The National Assembly under its new speaker, Cho Jeong-sik, is demonstrating a new aspect of unilateralism. After allocating committee members, Cho accepted the ruling Democratic Party of Korea's (DPK) call to hold a plenary meeting on Tuesday. DPK lawmakers were assigned to lead 11 standing committees, including the vital Legislation and Judiciary Committee. Members of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) rejected their assigned committees. The chairs of the seven other standing committees remained vacant, which should be filled through parties' discussions and negotiations. The ruling party holds the majority, but the Assembly is not a place where unilateralism should take hold. This is not the first time the DPK has acted unilaterally. However, bypassing the opposition party by using a speaker's authority to assign committees is unprecedented. All these developments do not bode well for the legislative body. It is also regrettable that a member of the opposition party was not appointed to lead the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, as has been customary in the past. The co