Political standoff escalates with opposition`s street protest over NIS probe

The political standoff between major rival political parties has escalated, as the main opposition Democratic Party launched its first outdoor campaign Thursday since the launch of the Park Geun-hye administration amid a deadlocked parliamentary investigation into the National Intelligence Service`s alleged intervention of last year`s presidential election. The ruling Saenuri Party criticized the opposition party for disrupting the parliamentary process.

The Democratic Party set up the headquarters of the campaign named "the headquarters for the people`s movement for restoring democracy and reforming the NIS," in front of the Seoul city hall. Around 80 opposition lawmakers handed out publicity material on the streets.

During a meeting of his fellow lawmakers, opposition party leader Kim Han-gil denounced the ruling party for refusing to investigate the spy agency. "I cannot understand what the Saenuri Party is so afraid of that it cannot put former NIS Director Won Sei-hoon and former Seoul Metropolitan Police chief Kim Yong-pan on the witness stand (at parliamentary hearings)," he said.

The opposition party expanded its street campaign to other areas in central Seoul and plans to hold a candlelight vigil at the Cheonggye Square with civic groups from 6:00 p.m. on Saturday to call for the NIS`s reform.

The ruling party claimed that the Democratic Party was pushed by hard-line members into paralyzing the parliamentary probe. Saenuri`s floor leader Choi Kyoung-hwan said in an emergency party meeting that the opposition`s hard-liners were using the protest to turn the table in their favor. "It isn`t really desirable for the leadership of the No. 1 opposition party to be pushed by hard-liners to break up the parliamentary investigation. I feel sorry for the (DP`s) leadership."

Though the two parties` floor leaders and first deputy floor leaders got together Thursday afternoon for last-ditch negotiations, they failed to narrow differences over the agreement to seek a court warrant ordering the two witnesses to appear at the hearings in case they choose not to show up.