The row over the Nuri Curriculum budget expanded further Friday with the ruling and opposition parties hurling accusations of underhanded manipulations and being the administration’s puppet.

Nuri Curriculum is a free child care program for children aged 3 to 5. The program became the biggest sticking point in this year’s government budget review, with the two main parties clashing over whether local education offices or the central government should foot the bill.

On Thursday, the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy announced that the ruling Saenuri Party and Education Deputy Prime Minister Hwang Woo-yea agreed to allocate 560 billion won ($503 million) for the program.

The announcement was quickly refuted by Saenuri Party deputy floor leader Rep. Kim Jae-won, who said his party had no such intentions and that the central government bankrolling the program was against the law.

“The ruling party is damaging politics and the National Assembly’s authority,” NPAD interim leader Rep. Moon Hee-sang said.

“The Saenuri Party is even intimidating (the opposition party) to simply meet the deadline for budget review citing the National Assembly advancement act. This is preposterous.”

The National Assembly advancement act refers to a group of revisions to the National Assembly Act designed to facilitate smooth parliamentary operations. Under the revised act, the government’s budget plans will be put to a vote in the National Assembly unmodified if the parties fail to end the review by Nov. 30.

NPAD floor leader Rep. Woo Yoon-keun implied that Kim was working under orders from Cheong Wa Dae.

“A so-called heavyweight (politician) upturning the nation’s future under orders from somewhere must not come to pass,” Woo said.

Connecting the two issues of the ruling party backtracking on the agreement and its earlier warning that the budget would be processed unilaterally if necessary, Woo went on to accuse the ruling party of attempting to abuse regulations to get its way.

“The Saenuri Party trying to avoid negotiations to waste time and to push (the budget through) can only be seen as an attempt to once again trample on parliamentary politics.”

Kim, for his part, accused the main opposition of manipulating the media, and claimed that those who reached the agreement on Thursday acted without fully understanding the situation.

“(Thursday’s negotiations) should have been conducted with full understanding that the ball had already been passed to the ruling and opposition’s deputy floor leaders,” Kim said.

He added that he had no knowledge of what went on in Thursday’s talks when news reports came out, leaving him with no alternative but to say that the reports were false.

Kim added that Hwang did not agree to include the funding for the child care program in the Education Ministry’s budget. According to Kim, the agreement was for local government bonds to be issued to supplement the final budget that the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts assigns to the program.

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