South Korea Constitutional Amendment Bill Fails to Reach Vote After Opposition Boycotts Session

National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik announced he will not put the constitutional amendment bill to a vote after the main opposition People Power Party boycotted proceedings and threatened a filibuster. The ruling Democratic Party's push to put a constitutional change to a national vote in the upcoming local elections fell through on May 8, 2026.

The unicameral parliament was left short of a quorum on Thursday due to the PPP boycott.

The National Assembly plenary session occurred on May 8, 2026 in Seoul. "I convened the plenary session again today in an effort to prevent the first constitutional amendment vote in 39 years from falling through," Woo said. " The PPP warned it would launch a filibuster to block the constitutional amendment proposal and boycotted a vote on the bill on Thursday.

The bill was jointly proposed by 187 lawmakers from the DP and five minor parties. A constitutional amendment requires two thirds of votes from sitting lawmakers to be put to a national referendum, with final approval requiring a majority of ballots cast in the national referendum. Cheong Wa Dae expressed regret over the National Assembly's failure to pass the bill.

Presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said in a written briefing that the public will find it difficult to understand why the PPP opposed even minimal constitutional changes aimed at safeguarding national security and democracy. Kang Yu-jung noted there had been broad public consensus on the need to reflect the lessons of former President Yoon Suk Yeol's Dec.

3, 2024, martial law attempt in the Constitution.

"We urge the National Assembly to continue the discussions on the constitutional amendment with a greater sense of responsibility during the second half and to keep the promise it made to the people," she added. President Lee Jae Myung highlighted the need to amend the constitution in phases if necessary.

President Lee Jae Myung said the Constitution has remained unchanged for nearly 40 years since 1987 and may now be outdated.

The proposed bill aimed to require the president to obtain parliamentary approval without delay for declaring martial law. It stipulated that if the National Assembly rejects the martial law declaration or fails to approve it within 48 hours, the martial law will be immediately nullified.

The proposed bill sought to include the 1980 pro-democracy uprising in Gwangju and the 1979 Busan-Masan pro-democracy protests in the Constitution's preamble.

The Constitution currently states that the country inherits the spirit of the April 19 revolution in 1960, which overthrew South Korea's first president, Rhee Syng-man, over election fraud. South Korea is set to hold its quadrennial local elections on June 3.