Let's start at the nation's parliament,... that's been in a state of paralysis for months now...
It's the last day of negotiations to normalize the National Assembly.
Rival parties have until 2PM today to see if they can reach some sort of compromise on the online opinion rigging scandal, and the handling of the extra budget bill.
For more, we connect to our National Assembly correspondent Kim Min-ji.
Minji,... how are things looking?

Mark.
The National Assembly Speaker and the floor leaders of the country's four negotiating blocs met this morning... in an attempt to reach some sort of last minute deal.
In meeting is still partially in progress... among the senior deputy floor leaders of the parties.... as the floor leaders themselves have left the talks... unable to find common ground.

Currently, the biggest area of contention is whether the ruling Democratic Party of Korea will accept an independent counsel probe into an online opinion rigging scandal that allegedly involves one of its lawmakers.
An influential blogger is suspected to have used a computer program to boost the number of "likes" for online comments critical of the Moon Jae-in administration in a bid to smear conservatives -- and opposition lawmakers want a probe into whether the blogger was engaged in any rigging activities in the run up to last year's presidential elections.

The ruling party has said it would accept the demand but on the condition that opposition parties simultaneously pass the government's extra budget bill during a plenary session on May 24th.
The main opposition Liberty Korea Party and the centrist Bareun Mirae Party say the probe must come first... and the ruling party shouldn't link it with other issues.

The deadline is looming. So rival parties will have to speed up their negotiations if they're going to get parliament moving again.

Yes. Roughly two hours remain before the deadline set by the National Assembly Speaker comes to an end.
The tight deadline comes as he leaves for an overseas trip on Wednesday... and both his term and the floor leader of the ruling party's term come to an end this month.
On top of that, parliament also needs to handle the resignations of lawmakers that plan to run for local elections come June.

A compromise looks like it may be difficult -- with the ruling party saying it won't make any further concessions... and the main opposition saying they won't budge unless the probe is accepted.... no strings attached.
But at the same time, there's also a belief that some sort of breakthrough is possible as the standstill has been in place for over a month... and there's pressure on the National Assembly -- having got nothing done during that time.
Hopefully I will have some positive developments in our later newscast. Back to you, Mark.