The South Korean parliament approved the country's first anti-terrorism legislation on Wednesday after the opposition's delaying tactics of 193 hours of speeches failed to stop the vote, according to dpa. After nine days of non-stop, marathon speeches and despite protests, the ruling conservative Saenuri Party pushed the legislation through because they have a majority of 157 seats in the 293-member National Assembly, the Yonhap news agency said. Since February 23, 39 lawmakers from the liberal Minjoo Party and other smaller parties held a round-the-clock marathon of speeches, the Korea Times reported. The longest speech lasted 12 hours and 31 minutes. Opposition parties and civil society groups have said the draft legislation infringes on the privacy of citizens and have also expressed fears that the law could be misused to monitor the population. The anti-terrorism legislation outlines the legal basis for intelligence gathering and collecting the personal information of suspects, as well as to freeze their assets.
