The National Assembly is set to begin work this week after nearly a month of idling, but the ruling and opposition parties are expected to clash over a string of contentious issues, including a pension program for senior citizens.
The ruling Saenuri and the main opposition Democratic parties are scheduled to hold a plenary session of the Assembly on Monday under an agreement reached last week to normalize the parliament that's been plagued by an election meddling scandal and other rows.
The current session opened on Sept. 2 for a 100-day run, but nearly a month has been wasted as the opposition party focused on an outdoor protest campaign over allegations that the state intelligence agency meddled in last year's presidential election.
Despite the normalization, debate at the Assembly is expected to be heated going forward as the rival parties are wide apart on a number of key issues, including the scaled-back pension program for senior citizens and how to reform the National Intelligence Service.
The "basic pension" plan was one of President Park Geun-hye's key campaign pledges during last year's presidential election. It called for giving a monthly allowance of 200,000 won ($186) to all senior citizens aged 65 or above regardless of their income levels.
But under the budget proposal for next year, the pension scheme was cut back in a way that pays a monthly allowance to the poorest 70 percent of senior citizens, rather than all of them. Officials blamed a tight budget for the revision, and Park apologized for the revision.
The opposition party has since accused Park of making a false campaign promise in an attempt to win the votes of senior citizens.
The opposition has also vowed to revise the budget proposal to implement the pension program as promised.
"What is important is the attitude to keep election promises made to the people," opposition floor leader Jun Byung-hun said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency. "It amounts to regarding the people as suckers to say it is difficult to keep promises because of financial reasons."
But Jun's ruling party counterpart, Rep. Choi Kyoung-hwan, insisted that it would be irresponsible to stick to a program that has become financially unsustainable due to the worsening economic situation.
"We have already apologized for not giving (pensions) to all senior citizens," Choi said in a separate interview with Yonhap. "I believe the people would understand if we explain the inevitability involved in this."
On Sunday, a top presidential aide sought to dispel misunderstandings about the pension program for senior citizens, including one that it is designed to use money from the separate national pension fund.
"This is not true at all. The national pension fund, which is made up of insurance premiums paid by people, will remain unchanged," said Choi Won-young, the senior presidential secretary for welfare affairs, during a press conference.
On the reform of the spy agency NIS, the ruling party says the agency should come up with its own self-reform measures first before the National Assembly reviews and supplements them. But the opposition party claims a separate parliamentary entity should be established to draw up NIS reform measures.
How to reform the NIS has been a key issue since allegations surfaced that the agency attempted to influence December's presidential election by mobilizing some of its agents to post Internet comments critical of the then opposition candidate.
Other contentious issues include the resignation of Prosecutor-General Chae Dong-wook over allegations that he has a son through an extramarital affair. The opposition accused the government of forcing him out of office for aggressively pursuing a probe into the election meddling scandal. (Yonhap News)
