The National Assembly was normalized Monday as the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) decided to withdraw its boycott of budget deliberation, a party spokeswoman said.
The decision was made and endorsed in separate meetings of party leaders and lawmakers, Jeon Hyun-heui, spokeswoman of the party, told reporters.
The party, however, will launch a campaign out of the Assembly, including a signature drive, to demand a parliamentary inquiry and a probe by special prosecutors into suspicions over the presidential office's illegal surveillance of civilians, the spokeswoman said.
Sohn Hak-kyu, party chairman, was to begin on Monday a sit-in rally at a square in front of the Seoul City Hall, Jeon said. The protest will continue until Monday next week, she said.
The budget review had been disrupted since the DP launched its boycott on Wednesday to protest a controversial prosecution investigation into
allegations that dozens of ruling and opposition lawmakers received money from an association of private security guards in return for helping pass a revision bill to improve their working conditions.
Angered by what they charge is a politically driven investigation aimed at distracting the public from suspicions being raised against the
presidential office, Cheong Wa Dae, the DP had gone on a full-scale fight against the administration and the prosecution over the probe.
The legal deadline for passing next year's budget is Dec. 2. Rival parties met the deadline only once in the 2000s when they quickly
compromised shortly before the 2002 presidential election.
Meanwhile, the prosecution said Monday it sent out summonses to lawmakers suspected of being involved in the lobbying scandal.