Ruling and opposition parties to form Plane Disaster Response Committee

[Anchor]

The ruling and opposition parties have agreed to form a parliamentary task force to support the families of the victims of the passenger plane disaster.

They also decided to activate a national policy consultative body soon to address livelihood issues.

Reporter Lee Yoo-min has the details.

[Report]

The leaders of the ruling and opposition parties, along with the Speaker of the National Assembly, visited the joint memorial for the victims of the Jeju Air disaster to pay their respects.

They then moved to another location for the first meeting of the party leaders, chaired by National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik.

The leaders of both parties, who voiced that there should be no division in addressing the disaster, agreed to form a task force at the parliamentary level.

[Lee Jae-myung/Democratic Party Leader: "I hope we can identify and implement all possible measures that our National Assembly can take to support and address this situation."]

[Kwon Young-se/People Power Party Emergency Committee Chair: "As the ruling party, even though we are a minority, we will take the lead in creating measures at the parliamentary level and do our best."]

The task force is expected to fully support the government's disaster response, investigate the causes, assist the families of the victims, and work on institutional improvements to prevent recurrence.

The party leaders also agreed to quickly activate a 'national policy consultative body' to discuss economic, livelihood, and diplomatic security issues.

[Woo Won-shik/National Assembly Speaker: "This is a crisis for the Republic of Korea. It is absolutely necessary for the National Assembly and the government to come together to overcome this crisis."]

Accordingly, the national policy consultative body may officially start operating as early as this week.

Previously, the ruling and opposition parties agreed to form the consultative body on December 23, but they could not even hold the first meeting due to the conflict over the vote on the impeachment motion against Acting President Han Duck-soo.

In addition, the National Assembly has adopted a plan to conduct a 'national investigation into the allegations of insurrection' and has taken the first step in the 45-day investigation.

This is KBS News, Lee Yoo-min reporting.