There's just 70 days to go before Koreans head to the polls for local elections in mid-June.<br />The elections have been largely overshadowed by the rapid developments in terms of North Korea diplomacy and other political affairs at the National Assembly -- but candidates are busy readying their campaigns.<br />For more, we connect to our political correspondent Kim Min-ji on the phone.<br />Min-ji, a big name throws his hat into the ring today?<br /><br /> Mark, that's right.<br />Former presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo, and now who heads the Bareun Mirae Party's committee for recruiting candidates for local elections,... will announce his bid for Seoul mayor in about 30 minute's time.<br /> It's his second time -- back in 2011,... he announced a bid -- but dropped out of the race expressing support for Park Won-soon -- who is now competing for a third term.<br />The Seoul mayor post is expected to be hotly contested,... with Park planning to run again and two veteran lawmakers within the ruling Democratic Party of Korea seeking to run.<br />The ruling party will be holding primaries and a candidate will be finalized sometime in mid-April.<br />From the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, the candidate will be former two-time governor of Gyeonggi-do Province Kim Moon-soo.<br /><br /> Wow... so quite the field of heavy-hitters already. While the race for Seoul mayor heats up,... preparations continue for the local elections. We know the parties have a full plate of tasks to be getting on with. The April session at the National Assembly has made no progress whatsoever.<br /><br /> You're right. The April session was supposed to kick off on Monday -- but parliament has been at practical standstill with rival parties at odds over key contentious bills.<br /> The ruling Democratic Party of Korea hopes to pass a bill establishing an investigative agency to deal exclusively with corruption among high-ranking officials,... while the opposition wants to pass a revision to the broadcasting act... that would guarantee neutrality and fairness at public broadcasters.<br />Floor leaders of the country's negotiating parties met this morning -- however, they failed to narrow their differences and made no agreement in resuming parliamentary affairs.<br />Now there are concerns as rival parties have a stack of agenda items to go through in April -- as it's the last working session ahead of the June local elections.<br /> For starters,... they need to reach a deal on amending the Constitution.<br />With the president already having submitted his, it's been a race against time -- as the ruling party wants to hold a referendum alongside the June local elections.<br />That means they need to reach consensus by no later than May 4th -- in order to get other legal procedures complete.<br />And on top of pending bills sitting at parliament,... rival parties also have to deliberate on the government's extra budget bill once it's summited.<br />It's going to be a tough session as the two biggest opposition parties say they won't cooperate in parliamentary activities
