While the July parliamentary provisional session is slated to end on Friday, the leading parties remain at odds on whether to kick off another session immediately.

The main opposition Democratic United Party claimed that an immediate session was needed to deal with pending issues, while the ruling Saenuri Party denounced it as a scheme to deter the arrest of DUP floor leader Rep. Park Jie-won, who faces bribery allegations.

Parliamentary speaker Kang Chang-hee on Wednesday called for a session to be held on Saturday morning, on behalf of the 128 DUP members.

The left-wing party’s demand was filed on Tuesday, the same day Rep. Park turned himself in to the prosecution to answer questions over allegations he took kickbacks amounting to 80 million won ($70,784) from troubled Solomon Savings Bank.

The prosecution called off its initial motion to arrest Park, but is expected to once again file for a warrant, should the floor leader refuse to respond to future summons.

Park’s party, however, called for parliamentary attention to issues other than the bribery probe.

“Now that Rep. Park has voluntarily acceded to the prosecution’s summon, we should now focus on the people’s livelihoods,” said party chief Rep. Lee Hae-chan.

He also urged for a state investigation into the government’s illicit surveillance of civilians and an independent counsel of President Lee Myung-bak’s retirement house purchase.

“The Saenuri Party’s suggestion to delay the session until mid-August is an attempt to obscure the irregularities of the Lee regime and to neglect urgent pending issues concerning the people’s lives,” said DUP floor spokesperson Woo Won-shik.

Despite these arguments, the party has largely failed to escape public suspicion that it is sheltering Park in fear that his arrest may deal a blow to its upcoming presidential election campaign.

The ruling party, on the other hand, accused the DUP of shielding its floor leader by abusing lawmakers’ immunity.

Under the current National Assembly Act, the arrest of incumbent lawmakers during session requires a majority approval of the house.

“It is a pity that the DUP called for a parliamentary session for the sake of their political self-defense,” said floor leader Rep. Lee Hahn-koo in a party meeting on Wednesday.

The right-wing party thus gestured to veto the DUP-initiated August session but pledged to take part in the meeting when the arrest motion for Park is to be put to vote.

“We will summon all of our lawmakers through every possible means in order to achieve a majority vote, once the motion is delivered to the assembly,” said Saenuri floor leader Rep. Hong Il-pyo.

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