After a weeklong legislative impasse, rival parties returned to the National Assembly to resume parliamentary audit on Tuesday. But they continued to clash at standing committees over some highly political issues.

Scandals involving close associates of President Park Geun-hye were high on the agenda for lawmakers from liberal opposition Minjoo Party, while the lawmakers from the conservative ruling Saenuri Party sought to play them down.

In one of the scandals, President Park’s confidant is alleged to have used influence to offer favors to conglomerate-funded foundation, while Park’s senior secretary for civil affairs Woo Byoung-woo is accused of taking bribes in the other scandal.

Opposition parties’ lawmakers at parliamentary committees dealing with legislative and tourism issues urged the prosecutors to promptly investigate the burgeoning scandals, while Saenuri dismissed the call as a political stint to undermine the president.

“For the rest of the audit session, we will focus on the allegation surrounding Mir Foundation and K-Sports Foundation,” said The Minjoo Party of Korea’s floor leader Rep. Woo Sang-ho, referring to the entities suspected of raising massive funds from conglomerates by pulling strings through a close associate of Park.

The Minjoo Party lawmakers at Education, Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee grilled officials at Korea Tourism Organization and Korea Sports Promotion Foundation over whether they were involved with helping a Taekwondo team recruited by K-Sports accompany President Park’s trip to Iran in May as a special treatment.

Rep. Baek Hye-ryun of The Minjoo Party urged the prosecutors to promptly investigate the allegation, arguing that the business groups tied to the scandal had ordered their employees to eliminate relevant evidence.

Last month, An Chong-bum, senior presidential secretary for policy coordination, was accused by a civic group of leading the dubious fundraising efforts along with Choi Soon-sil, who was known to close with President Park and involved with establishing the dubious entities.

The Minjoo Party lawmakers also stepped up their attacks on the bribery scandal involved with presidential aide Woo. Rep. Cho Eung-chun, who served as a former presidential secretary for civil service until he resigned in 2015, criticized prosecutors for being worried about Cheong Wa Dae and delaying the investigation.

The Saenuri Party lawmakers, for their part, appeared to be on defensive and urged their counterparts to refrain from raising what they view as a groundless allegation for political gains. Most Saenuri members questioned the government officials and other witnesses over the issues irrelevant to the controversy.

“Since we are under tight schedule for the audit session, I hope we should avoid controversial issue,” said Rep. Kim Jin-tae of the Saenuri Party who sits on the Legislative Committee. “The parliamentary audit should focus on the people’s livelihood, not political tit-for-tat.”

But the Saenuri Party lawmakers at Security and Public Administration Committee criticized Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon over his policy to help the young unemployed find jobs by offering them monthly subsidy worth of some 500 thousand won ($450) for up to six months.

“Some young people don’t quite fit the purpose of the program,” said Rep. Chang Je-won of the Saenuri Party. Citing the case where an applicant whose family’s annual income worth of 160 million had received the subsidy, he dismissed the initiative as “populist policy.”

Some lawmakers attacked the mayor over his political ambition. Rep. Lee Yong-ho of the third-biggest People Party asked whether Mayor Park, one of the flag-bearers in the Minjoo Party, would leave his office to run for the 2018 presidential election.

Park said that his decision to run for the top office is something that “he cannot decide on his own but requires the peoples’ call.” “I am giving a lot of thought to this plan but I also understand how important it is to serve as Seoul Mayor,” said Park.

By Yeo Jun-suk(jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)