Bipartisan Committee on NK to Be Launched


By Yoo Dong-ho
Staff Reporter

Leaders of the two major parties on Monday agreed to make bipartisan efforts in encouraging economic recovery and political reform.

During the first one-on-one meeting since the April 15 general elections, ruling Uri Party chairman Chung Dong-young and opposition Grand National Party (GNP) chairwoman Park Geun-hye signed a three-point accord under which the two parties promised to join forces in order to prop up the sagging economy, fight corruption and strengthen the Assembly’s role in setting and achieving a national agenda.
``We have agreed to bring an end to political wrangling in South Korea from today and pursue policies that cater to public welfare and establish a framework for political co-existence and harmony,’’ Chung and Park said in a joint statement after their meeting at the Assembly.

As part of a joint action plan, the two agreed to establish Assembly committees responsible for creating more jobs and strengthening future-oriented human resources and infrastructure.

They also reached a consensus on the establishment of a special standing committee for political reform allowing the participation of figures besides just lawmakers in order to speed up the stalled drive for political reform.

Regarding North Korea, the two agreed to introduce a special supra-partisan parliamentary committee to enact laws aimed at speeding up inter-Korean reconciliation.

The leaders also agreed that the incoming parliament should legislate for the so-called lawmaker recall system to allow the removal of corrupt legislators in order to curb the privilege of exemption-from-liability.

Under their accord, the parties will also consider producing legislation to force the return of illegally-raised political funds to the national treasury.

The meeting came at the request of Chung, who initially proposed a round of talks that included the impeachment motion against President Roh Moo-hyun. This was rejected by Park, however, who called for the exclusion of the impeachment case.

The GNP, which is the biggest political party in the outgoing Assembly, was relegated to second place with just 121 seats due to backlash against the party’s leading role in impeaching President Roh Moo-hyun.

yoodh@koreatimes.co.kr