Rival parties on Wednesday agreed to pass pending legislations through parliamentary plenary sessions this week and in early January.
The agreement to hold plenary sessions on Friday and Jan. 11 came after floor leaders of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) held a meeting with National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug.
The parties first agreed to pass bills related to livelihoods of people and an item of extending the working period of a special committee on media system improvement to May 2022.
A bill on lowering the age of candidacy for parliamentary and local elections to 18 from 25 is also expected to be passed Friday. The bill, which was approved by a special parliamentary committee on political reform, is currently under review by the legislation and judiciary committee.
But the DP and the PPP failed to find common ground on a bill to launch a special counsel investigation into the Seongnam development scandal involving former aides of the ruling party’s presidential nominee Lee Jae-myung.
The PPP has been demanding an independent counsel probe, arguing Lee is the mastermind behind the corruption-laden development project in 2015 as he was the mayor of Seongnam city at the time.
Meanwhile, the two sides also agreed to form a special committee supporting the country’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo in the southern port city of Busan.
Source: Yonhap News Agency