The annual parliamentary audit season gets underway from today.
Over the next 20 days,... over 750 government bodies will be up for inspection -- with rival parties expected to exchange barbs over a wide range of issues -- including inter-Korean relations and the government's economic policies.
Kim Min-ji reports.
The National Assembly kicks off its annual audit of government ministries and their affiliated agencies starting Wednesday.
For the next three weeks,... fourteen parliamentary committees will inspect more than 750 government bodies,... while the House Steering Committee, Intelligence Committee and the Family Committee will follow with their own audits in early November.
Although it's the second audit under the Moon Jae-in administration,... it's technically the first to focus on the current administration... since last year, it was only five months into the job.
The ruling party is expected to highlight what the Moon administration achieved during the past year,... while the opposition bloc will likely point out the government's missteps.
With that said, opposition parties will be ready to criticize the government's signature income-led growth policies,... with recent data showing the economy slowing down and job growth lagging.
But the ruling party, in turn, will likely argue that structual issues are the fault of the previous conservative governments,... and that now is the time for a change in the economic paradigm.
Another hot potato is the ratification of the summit declaration reached between the two Koreas in April.
The ruling party will likely say that the ratification is needed to support the peace drive on the Korean Peninsula and to ensure that the declaration is upheld even if there is a change in government.
But the conservative parties have been firm in saying that significant progress towards denuclearization must come first.
Other topics likely to be hotly contested include the government's drive for deregulation,... measures to curb the rise in property prices,... as well as the controversy surrounding the leak of confidential government documents by an opposition lawmaker.
Kim Min-ji, Arirang News.
