The parliamentary speaker and the floor leaders of rival parties met Monday to discuss ways to open an extraordinary session next month for the passage of bills on reforms and people's livelihoods.

Speaker Moon Hee-sang held a meeting with Hong Young-pyo, the floor leader of the ruling Democratic Party, and Kim Kwan-young of the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party.

Kim Sung-tae of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party was absent due to scheduled obligations with his party.

The meeting was supposed to be held last week, but it was put off due to the death of Roh Hoe-chan, an iconic progressive politician who served as the floor leader of the minor opposition Justice Party.

"I have no doubt that parliament will handle the motions in August," Moon said at the start of the meeting. "I would like to discuss ways to hold subcommittees to review bills on a regular basis for a competent parliament."

Last week, the National Assembly completed the formation of 18 standing committees for the second half of its four-year term. The parliament was inactive for more than 40 days until early July due mainly to the June 13 local elections.

Parliament is facing a pile of pending bills to be approved at a time when the Korean economy is slowing on sluggish facility investment and weak exports.

The DP and the two opposition parties agreed earlier to pass bills on people's livelihoods in August.

In a related move, they will launch a task force Tuesday to discuss how to handle such motions, though they differed on details.

The DP wants the National Assembly to focus on passing so-called five bills on regulatory innovations.

The motions include an introduction of a "regulatory sandbox" that will allow companies in new innovative industries to be free from excessive regulations for a certain period of time.

But the LKP called for dealing with a bill on "regulation-free zones" that call for across-the-board deregulation in designated industries. (Yonhap)