President Park Geun-hye’s government went without a full Cabinet for the 15th day since her inauguration as the two main political parties failed to reach an agreement over the proposed revision of the Government Organization Act.

What began with a debate over whether the new government plan could hurt the integrity of broadcasters spread into a political blame game soon after, further bogging down the half-baked operation of state affairs.

Although significant progress has been made in the talks with both sides being more open to a compromise, the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic United Party remain at odds, particularly over the issue of giving the new Ministry of Future Planning and Science authority over system operators.

Also known as cable television operators, system operators, or SOs, are companies that relay content made by program providers. At present the Korea Communications Commission is in charge of related matters.

The DUP, however, has resisted the plans saying that giving a government ministry that has a single decision maker will damage the integrity of broadcasts. Unlike ministries, the KCC’s leadership consists of a chairman, vice chair and three standing commissioners. The main sticking-point for the DUP has been the SOs’ ability to designate the channel used by a particular program provider with the exception of terrestrial broadcasters and general programming cable channels such as Channel A and TV Chosun.

As such, the opposition party has claimed that if the Science Ministry is given the authority over cable operators, the government will be able to influence the channel designation process. Channels with small numbers, ranging from one to 30, are considered more favorable for business in the local broadcasting industry.

The DUP claims that this, which in turn could result in program providers that are less government friendly being designated larger channel numbers than pro-government program providers, is evidence of the new government’s plans for dominating the broadcast media.

For its part the Saenuri Party has repeatedly rejected the claims, with its leaders referring to the DUP’s position as a “creative novel” and as a misinterpretation of the Broadcasting Act.

“(I) can’t understand how the fairness of broadcasting is related to authority over subscription channels. A subscription channel simply plays content received (from program providers), and anyone with some knowledge of broadcasting knows that they do not concern fairness of broadcasts,” Saenuri Party floor leader Rep. Lee Hahn-koo recently told the media.

Following the DUP leadership’s mention of Article 6 of the Broadcasting Act, the clause 1 of which states that news reports must be impartial and objective, Saenuri deputy floor leader Kim Gi-hyeon hit back berating the opposition of misunderstanding the law.

With repeated meetings between the parties’ leadership failing, DUP floor leader Rep. Park Ki-choon put forward three prerequisites for his party accepting the proposed revision on March 6.

The DUP’s conditions include opening a parliamentary hearing into media-related issues that took place during the Lee Myung-bak administration, MBC president Kim Jae-chul’s resignation, and an investigation into the former journalist.

The DUP has also included plans to make it mandatory for those nominated for executive positions in state-owned broadcasters to be approved by two-thirds of the KCC’s five-member committee.

The opposition’s conditions, however, were immediately rejected by the Saenuri Party that dismissed them as being unrelated to the Government Organization Act revision.

The DUP’s plans are not without opposition, particularly the condition that will make a two-thirds approval necessary to appoint executives of state-owned broadcasters.

Of the KCC’s five senior-most officials, three are recommended by the government and the ruling party and two are recommended by the opposition party.

With the ruling party being likely to recommend individuals within its sphere of influence, the condition would make it very difficult for an executive of a broadcasting company to be appointed without the opposition’s approval.

With the DUP reportedly suggesting to the Saenuri Party that it will allow the government reorganization to occur as planned by the president as long as this condition is accepted, some have criticized the opposition of attempting to secure influence over broadcasters for itself.

As the lengthy talks continue, the two sides are assigning blaming to each other.

The ruling party has blamed forces within the DUP that control the negotiations, while the opposition is shifting the blame more and more to President Park.

“The reason an agreement can’t be reached with the DUP is the masterminding forces within the DUP,” Saenuri Party’s Lee said in a recent interview with a local daily, referring to a group of lawmakers and party members belonging to a faction that has taken a hard line stance on the issue.

For its part the DUP, which has called for the president to give the ruling party more leeway in negotiating from the beginning, has blamed Park as the source of the gridlock.

Since the two sides began talks on the proposed Government Organization Act revision last month, the DUP has been claiming that the president has ordered the ruling party to push for the original revisions to be passed.

“While a stalemate is caused not in small part by the ruling and opposition parties, the fundamental cause came from Cheong Wa Dae’s excessive involvement in the legislative process,” Rep. Lee Yong-sup told the media on Sunday, saying that the Cheong Wa Dae remaining uninvolved in the issue was the key to a quick resolution.

“According to the negotiation teams of the ruling and opposition parties, Cheong Wa Dae’s refusal (to approve the compromise reached by the two parties) has resulted in today’s stalemate despite the fact that the issue only required the signatures of the two floor leaders on March 3.”

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)