South Korea's rival parties have apologized to the public as they appear unlikely to vote on the 2019 budget plan by the legal deadline of December second.
The three main parties held a closed-door meeting Saturday to discuss how to continue deliberations on the roughly 420 billion U.S. dollar spending bill,... and vowed efforts for thorough negotiations despite the lack of time.
The budget plan was automatically referred to the plenary session at midnight,... in its original form, as the budget committee failed to complete negotiations.
The National Assembly Act stipulates the budget committee deliberate on the spending plan until November 30th,... and the next day it's referred to the plenary session,... unless parties agree otherwise.
With the term of the budget committee over,... rival parties will continue deliberations among a smaller group -- comprised of the floor leaders of the three main parties and a representative from each party on the budget committee.
The ruling party wants to hold a vote on the bill on Monday,... however, the two biggest opposition parties want to hold it on Friday.