By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
The National Assembly ratified a motion Monday which allows for the transfer of convicted South Korean and Chinese felons to their country of nationality to serve out their sentences.
Under a treaty signed between Seoul and Beijing, May 27, convicts holding Chinese or Korean nationalities will be transferred to their home country to facilitate their social rehabilitation.
Prisoners are eligible to apply for the transfer when they have one year of their sentence left to serve.
The parliament also endorsed eight other motions to actuate conventions and treaties signed with foreign countries.
Korea has agreed with Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Qatar and Iceland to avoid double taxation and prevent tax evasion.
The Assembly also approved proposals to conduct parliamentary inspections of government offices and state-funded organizations.
During an Assembly audit scheduled to begin next Monday, issues regarding melamine-tainted foods are expected to be of particular concern.
The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) plans to launch an assault on the Lee Myung-bak administration's ``insufficient food safety net,'' which failed to block the contaminated food that has sickened more than 10,000 infants across China.
On the other hand, the governing Grand National Party (GNP) will criticize poor food safety management by the previous Roh Moo-hyun administration.