Parties set for fresh round of battle

By Jun Ji-hye

Rival parties Saturday agreed to put controversial remarks made by the main opposition party spokesman against President Park Geun-hye and her father Park Chung-hee behind them in order to handle other pending issues at the National Assembly.

Rep. Hong Ihk-pyo, spokesman of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), said last Thursday that the two Parks should not have been born, angering members of the ruling Saenuri Party.

The ruling party boycotted all Assembly schedules Friday including meetings scheduled for a joint report of the parliament investigation into the closure of Jinju Medical Center (JMC) to be drawn up and to discuss matters related to the disclosure of the 2007 inter-Korean summit.

However, floor leaders and vice floor leaders of the two parties reached an agreement Saturday to normalize the Assembly.

The agreement came after spokesman Hong stepped down from the position and DP Chairman Kim Han-gil expressed his regret.

“As a ruling party with a heavy responsibility on nation’s affairs, we decided to agree with the DP to normalize the Assembly. There is no requirement,” said Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun, the Saenuri Party’s vice floor leader.

Following the agreement, the parties held a meeting of the Assembly special committee investigating the JMC’s shut down and drew up the joint report.

Lawmakers also agreed to file a complaint against Gov. Hong Joon-pyo of South Gyeongsang Province with the prosecution for rejecting to appear before the Assembly for questioning.

Hong decided to close the public hospital funded by the provincial administration in May on the grounds of accumulated deficit of 27.9 billion won ($24.5 million).

If convicted, the governor could face up to three years in prison or a fine of up to 10 million won.

However, parties will likely go head to head again this week over two key issues_ a parliamentary investigation into illegal intervention in last year’s presidential election by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and lawmakers’ planned viewing of the original summit records.

The Saenuri Party and DP so far have shown no sign of compromise regarding the composition of the special committee probing the NIS case.

The ruling party is demanding that two DP lawmakers, Kim Hyun and Jin Sun-mee, be excluded from the committee on the basis that they are the subject of a police investigation for violating the rights of an NIS agent while preventing her from leaving for more than a day last December.

The DP describes the Saenuri Party’s argument as a political tactic to hinder the thorough investigation into the NIS incident.

Even if the DP decides to exclude two lawmakers to allow the probe to move forward, there are still many debatable problems to be ironed out including the selection of people to be questioned at the Assembly.

Members of the ruling and opposition parties plan to visit the National Archives of Korea today to check records that the institute highlighted based on seven key phrases the parties earlier suggested including: “Northern Limit Line,” “NLL” and “the South-North Korean summit.”

The visit to the archives was initially planned on Friday, but was postponed due to Hong’s verbal abuse against President Park.

After viewing the confidential material, the parties are expected to clash regarding how they interpret the minutes and which content they will make public.

The Board of Audit and Inspection’s announcement on Wednesday regarding former President Lee Myung-bak’s four-river restoration project is another debatable issue.

According to the state auditor’s report, Lee forged ahead with the river restoration project to revive his presidential election pledge of a “Grand Canal” spanning 500-kilometers connecting Seoul to Busan.

In 2008, Lee said he would scrap the canal plan due to public opposition, and instead pushed the four-river project saying it was to prevent floods around the nation’s major rivers.

The long-term plan has been criticized for a number of serious reasons such as bid rigging, increased management costs and poor water quality.

“The Assembly should conduct the parliament investigation immediately into Lee’s four-river project,” said Rep. Jung Sung-ho, DP’s vice floor leader, while his Saenuri Party counterpart Yoon said, “The Assembly Environment and Labor Committee and the Prime Minister’s office will have to discuss the issue first.”