The main parties agreed Thursday to convene a parliamentary panel overseeing the presidential secretariat, with the opposition vowing to grill officials on the ongoing feud between President Park Geun-hye and the ruling party that has paralyzed the legislature.

Friday’s House Steering Committee session is expected to be a verbal battle between backers of Park and sympathizers of Rep. Yoo Seong-min, the Saenuri floor leader urged by the president to step down. 

The main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy is also expected to question Park’s secretaries over her veto of a bill enabling lawmakers to request changes to government decrees.

No easy mediation appeared in the offing, with the ruling party’s in-house feud escalating earlier Thursday when Park loyalists and Yoo sympathizers threw expletives at one another, and with the NPAD renewing its pressure against the ruling bloc to repeal Park’s veto.

Park last week vetoed the bill that Yoo had sponsored. Park called it unconstitutional, and demanded voters vote against Yoo in the 2016 general election. Park loyalists approved. Yoo sympathizers branded Park a bully.

Park’s comments also sparked criticism in the NPAD. Main opposition officials said the president had violated electoral laws prohibiting officials from meddling in public elections by suggesting voters oust Yoo. 

NPAD officials earlier Thursday requested the electoral commission to check if Park had broken such laws when Park criticized Yoo. Main opposition officials also criticized the ruling bloc’s in-house fight, saying the power struggle between Park and Yoo had strangled the parliament.

“We are dumbfounded by the president’s decision to hold hostage the public and the legislature to her fight (with Yoo),” NPAD Rep. Kang Dong-won said.

“The Park loyalists in the Saenuri Party seem to me like worker bees trying to protect their queen,” Kang added. “But Park must know that every queen bee eventually dies at the hands of her workers.”

The NPAD’s senior lawmakers held impromptu street rallies the same day, to raise awareness about the ruling bloc’s fight and Park’s veto that started it.

NPAD officials urged the ruling party to attend next Monday’s plenary session when Park’s veto will be put to a revote. The NPAD is mulling whether to link Park’s veto to a supplementary budget bill that the ruling party motioned if the Saenuri Party does not attend next week’s vote.

Meanwhile, the ruling party’s Park-Yoo feud worsened.

Rep. Kim Tae-ho, a new convert to the Park-loyalist faction, repeated demands that Yoo resign his floor leadership at the party’s morning meeting.

Saenuri chairman Rep. Kim Moo-sung, widely considered a quiet Yoo sympathizer, exited the room, appearing frustrated, after telling Rep. Kim Tae-ho to “cut it out.”

The meeting room erupted in fury, with Yoo sympathizers exiting behind chairman Kim.

Saenuri Rep. Kim Hack-yong, another Yoo sympathizer, could be heard cursing at Rep. Kim Tae-ho as he exited the room, although he denied the reports.

By Jeong Hunny (hj257@heraldcorp.com)