Rival parties at last agreed to open the new parliamentary term next week, ending the month-long standoff over the allocation of key parliamentary committees and the investigation of government irregularities.

The floor leaders of the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic United Party met on Friday and consented to open an initial parliamentary session on July 2 to elect a speaker and two vice speakers.

Under the current law, the corresponding session was to be held on June 5 but the leading parties have until recently been in a fix over the share of chairmanship over crucial in-house panels.

They also stood at odds over follow-up measures on several irregularity allegations, including the government’s illicit surveillance of civilians and the now-invalidated President Lee Myung-bak’s retirement home purchase.

It was decided that the 150-seat ruling party is to take control of 10 out of 18 parliamentary standing committees and the 127-seat DUP is to chair the remaining eight, including the land committee and the health and welfare committee, according to the joint statement.

The left-wing party is to keep the legislation and judiciary committee, which holds the final reviewing authority over legislation before it is handed over to the general assembly for vote.

The parties also compromised on holding a parliamentary inspection into the civilian surveillance and an independent counsel probe into the President Lee’s retirement home case.

The opposition party earlier demanded that both cases be dealt in a parliamentary probe, claiming that an independent counsel would easily be swayed by the presidential house and the ruling party.

The Saenuri camp refused the DUP’s plan but made an eleventh-hour compromise on the surveillance case late on Thursday.

The two parties also agreed that the months-long walkout of the broadcaster MBC is to be dealt with by the culture committee.

The DUP has so far insisted on an official open hearing on the issue but the ruling party claimed that the parliament should refrain from excessive intervention.

The inter-party agreement also stated the parties are to submit a motion to review the qualifications of two disputed lawmakers of the scandal-laden Unified Progressive Party ― Reps. Lee Seok-ki and Kim Jae-yeon.

Should the motion be passed, the two are to lose their parliamentary seat, regardless of the UPP’s attempt to strip them of their party membership.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)