(LEAD) Ruling party to form committee for ferry victims

(ATTN: UPDATES with postponement of hearings in parliamentary investigation in last 5 paras)

SEOUL, Aug. 1 (Yonhap) -- The ruling Saenuri Party will establish a committee dedicated to helping the families of the victims of April's deadly ferry sinking, the party's floor leader said Friday, amid an impasse in efforts to draw up parliamentary measures.

The plan comes as the ruling party and the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) have been locked in a bitter dispute over a special bill calling for the creation of a fact-finding committee to determine the cause of the April 16 disaster that claimed the lives of more than 300 people, mostly high school students.

The parties have especially been at odds over how much investigative power the fact-finding committee should have.

"Internal issues within the opposition party have caused a setback in the current parliamentary session, but our party will gather all we can and make preparations," Rep. Lee One-koo, the ruling party's floor leader, said during a general meeting of party lawmakers, apparently referring to the opposition party's crushing defeat in Wednesday's parliamentary by-elections in which it won only four of the 15 seats up for grabs.

NPAD's two co-leaders resigned on Thursday to take responsibility for the defeat.

"We will take a more forward-looking and proactive approach than before the elections with the issues of the victims through contact with the families," Lee said. "We will draw up and carry out practical measures to help the victims, those missing and their families."

The new committee will arrange one-on-one meetings between any of the 158 ruling party lawmakers and family members, if requested by the families, he added.

A separate parliamentary investigation into the cause of the ferry disaster has also been stalled amid partisan disputes.

With a series of hearings scheduled for next week, the rival parties held talks to discuss who should stand as witnesses, but clashed over the opposition party's demand for President Park Geun-hye's chief of staff, Kim Ki-choon, among others.

"The opposition party's aim in the parliamentary investigation is not to determine the truth, but to put a blemish on the administration," Rep. Cho Won-jin, the ruling party leader on the investigation team, said in a press briefing following a meeting with his NPAD counterpart, Kim Hyun-mi.

Kim, however, argued that the hearings would be incomplete without testimonies from key figures.

The two parties agreed to reschedule the hearings to later this month, both sides said.

hague@yna.co.kr
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