National Assembly (South Korea)

The National Assembly of the Republic of Korea (Korean: 대한민국 국회) is the unicameral national legislature of South Korea. Elections to the National Assembly are held every four years. The latest legislative elections were held on 10 April 2024. The current National Assembly held its first meeting, and also began its current four year term, on 30 May 2024. The current Speaker was elected 5 June 2024. The National Assembly has 300 seats, with 254 constituency seats and 46 proportional representation seats; PR seats are assigned an additional member system de jure but parallel voting de facto because the usage of decoy lists by the Democratic and People Power Parties is prevalent.

The unicameral assembly consists of at least 200 members according to the South Korean constitution. In 1990 the assembly had 299 seats, 224 of which were directly elected from single-member districts in the general elections of April 1988. Under applicable laws, the remaining seventy-five representatives were elected from party lists. By law, candidates for election to the assembly must be at least thirty years of age. The National Assembly's term is four years. In a change from the more authoritarian Fourth Republic and Fifth Republic (1972–81 and 1981–87, respectively), under the Sixth Republic, the assembly cannot be dissolved by the president.

Although South Korea operates a presidential system, its Assembly functions with several parliamentary characteristics: organized party blocs, committee-centric deliberation, and executive oversight through questioning sessions and investigations. As noted in Shively’s Power and Choice (2021), such institutional features align with the general traits of parliamentary systems, particularly in legislative specialization and collective accountability mechanisms.