Rival parties have given mixed responses to the overnight fast-track designation of key reform bills.

Amid strong objections from the main opposition Liberty Korea Party(LKP), the ruling Democratic Party(DP) and three minor opposition parties managed to hold sessions of special parliamentary committees overnight to pass a fast-track designation of bills aimed at revising election rules and creating an independent investigative agency.

DP spokesperson Kang Byung-won accused the LKP on Tuesday of turning the National Assembly into a lawless world with violence. He added that the four parties overcame this with the rule of law and that his party will actively engage in future negotiations on the bills between rival parties. 

Spokesman Choi Kyung-hwan of the minor opposition Party for Democracy and Peace welcomed the designation as the start of political, parliamentary and judiciary reforms.

The opposition Justice Party said that the designation is not the end of the reforms but just the beginning, vowing its utmost efforts to ensure the passage of the bills at the parliamentary plenary session. The Bareummirae Party did not issue a comment due to internal feuding over the process.

Meanwhile, LKP Floor Leader Na Kyung-won held an emergency party member meeting following the designation. She announced that democracy in the country is dead, and that the four parties have laid the tracks for a leftist dictatorship. 

Na continued, saying that the whole process of the fast-track designation was full of illegality and manipulation of the law. She pledged to continue to fight against the ruling party and the government.