The National Assembly failed to convene on Tuesday as major parties engaged in a tug-of-war over committee control and the scandal involving far-left lawmakers.

The ruling Saenuri Party and opposition Democratic United Party had agreed to open the 19th Assembly’s first plenary session at 10 a.m. that day to confirm each party’s nomination of speaker and vice speakers.

But the DUP boycotted the session to demand the chairmanship of one of the three most important parliamentary panels. Most Saenuri members showed up on time, only to leave shortly after.

The parties also differ over sensitive issues including alleged government surveillance of civilians and media industry strikes.

Politicians continued to wrangle over the Saenuri Party’s proposal for stern punishment of activists-turned-opposition-lawmakers deemed “pro-North Korea” including Lee Seok-gi and Kim Jae-yeon of the minor Unified Progressive Party and Lim Su-kyung of the DUP. 

“The Saenuri Party suggested that we first elect the speaker and the vice speaker, but this would be meaningless (unless parties reach a consensus over the committees),” DUP’s floor leader and interim chief Rep. Park Jie-won said.

His Saenuri counterpart Rep. Lee Hahn-koo denounced the opposition for holding the parliamentary proceedings hostage for the sake of political gain.

“Parties should respect the minimum legal formalities in order to win the people’s trust,” Lee said.

The ruling party had elected sixth-term Rep. Kang Chang-hee as its parliamentary speaker candidate and fourth-term Lee Byung-suk for vice speaker. On Monday the DUP named fourth-term lawmaker Park Byeong-seug as its vice speaker candidate.

The early tension raised concerns that the legislature could remain in a stalemate for months.

In 2008 the 18th National Assembly took 42 days to elect its speaker and another 89 days to settle the parliamentary committee allocation. The lawmakers came under fire for putting partisan gains ahead of the public interest.

“Parties do not seem to have made any progress, despite their resolve to shake off old vices and to focus on the people’s livelihood,” said an official of the parliamentary secretariat.

The two sides earlier agreed that the ruling party is to chair 10 out of the 18 standing committees, while the DUP takes the remaining eight.

But the opposition party would not yield its claim over one of the three ― state affairs, land or culture committees.

All three of them are currently chaired by the conservative party and are expected to deal with key pending issues such as the savings banks investigation, four-river project and the media strike.

The Saenuri Party, as a compromise, offered to give up either the foreign affairs or the national defense panel, in exchange for chairmanship of the legislation and judiciary committee, but the DUP refused.

Another point of disagreement is an investigation of government irregularities.

The DUP demanded that a parliamentary investigation be launched into the allegations that the Lee Myung-bak administration led illicit surveillance of civilians. A thorough probe is required to solve the months-long walkout at major media companies, the opposition party said.

The Saenuri Party, however, called for an individual counsel for the spying scandal but denied the need for a separate probe into the media strike.

Parties also clashed over the punishment of Rep. Lim Su-kyung, who came under fire Sunday for remarks about North Korean defectors, and Rep. Ha Tae-keung, an activist-turned-lawmaker of the right-wing camp.

“Lawmakers who fail to respect basic human rights and democratic order may have to be reevaluated on their qualifications,” said Saenuri chief Rep. Hwang Woo-yea on Tuesday.

DUP leader Rep. Park, however, said he would not impose any penalty on Lim, though he admitted that her remarks were rash and inappropriate.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)