Korea's rival parties have reached an agreement on a plan of action aimed at temporarily ending a three-week standoff over pending bills, including the ratification of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement and deregulation of the media industry.

With the current session of parliament slated to end on Thursday, negotiators from both parties have agreed to hold an extraordinary session starting this week to vote on some of the bills in question and follow it up with a meeting next month.

With regard to the highly controversial FTA with the U.S., the ruling and opposition parties both pledged to vote on the accord soon after U.S. president-elect Barack Obama takes office on Jan. 20.

Arirang News