South Korea’s National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik on Sunday proposed holding a national referendum on constitutional revision concurrently with the upcoming early presidential election. Woo called for a reformed political structure that decentralizes power and strengthens checks and balances, emphasizing that the current constitutional framework, designed decades ago, no longer aligns with the political realities and social demands of contemporary South Korea.

Woo’s proposal sparked immediate backlash from within the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), particularly from lawmakers aligned with party leader Lee Jae-myung. They argued that the priority should be addressing the fallout from former President Yoon Suk-yeol’s removal from office, not undertaking a contentious and complex constitutional overhaul. Some DP lawmakers openly questioned the timing of Woo’s proposal, arguing that pushing for reform now would distract the country from holding accountable those who were behind Yoon’s martial law declaration.