National Assembly to convene extraordinary session to pass 2013 budget

The ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) have agreed to hold an extraordinary National Assembly session a day after the presidential election to deal with the government's budget plan for fiscal 2013. The fiscal year starts Jan. 1.

Officials of the two parties said they submitted on Dec. 17 to the Assembly secretariat a request for convening the 12-day special session.

A plenary session will be held on Dec. 27 and 28 to pass the budget and related bills, the officials said.

The spending plan for next year is scaled at 342.5 trillion won, a 5.3 percent or 17.1 trillion won increase from this year.

During the last parliamentary session, the parties failed to narrow differences on spending cuts.

Under the law, the budget should be approved by Dec. 2, 30 days before the start of every fiscal year, but the parties have passed it near or on the final day of the fiscal year in the past.

Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com