Rival parties fail to reach agreement to normalize parliament despite marathon talks
- 6 years ago
Marathon negotiations at the National Assembly on Tuesday to end a month-long standstill failed to bring about a breakthrough.
Rival parties remain at loggerheads over launching a special probe into an opinion rigging scandal and a proposed extra budget bill.
Kim Min-ji reports.
The Tuesday deadline to end the paralysis at the National Assembly came and went with nothing to show for the hours of intense negotiations.
The baton was tossed back and forth between the floor leaders and deputy whips of the four negotiating parties during multiple rounds of talks.... but, no compromise was reached.
The major area of dispute was whether the ruling Democratic Party of Korea accepts a bill that seeks to launch an independent counsel probe into an online opinion-rigging scandal... allegedly involving one of its lawmakers.
A blogger -- with the username "Druking" -- is known to have used a computer program to manipulate the number of "likes" for comments critical of the Moon Jae-in administration.
The scandal has also triggered suspicions that the blogger may have been engaged in rigging activities in the run up to last year's presidential election.
The ruling party said it would accept the probe on the condition that the opposition simultaneously vote on the government's supplementary budget bill on May 24th.
But the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, which initially demanded the ruling party accept the probe no strings attached,... had a new offer -- in which it was willing to vote both issues... as well as process the resignations of lawmakers running for the local elections -- all on May 14th, or next Monday.
Monday is the deadline to handle the resignations in order to hold by-elections for the vacant districts, alongside the local elections in June.
The ruling party refused to accept the new proposal -- saying the new timeline doesn't give lawmakers enough time to deliberate on the extra budget bill,... and that further talks are needed to discuss the scope of investigation of the independent probe.
At this point, it seems unclear whether the assembly can be normalized anytime soon -- with the centrist Bareun Mirae Party launching an all-night demonstration following the breakdown in talks,.... on top of an ongoing hunger strike by the floor leader of the main opposition party.
Rival parties are expected to continue talks on Wednesday in another attempt to get things moving... but with term of the ruling party's floor leader ending this week... any significant developments may have to wait until the new whip takes the helm.
Kim Min-ji, Arirang News.
Rival parties remain at loggerheads over launching a special probe into an opinion rigging scandal and a proposed extra budget bill.
Kim Min-ji reports.
The Tuesday deadline to end the paralysis at the National Assembly came and went with nothing to show for the hours of intense negotiations.
The baton was tossed back and forth between the floor leaders and deputy whips of the four negotiating parties during multiple rounds of talks.... but, no compromise was reached.
The major area of dispute was whether the ruling Democratic Party of Korea accepts a bill that seeks to launch an independent counsel probe into an online opinion-rigging scandal... allegedly involving one of its lawmakers.
A blogger -- with the username "Druking" -- is known to have used a computer program to manipulate the number of "likes" for comments critical of the Moon Jae-in administration.
The scandal has also triggered suspicions that the blogger may have been engaged in rigging activities in the run up to last year's presidential election.
The ruling party said it would accept the probe on the condition that the opposition simultaneously vote on the government's supplementary budget bill on May 24th.
But the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, which initially demanded the ruling party accept the probe no strings attached,... had a new offer -- in which it was willing to vote both issues... as well as process the resignations of lawmakers running for the local elections -- all on May 14th, or next Monday.
Monday is the deadline to handle the resignations in order to hold by-elections for the vacant districts, alongside the local elections in June.
The ruling party refused to accept the new proposal -- saying the new timeline doesn't give lawmakers enough time to deliberate on the extra budget bill,... and that further talks are needed to discuss the scope of investigation of the independent probe.
At this point, it seems unclear whether the assembly can be normalized anytime soon -- with the centrist Bareun Mirae Party launching an all-night demonstration following the breakdown in talks,.... on top of an ongoing hunger strike by the floor leader of the main opposition party.
Rival parties are expected to continue talks on Wednesday in another attempt to get things moving... but with term of the ruling party's floor leader ending this week... any significant developments may have to wait until the new whip takes the helm.
Kim Min-ji, Arirang News.