By Kim Hyo-jin
Lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties, except for the largest conservative Liberty Korea Party (LKP), will visit Washington next week for talks with senior officials there on North Korea, according to the National Assembly, Monday.
The group will meet senior American politicians and government officials from Oct. 1 to 7 to discuss escalating military tension surrounding the Korean Peninsula following North Korea’s nuclear and missile provocations.
Chung Dong-young, a four-term lawmaker of the minor opposition People’s Party, will head the delegation comprised of Reps. Lee Seok-hyun and Kim Du-kwan of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, and Rep. Choung Byoung-gug of the minor opposition Bareun Party.
They plan to meet U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.
Later, they are expected to meet Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in New York.
Other possible meetings may be with ex-U.S. President Bill Clinton, former Defense Secretary William Perry, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and former U.S. ambassadors to South Korea and U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) commanders.
“During the visit, we intend to deliver our message on the North Korea issue to the U.S. Congress and the administration and sound out the position of the U.S.,” a National Assembly official said. “It is to bring the six-party framework to the parliamentary level.”
Rep. Chung said he will reiterate that “North Korea’s nuclear issue should be dealt with via peaceful measures and that is the consensus among South Koreans.”
The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) was ruled out this time, as it had sent its own group of lawmakers unilaterally to the U.S. earlier in the month.
The LKP delegation led by Rep. Lee Cheol-woo called for the U.S. to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons to the peninsula in meetings with U.S. Department of State officials and North Korea experts, only to get the cold shoulder.
The official said the LKP’s Na Kyung-won, ex-chairwoman of the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, will take part in visits to China and Russia in November.