The rival political parties on Monday broke a deadlock in negotiations over electing new leadership and forming standing committees for the second half of the 21st National Assembly.

Main opposition Democratic Party(DP) floor leader Park Hong-keun said his party will accept the ruling People Power Party's(PPP) proposal to cooperate in electing the speaker as long as the DP agrees to elect committee chairs through a bipartisan deal.

This comes after a month-long parliamentary vacuum resulting from the parties' wrangling, including over the chairmanship of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, which the DP had earlier agreed to hand over.

With its majority in parliament, the DP had previously considered unilaterally electing the speaker by convening an extraordinary session for July.

Hours before the session was set to start Monday afternoon, the PPP suggested a concession: it would support the DP in electing the speaker if the opposition cooperated in electing the committee chairs.