A parliamentary review of next year’s government budget kicked off Monday, foreshadowing a fierce battle between the rival parties already in conflict over state-authored textbooks and Seoul’s failed transfer of fighter jet technology from Washington.

The National Assembly’s budget and accounts committee held a public hearing, the first step in a legislative review of the Park Geun-hye administration’s 386 trillion won budget drafted for next year. 

Nine parliamentary committees, including the Planning and Finance Committee and the National Defense Commission, also held separate meetings to verify the validity of the annual budget. 

President Park is also set to deliver her annual speech at the parliament on Tuesday, to request lawmakers to end bipartisan wrangling over the state-authored textbooks and pass the bill by the Nov. 30 deadline. In order to put the bill to a vote at a plenary session, the bill has to be approved by related subparliamentary committees.

The bill, however, is expected to face a tough road ahead with the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy vowing an all-out war against Park’s plan to issue textbooks written by state-designated writers, including a plan to boycott a proposed talk with the ruling Saenuri Party to resolve pending issues. The NPAD also plans to hold outdoor rallies against Park’s state-authored textbook drive.

The plan itself does not require the legislature’s approval. But the government must seek parliamentary endorsement to spend taxpayers’ money to implement the plan. 

The government has already allocated 4.4 billion won of reserve funds toward the estimated cost of 10 billion won to publish the controversial textbooks. The NPAD, however, has already pledged to disapprove the plan and also plans to request the government to cut the annual budget of the National History Compilation Committee, in an apparent tit for tat.

Rival parties are also expected to lock horns over the special allowance allocated to the spy agency, with the NPAD threatening to cut the budget on the National Intelligence Service and instead increase the welfare budget. 

The NPAD has been demanding imposing stricter monitoring on the government’s spending on special activities, including the money spent by the NIS. The ruling Saenuri Party has been rejecting the demand, citing confidentiality concerns of the spy agency’s activities.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)