As expected, the monthlong extraordinary parliamentary session that began Monday is sailing thorough rough waters, darkening prospects for its legislative business.

The contentious issue that stands in the way of a smooth operation of the parliament is the escalating scandal surrounding the leak of Blue House documents and alleged behind-the-scenes influence-peddling by President Park Geun-hye’s former and incumbent aides.

The opposition, bent on taking advantage of the scandal, which is pulling down Park’s approval ratings to a record low, is mounting political offensive against the ruling camp. It is even demanding a parliamentary investigation and a probe by an independent counsel, as well as a sweeping shuffle of the Blue House and the administration.

What’s worrisome is the confrontation over the scandal endangers the previous agreement between the ruling and opposition parties to push for a reform of the pension plans for government workers.

The agreement was part of a “package” of deals between the rival parties, which also included an accord on the launch of a parliamentary investigation of the alleged wrongdoings involving overseas resources development projects undertaken by the Lee Myung-bak administration.

The problem is that the rival parties have different positions on how to put the agreement into action.

The main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy deserves the larger blame for the deadlock, as it insists that the parliament first launch the probe into the resources development projects and “take enough time” to discuss the pension reform plans. The ruling Saenuri Party also cannot avoid criticism for demanding the resources projects probe be expanded to those carried out during the previous liberal governments of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun.

This shows that the rival parties regard an issue as important as the pension reforms as a matter that can be traded off with other legislative or political agenda. More than 12 trillion won in taxpayers’ money has been spent to make up for the deficit in civil service pensions and another 53 trillion won will be needed in the coming 10 years unless action is taken. The time bomb should be disabled quickly.