By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter

Three opposition parties will submit a petition to the Constitutional Court as the Lee Myung-bak administration's agreement to resume imports of U.S. beef breached the basic human rights of Koreans, said a lawmaker of the United Democratic Party (UDP), Monday.

Rep. Kim Jong-yull of the UDP said Monday that the beef deal has undermined several basic human rights guaranteed in the Constitution such as the right to pursue happiness, the right to live and national sovereignty.

Kim said the other minor opposition parties, the Democratic Labor Party and the Liberty Forward Party, will join the move.

Meanwhile, conservatives and liberals bickered over the feasibility of renegotiations of the U.S. beef deal signed last month.

The governing Grand National Party (GNP) lawmakers asserted renegotiation is not feasible or realistic so it's better for the people to look at the positive side, claiming U.S. beef is cheaper than its Korean counterpart and it is safe to eat.

But the main opposition UDP urged the government to sit down with the United States again for a fairer deal working towards the public safety of Koreans.

They made the suggestion after reports disclosed that government negotiators made decisions based on misleading translations of U.S. government documents during the negotiations.

The report stoked public distrust about the Lee administration and led the people to perceive the entire negotiation process to be mess. A recent KBS public opinion survey found 80 percent of people said government negotiators did not do a good job.

GNP lawmaker Won Hee-ryong said on a TV talk show that it is not realistic for the government to reverse its commitments made in the negotiations with the United States, ``The economy is heavily dependent on international trade. If the government requests the U.S. government to revise the deal because of the negative public opinion, it would only do a disservice to this country,'' he said. ``Despite the problems, the promise should be kept. Otherwise, we are going to get a bad reputation and it would eventually work against us,'' Won said.

His statement met with disagreement from UDP lawmaker Choi Jae-sung, who said the agreement has several irrational elements and therefore the government negotiators should sit down with their U.S. counterparts again to fix these problems. Choi said the government also committed several blunders after the deal.

The UDP plans to work closely with minor parties in the upcoming hearing to discuss the issues related to the free trade agreement with the United States to be held for two days from tomorrow. The opposition parties said they would step up attacks against the government as well as the GNP by urging the government to seek renegotiation.

The UDP demanded the government put off its notification for import terms, which is scheduled to come on Wednesday, in an attempt to pave the way for their call for renegotiation. According to current laws, the government's notification of import terms will make the deal take effect from then.

The main opposition party also plans to question witnesses from the foreign ministry to find if they pressed the agriculture ministry to sign the deal at the expense of farmers' interest at the hearing.

The government plans to launch a publicity campaign, to help the people better understand beef safety.

hkang@koreatimes.co.kr