral national legislature of South Korea. Elections to the National Assembly are held every four years. The latest legislative elections were held on 10 April 2024. The current National Assembly held its first meeting, and also began its current four year term, on 30 May 2024. The current Speaker was elected 5 June 2024. The National Assembly has 300 seats, with 254 constituency seats and 46 proportional representation seats; PR seats are assigned an additional member system de jure but parallel voting de facto because the usage of decoy lists by the Democratic and People Power Parties is prevalent.
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. The National Assembly's term is four years. In a change from the more authoritarian Fourth Republic and Fifth Republic, under the Sixth Republic, the assembly cannot be dissolved by the president.
Although South Korea operates a presidential system, its Assembly functions with several parliamentary characteristics: organized party blocs, committee-centric deliberation, and executive oversight through questioning sessions and investigations. As noted in Shively’s Power and Choice, such institutional features align with the general traits of parliamentary systems, particularly in legislative specialization and collective accountability mechanisms.

Building

The main building in Yeouido, Seoul, is a stone structure with seven stories above ground and one story below ground. The building has 24 columns, which symbolise the legislature's promise to listen to people 24/7 throughout the year.

Structure and appointment

Speaker

The constitution stipulates that the assembly is presided over by a Speaker and two Deputy Speakers, 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. The Speaker is independent of party affiliation, and the Speaker and Deputy Speakers may not simultaneously be government ministers.
By convention, the Speaker resigns from party leadership and adopts a formally neutral stance while presiding over sessions, while Vice-Speakers are usually selected from the leading opposition parties to preserve pluralism. The Speaker nominates the Secretary-General of the Assembly Secretariat, who is confirmed by a plenary vote. The Secretariat manages legislative research, records, and digital transparency platforms such as Assembly Plenary Broadcast and Bill Information System, which have increased accessibility and public engagement in recent years.
The Secretary General of the National Assembly is the head of the Secretariat of the National Assembly, which is the department that oversees the affairs of the National Assembly. They are government officials and are treated as ministers.. As with the President of the National Assembly, party membership is limited and he must be affiliated to no political party during his term in the Assembly.

Negotiation groups

Beyond its basic composition and legislative role, the National Assembly’s institutional structure reflects key procedural arrangements. Political parties holding at least twenty seats may form floor negotiation groups under Article 33 of the National Assembly Act. These groups enjoy expanded rights, including priority in debate allocation, representation on the Steering Committee, and eligibility for additional state funding. The existence of negotiation groups contributes to Korea’s structured form of legislative politics, resembling parliamentary coordination even within a presidential system.
Parties that hold at least 20 seats in the assembly form floor negotiation groups, 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.
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.

Legislative process

For a legislator to introduce a bill, they must submit the proposal to the Speaker, accompanied by the signatures of at least ten other assembly members. A committee must then review the bill to verify that it employs precise and orderly language. Following this, the Assembly may either approve or reject the bill.

Committees

There are 17 standing committees which examine bills and petitions falling under their respective jurisdictions, and perform other duties as prescribed by relevant laws.
  • House Steering Committee
  • Legislation and Judiciary Committee
  • National Policy Committee
  • Strategy and Finance Committee
  • Education Committee
  • Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee
  • Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee
  • National Defense Committee
  • Public Administration and Security Committee
  • Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee
  • Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee
  • Trade, Industry, SMEs and Startups Committee
  • Health and Welfare Committee
  • Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee
  • Land Infrastructure and Transport Committee
  • Intelligence Committee
  • Gender Equality and Family Committee
Standing committees serve as the primary deliberative organs of the Assembly. Each committee corresponds to a policy domain—such as Strategy and Finance, Foreign Affairs and Unification, or Education—and is tasked with reviewing bills, conducting oversight, and managing legislative hearings. The Steering Committee functions as the central body for agenda coordination, enabling the majority party to exert significant influence over legislative scheduling. Committee chairs are distributed proportionally among negotiation groups, though the ruling party typically retains control of key policy committees.

Election

The National Assembly has 300 seats, with 254 constituency seats under FPTP and 46 proportional representation seats. With electoral reform taken in 2019, the PR seats apportionment method was replaced by a variation of additional member system from the previous parallel voting system. However, 17 seats were temporarily assigned under parallel voting in the 2020 South Korean legislative election.
Per Article 189 of Public Official Election Act, 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 five constituency seats. The number of seats allocated to each eligible party is decided by the formula:
where
  • = total number of seats in the National Assembly.
  • = number of seats obtained by ineligible parties and independents.
  • = number of constituency seats obtained by the party.
  • = total number of seats allocated for additional member system.
If the integer is less than 1, then is set to 0 and the party does not get any seats. Then the sum of initially allocated seats is compared to the total seats for the 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.

Legislative violence

From 2004 to 2009, the assembly gained notoriety as a frequent site for legislative violence. The Assembly first came to the world's attention during a violent dispute on impeachment proceedings for then President Roh Moo-hyun, when open physical combat took place in the assembly. Since then, it has been interrupted by periodic conflagrations, piquing the world's curiosity once again in 2009 when members battled each other with sledgehammers and fire extinguishers. The National Assembly since then has taken preventive measures to prevent any more legislative violence.

Powers and limitations of the National Assembly

The Constitution of the Republic of Korea vests legislative power in the National Assembly. The institution enacts and amends laws, approves national budgets, ratifies significant treaties, and exercises audit and investigation powers over executive agencies. It may initiate impeachment proceedings against senior officials, including the President, Prime Minister, and Constitutional Court judges, in cases of constitutional or statutory violations.
Despite these broad competencies, the Assembly’s powers are circumscribed by constitutional and political constraints. The President may veto legislation, which can only be overridden by a two-thirds majority of members present—an outcome rare in Korea’s competitive party landscape. While legislators can submit bills individually, most major initiatives originate in the executive branch, a reflection of bureaucratic dominance in policy design. Additionally, time limits and agenda control—largely managed by the Steering Committee and the Speaker—enable the ruling party to prioritize government legislation over private members’ bills.
The Assembly’s oversight power is also bounded by its dependency on political cohesion. Although the Inspection of State Administration Act allows investigative hearings, their frequency and impact depend heavily on party alignment and electoral incentives. Furthermore, the Assembly lacks the parliamentary prerogative to dissolve the executive branch of the government or call for early elections, distinguishing it from classical Westminster models. These limitations reinforce a semi-parliamentary dynamic, where the legislature’s strength varies with party control and inter-branch negotiation.