Parliament operation normalized

The ruling and opposition parties agreed July 20 to normalize the operation of the National Assembly by opening joint sessions of the parliamentary committees on legislative and judiciary affairs, and on government administration and home affairs.

The committees will conduct a probe July 24-26 into allegations of illegal campaigning during the April 13 general elections, replacing a parliamentary investigation.

The lawmakers of the ruling and opposition parties also agreed to have the National Election Commission secretary general and the National Police Agency commissioner attend the joint committee session, and will simultaneously hold other sessions to deliberate on other pending controversial issues.

The breakthrough came at a meeting of the two floor leaders - Chung Kyun-Whan of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party and Chung Chang-Wha of the opposition Grand National Party, who reached an agreement on four measures to normalize the National Assembly operation.

The two floor leaders said that this ad hoc session will investigate the general election campaigns, and that the suspended extraordinary parliamentary session will be reopened July 22 to 25 to tackle various draft bills. This will be followed by the opening of the preliminary session on the 25th.

Both parties also reportedly agreed to discuss the revision of the election law in the parliamentary session.