The National Assembly’s 100-day regular session ended Tuesday with less than half of pending bills approved, pushing thorny issues back to next week, when the extraordinary session begins.

Laws passed include the revised Public Service Ethics Act, and the so-called “three mother-daughter acts.”

The latter refers to revisions to three welfare-related acts prompted by the deaths of a mother and two daughters in February. The three committed suicide due to financial difficulties.

The revised Public Service Ethics Act, prompted by the April 16 ferry disaster, toughens the regulations regarding former high-level public officials finding employment in areas of the private sector related to their government jobs.

Although the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy agree that the regular session was only a “half success,” the parties continued their posturing.

Saying that the Saenuri Party had planned to process more than 300 bills during the session, party spokesman Rep. Park Dae-chul laid an indirect criticism against the NPAD.

“The regular session has ended incomplete. Time was wasted early on due to the opposition party’s out-of-arena protest,” Park said.

Park also highlighted the small number of approved economic stimulus bills, a large number of which were opposed by the NPAD from the beginning.

Saying that only eight of the 30 economic stimulus bills were passed, Park called for the remainder to be processed quickly to “supply oxygen to the suffocating economy.”

The main opposition, for its part, highlighted other issues that have been put off.

Items that have been postponed until the extraordinary session include reforming the public sector pension system, and issues surrounding irregularities in the four-rivers restoration project, “resource diplomacy” and defense projects conducted under the Lee Myung-bak administration.

The ruling party had pushed for the public sector pension system to be reformed within the year against protests from the opposition party, while the NPAD has been calling for parliamentary investigations into the projects conducted under the previous administration.

“Corruptions in ‘sa-ja-bang” and the leaking of more than 100 trillion won of state funds were revealed in the parliamentary audit, but it is regretful that the parliamentary investigation was not conducted. It will be resolved in the extraordinary session,” NPAD floor spokesman Rep. Park Wan-ju said.

The term “sa-ja-bang” is a combination of the Korean words and phrases for the four-rivers restoration project, the “resource diplomacy” of the Lee Myung-bak administration, and the defense industry.

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