GNP Delegation Leaves for Washington Today
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
The ruling Grand National Party (GNP) will send a delegation to the United States today to figure out the implications for Korea of the incoming administration's foreign policy before President-elect Barak Obama takes office in January.
The GNP delegation, led by Rep. Chung Mong-joon, is scheduled to meet foreign policy experts, lawmakers, and think tank experts on their week-long trip to New York and Washington D.C.
The delegation will be composed of Chung, second-term lawmaker Chun Yu-ok, former defense minister Kim Jang-soo and first-term lawmaker Hong Jung-wook.
The U.S. experts, whom the GNP team are to meet, include Rep. Gary Ackerman; Harvard University Professor Joseph S. Nye Jr.; Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs; National Committee on American Foreign Policy President George D. Schwab; Henry Kissinger; and former U.S. Ambassador to China Winston Lord.
``Through the meetings with the experts, we are going to focus on asking whether or not the six-party talks aimed at resolving the North Korean nuclear weapons programs will continue under the new U.S. administration and what its stance on the ratification of a free trade agreement with Korea will be,'' Chung said in a statement.
The GNP team will also look at the new U.S. government's economic policies to handle the current financial meltdown and network with key figures of the new government.
Their visit to Washington D.C. followed a bipartisan foreign affairs committee team led by Rep. Park Jin, that met U.S. experts and lawmakers during a week-long trip.
The delegation will return Dec. 7.