National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik has called on the ruling and opposition parties to confer to handle three contentious bills next Thursday, right after the Chuseok holidays. 

Woo made the call on Wednesday during a news conference in parliament with regard to two bills seeking to launch special probes into allegations surrounding first lady Kim Keon-hee and last year's Marine death report as well as a bill on promoting the use of local currency vouchers. 

The three bills were unilaterally passed by an opposition bloc led by the main opposition Democratic Party(DP) through the Legislation and Judiciary Committee earlier in the day. 

Woo’s call came as some observers said the bills could be submitted during a plenary session scheduled for Thursday. 

Woo told reporters that the biggest task at hand for the National Assembly is to promptly address the conflict between the government and doctors over medical reforms. 

The speaker urged rival camps to focus on activating a new dialogue channel, involving the rival parties, the government and the medical community, to discuss the medical school admissions quota hike and other health care reform issues.