BILLS PASSED DURING FINAL PLENARY SESSION

[Anchor Lead]

The 20th National Assembly is to end on May 29. At the final plenary session held yesterday, the lawmakers passed a number of bills on improving people's standard of living, the pandemic response, and the revised Act on Settling the Past History for Truth and Reconciliation.

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​The final plenary session of the 20th National Assembly...

[Soundbite] MOON HEE-SANG(PARLIAMENTARY SPEAKER) : "Thank you very much. Let's begin the decision-making process."

More than 130 bills on improving people's standard of living have been finally passed. Under the new law, artists will be eligible for employment insurance starting in November, while low-income job-seekers will receive state subsidies of up to three million won per person. The bill mandating short-term foreign migrants to report their address when an infectious disease alert is issued has also been approved. The use of authorization certificates is to be scrapped after 21 years. Internet-based companies such as Naver and Kakao will be mandated to delete posts related to digital sex crimes and block access to them. The bill on the revised Act on Settling the Past History for Truth and Reconciliation has also been passed after eight years.

[Soundbite] "I declare the bill approved."

Victims of human rights abuse in the 1970s and 80s in Busan and the bereaved families of the victims of civilian massacres during the Korean War watched the lawmakers vote on the bills at the Assembly Members' Office Building. The amended law on the Sewol ferry sinking has paved the way for civil divers and part-time school teachers to receive compensation and mental health counselling, just like the other victims of the ferry disaster. Some 15,000 bills that were not approved on Wednesday will be automatically scrapped on May 29.