Lee to visit Assembly today for talks with opposition leaders


Liberal political parties on Monday showed little sign of compromise in their opposition to the free trade agreement with the U.S., ahead of President Lee Myung-bak’s planned visit to the National Assembly.

“If the president comes empty-handed, he will return empty-handed,” said Rep. Sohn Hak-kyu, chairman of the Democratic Party. “If that’s the case, I think it is best for him not to come at all.”

He made the remarks to Yim Tae-hee, Lee’s chief of staff, who met him at the National Assembly to discuss details of Lee’s visit.

Yim responded by saying: “The president hopes to be able to talk (to opposition leaders) heart-to-heart and ask for support in getting the treaty ratified, because he believes that the (ratification of) FTA should not be delayed any longer.”

Lee is scheduled to visit the Assembly on Tuesday afternoon in a rare move to persuade his foes in the parliament who have been blocking the ratification of the trade pact.

“There is no change in the president’s plan to visit the parliament,” another Cheong Wa Dae official said after the Sohn-Yim meeting.

Sohn and other opposition leaders made clear they were sticking to their hard-line stance, demanding Lee’s word that the government would open talks with the U.S. to have some controversial clauses deleted from the trade deal. The Foreign Ministry and the ruling Grand National Party had previously ruled out any possibility of such talks, stressing that the U.S. Congress already ratified the deal last month. 

The DP and other left-leaning groups say a set of clauses on investor-state disputes settlement mechanism should be removed from the agreement, because they would allow American investors to challenge Korea’s policies for local industries at international courts.

President Lee, in his monthly radio speech on Monday morning, stressed that the FTA was the core of Korea’s strategy to survive ever-intensifying global competition.

“The Korea-U.S. FTA will not only boost our exports to America. Investment into Korea from countries like Japan will grow too. All these will translate into more jobs,” Lee said.

“The FTA should not be bogged down by political wrangling.”

The speech was delivered while the president was attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Hawaii. Lee returned home in the evening.

The governing GNP has been unable to move the FTA bill forward, locked in a tense standoff with opposition parties over the ISD issue.

The ratification motion currently stands at a parliamentary subcommittee on trade. Opposition lawmakers physically obstructed several committee sessions to prevent its passage.

Some GNP leaders have said that the party should not let opposition parties obstruct due parliamentary procedures and just go on to ratify the treaty, using its majority. The DP and other parties, for their part, threatened to use all possible means to block any attempt by the GNP attempts to railroad the bill through.

Calls are growing from both sides that the parties should find a peaceful way out of the current impasse.

Jeong Tae-keun, a first-term lawmaker of the GNP, started a fast on Sunday, urging leaders of the both parties to compromise. Last week, eight lawmakers belonging to the GNP and DP issued a joint statement last week that they oppose any move by the GNP to unilaterally pass the treaty as well as the opposition parties’ physical protest to block it.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)