Extraordinary Assembly session opens Monday, deals with bills on livelihood

The National Assembly will open an extraordinary session Monday to handle livelihood-related bills that were not acted on in the just-ended regular session, such as next year¡¯s budget bill and a bill on the cancellation and reduction of farming households¡¯ debts.

However, the ruling and opposition parties have not yet confirmed even the duration of the extra sitting due to the differences over the timetable for deliberation on the budget bill among others. The ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) wants a week, while the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) insists on at least two weeks.

The GNP has set a floor strategy to connect the budget bill for 2001 to five other pieces of legislation, including a bill on the liquidation of government-controlled financial transactions. The ruling MDP and the splinter United Liberal Democrats (ULD) agreed to work together for the passage of a revision bill to alleviate the requirements for qualification as a floor negotiating group. Therefore, the extraordinary Assembly session is expected to see rough sailing due to the conflicting plans of the rival parties.

Meanwhile, the ruling and opposition parties tentatively agreed to conduct a parliamentary investigation of state affairs from Dec. 18 to Jan. 20 aimed at uncovering the truth of an illegal loan scandal involving Hanvit Bank. The rival parties agreed in principle to wrap up a preliminary probe by year-end, to conduct an on-site probe and inspect documents for a week in January, and to hold a hearing up for the last week before the deadline.

They also shared the view that the Assembly would summon former culture-tourism minister Park Jie-Won and Lee Un-Young, former chief of the Yongdong branch of the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, as witnesses and Rep. Park Ju-Sun, former secretary for legal affairs at Chong Wa Dae, as a reference.

Excluded from the list of witnesses was the prosecutor in charge of the Hanvit Bank scandal; Kwon Roh-Kap, a Supreme Council member of the MDP; and chief presidential secretary Han Kwang-Ok.