Korea’s two main parties returned to tussling over the presidential transcript disclosure and the special probe into the National Intelligence Service this week, as they regrouped after flying off on a tangent over an opposition lawmaker’s insults about President Park Geun-hye.

The commotion over Democratic Party Rep. Hong Ihk-pyo’s remarks that Park was a “gwitae,” or a “baby born to a ghost,” during a briefing Thursday subsided over the weekend, following Hong’s resignation as party floor spokesman and an apology from DP leader Kim Han-gil.

Cheong Wa Dae had inveighed against Hong for stepping out of line while the Saenuri Party boycotted all parliamentary activity over Hong’s use of the word, which can be interpreted as a child of someone who should never have been born.

The ruling camp’s full-on counterattack was seen as designed to head off attempts to question the legitimacy of Park’s election and rekindle the debate over the iron-fisted rule of her father, former President Park Chung-hee.

DP lawmakers have recently made comments linking Park’s election win with the alleged online smear campaign conducted by the NIS against then-DP flag bearer Rep. Moon Jae-in.

After the floor leaders agreed to normalize the parliamentary schedule Saturday, the parties wrapped up a parliamentary probe into public medical infrastructure. They agreed to file a complaint with the prosecution against conservative South Gyeongsang Province Gov. Hong Joon-pyo for rejecting a summons to appear before parliament in connection with the probe.

They will also have a preliminary viewing of the confidential transcript of the 2007 inter-Korean summit kept at the National Archives of Korea on Monday.

The parties requested the viewing in an intensifying political row over remarks made by then-President Roh Moo-hyun that allegedly disregarded the validity of the de facto sea border with North Korea in the West Sea.

On Sunday, DP Rep. Yun Ho-jung disclosed what he said were copies of West Sea maps detailing the envisioned joint fishing zone and other special zones in the equal areas from the NLL that were purportedly delivered to then-North Korea leader Kim Jong-il during the summit. He said the maps proved Roh had no intention to nullify the line.

The NIS and the Saenuri Party has been claiming Roh did not refer to any “equal areas” when laying the vision out to Kim.

The Saenuri Party remained unfazed by the DP’s newest claim, arguing that while proposing “equal areas” as standard may have been the original plan, Roh did not follow through at the actual summit.

The two sides are likely to butt heads over how much of the transcript to disclose and how to interpret the remarks in question. Five members from each party have been chosen to read the transcript after signing a confidentiality agreement.

They have chosen seven keywords to search, which include: Northern Limit Line; NLL; inter-Korean summit; equal distance and space; military boundary line; inter-Korean defense ministerial talks; and general-level talks.

The National Archives have so far gathered two suitcases’ worth of documents containing the keywords, from which the members will pick out the actual materials to read.

Once the final list for viewing is decided, the National Archives will send two copies of the documents to the National Assembly for the members to peruse over 10 days.

By law, disclosing information from the presidential archives to the public is prohibited. But the lawmakers are planning to use their privilege of exemption from liability for speaking in parliament to release a “minimum amount” of information, by reporting it to the House Steering Committee.

The rival parties are also in a tug-of-war over an investigation into the NIS. The Saenuri Party is against moving forward unless two of the DP members accused of harassing an NIS official are excluded from the committee. The DP has dismissed this as an attempt by the Saenuri Party to politicize the matter.

Many aspects of the probe are left for the parties to agree on including the list of witnesses, scope of the probe, and ways to reform the NIS.

All the while, another potentially explosive issue looms ahead following the Board of Audit and Inspection’s report that found that the Lee Myung-bak administration had misled the public over the purpose of the four-river refurbishment project.

The DP has started to demand a parliamentary investigation into the project, which replaced Lee’s “grand canal” ambitions, while the Saenuri Party is reluctant to open such a probe.

By Lee Joo-hee (jhl@heraldcorp.com)