Rival parties trying to resolve three major disputes in package deal

Floor leaders of the ruling and opposition parties held talks at the National Assembly Tuesday afternoon and negotiated on the three major disputes pending between the two parties, including the Hanvit Bank loan scandal, with a view to normalizing parliamentary functions.

At their meeting, Chung Kyun-Hwan, floor leader of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), and Chung Chang-Hwa, his counterpart of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) tried to address in a package deal the three major scandals -- the Hanvit loan scam, the MDP's alleged intervention into the probes into the party lawmakers' illegal election campaign funding and the ruling camp's unilateral passage of an Assembly Law revision bill.

But the two parties faced difficulties in dealing with the railroaded revision bill, in particular. If the floor leaders fail to reach an agreement on the revision issue, it could be referred to the projected bipartisan summit between President Kim Dae-Jung and GNP leader Lee Hoi-Chang. Depending on the results of the whips' meeting, the Kim-Lee meeting is expected to be held on Oct. 4 or 5.

The floor leaders are known to have agreed on the parliamentary agenda for the normalization of the current regular Assembly plenary session following the political summit.

It was disclosed that MDP chairman Suh Young-Hoon had recommended President Kim, concurrent party leader, to hold talks with the GNP president within the week.

The ruling camp, meanwhile, is promoting a meeting of Kim and Kim Jong-Pil, former prime minister and honorary president of the splinter United Liberal Democrats, the ruling party¡¯s former coalition partner, following the Kim-Lee talks.

Yun Seung-Mo ysmo@donga.com