Constitutional Revision

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President Moon Jae-in has begun reviewing a constitutional reform proposal submitted by a special advisory committee. The president expressed determination to amend the constitution regarding the nation's presidential term limits in June after negotiating the matter with the National Assembly.

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The constitutional amendment proposal that has been submitted to President Moon Jae-in calls for allowing Korean presidents to serve two successive four-year terms and adopting runoff voting in presidential elections. The revised constitution will also include phrases like "May 18th Pro-democracy Movement," "Bu-Ma Democratic Movement" and "June 10th Democracy Movement." There is also a special stipulation on the legal terms determining the nation's capital and a stipulation on the expansion of local autonomy. President Moon stressed that if the amended constitution allows presidents to serve two four-year terms, the next president's term will coincide with the office terms of local governments, which will make interim evaluations of the central government possible and will help reduce the waste of national resources.

[Soundbite] Pres. Moon Jae-in : "Holding the June local elections concurrently with the national referendum on constitutional amendment is our promise to the people and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It will also help us save public taxes."

The ruling and opposition parties have begun discussions of the constitutional amendment in parliament. The ruling Democratic Party is calling for holding local elections and the national referendum on constitutional amendment concurrently. However, opposition parties are opposing the move, saying that Cheong Wa Dae ignored the National Assembly by proposing the constitutional amendment bill. The presidential office responded by saying that there is still time for the political parties to discuss the amendment by the end of next month and that it will respect any new propositions.