2 maligned lawmakers-elect given offices in parliament

Two lawmakers-elect of the minor opposition United Progressive Party under the proportional representative system, Lee Seok-ki and Kim Jae-yeon, were assigned offices at the National Assembly on Thursday, the day before the party`s deadline for their resignation.

Winning 13 seats in last month`s parliamentary elections, the party was assigned nine offices on the fifth floor of the new assembly building and four offices on the fourth floor of the old building.

According to the document on office assignment for lawmakers-elect submitted by the party, Lee, an influential figure and a member of the party’s largest faction, took Room No. 520 and Kim took one, Room No. 523 diagonally across Lee’s at the new assembly building. Lee’s office is right below the office of Park Geun-hye, the leading presidential candidate of the ruling Saenuri Party.

On the left of Lee’s office is the room of lawmaker-elect Kim Mi-hee, spokeswoman of the progressive party`s emergency committee, and on the right is the room of Rep. Kim Sun-dong, who seeks to be the party’s floor leader.

With lawmaker-elect Oh Byung-yoon, chairman of the emergency committee, occupying the room right across Lee’s, figures from the faction gathered together. Former party leader Sim Sang-jung and former spokesman Roh Hoi-chan, who are not members of the faction, will also have offices on the fifth floor.

The party assigned rooms to lawmakers-elect based on a lottery held by their aides Wednesday. Certain party members criticized Lee and Kim, with one saying, “It was inappropriate for Kim and Lee, who are being pressed to resign, to join the drawing for office assignment.”