By Kim Young-jin
Staff reporter
The European Union should not halt food aid programs to North Korea in response to its alleged sinking of the warship Cheonan, despite Pyongyang's rebuff of an EU delegation for cancelling its visit to the isolated state, Christian Ehler, the head of the delegation, said Friday in Seoul.
The group, comprised of members of the European Parliament, was scheduled to make the visit before heading to Seoul, where they held high-level talks this week on the pending EU-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
Brussels strongly condemned the sinking last month after Seoul said a multinational investigation team had definitively proven Pyongyang's culpability.
Ehler, a German member of the parliament, said in a meeting with reporters at the Delegation of the Europe Commission to Korea in Seoul that the delegation does not support sanctioning the North by halting food aid.
"The programs are so directly related to the living conditions of the people living in North Korea that it wouldn't be wise to stop the programs," he said, adding the parliament will discuss the issue with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton during its next session in Strasbourg.
The North "reacted harshly" to the cancellation, according to Ehler, who said its embassy in London told the delegation that "the estimation of the European Parliament has dropped terribly" among the North Korean public.
"In diplomatic terms, you would call that quite a harsh reaction," he said.
Still, Ehler said the door for future diplomacy is still open, adding that, during preliminary talks, Pyongyang indicated "a need in the foreseeable time to invest more money in North Korean infrastructure."
In Seoul, the delegation held meetings with Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Yu Myung-hwan and other high- level officials, expressing their confidence that parliamentary approval of the pact is close, despite rising pressure from the automobile industry.
"European carmakers are parading up and down the floors of the parliament," Ehler said. "But there is willingness among the leaders of the major political groups to get the FTA through parliament by the end of the year. I think we will be able to deliver by the end of the year."
The Korea-EU FTA is seen as a boon for both sides. The EU is expected to gain a strong footing in Northeast Asia, and officials here have forecast the deal could create up to 600,000 jobs and raise gross domestic product by 24 trillion won ($18 billion) in the long term.
Signed in October last year, the pact still awaits parliamentary approval from both sides. Ehler explained that any delay on the part of the Europeans has been due in large part to the arduous effort of translating the deal into the bloc's 16 official languages.
Ehler expected the translations to be completed by August and for the parliament's first reading of the document to commence in September. The delegation wrapped up its trip yesterday.