I am an editorial writer at The Korea Times, focusing on foreign policy, North Korea and domestic politics. My key areas of interest include North Korea, foreign interference in elections, election integrity, cyberattacks and human rights. Prior to joining the Editorial Board, I served as both Politics Desk editor and Culture Desk editor. During my career, I have reported on the Presidential Office under the Lee Myung-bak administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Assembly.
President mobilizes political capital for FTA
By Kang Hyun-kyung
President Lee Myung-bak seems poised to mobilize all his political assets to press for the ratification of the long-stalled free trade agreement with the United States (KORUS FTA).
To that end, Lee is expected to persuade opposition lawmakers that their holding back the trade pact is short-sighted at best and could come at a huge cost.
A day after returning to Seoul from his three-day trip to Honolulu for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Lee is scheduled to pay a visit to the National Assembly today to meet opposition leaders.
His scheduled visit is seen as a gesture to show his seriousness and willingness to sit down with opposition lawmakers to facilitate the ratification of the pact as soon as possible.
In a biweekly radio and Internet address aired Monday, Lee described the KORUS FTA ratification as a matter of “the survival of our country.”
Shin Yul, a professor at Myongji University, argued Lee’s visit to the Assembly was unlikely to have any significant effect on the fate of the trade accord which is pending there.
“His visit is too late,” he said. “Lee is widely viewed as a leader who has ignored the National Assembly. Coupled with the missed opportunity, this will undercut the effect of the presidential visit on the trade pact.”
Earlier, both Korea and the United States agreed to have the pact go into effect from Jan. 1 next year.
The clock is ticking on the trade deal. But opposition parties, including the Democratic Party, showed few signs of backing off from their demand that the negotiators of the two sides sit down again to alter the investor-state dispute settlement (ISD) provision.
They argued the clause infringes on Korea’s economic sovereignty.
DP hardliners, including Chairman Sohn Hak-kyu, demanded President Lee bring a fresh binding commitment to change the ISD clause in question, adding otherwise they have no other options but to keep obstructing the passage of the FTA motion.
DP floor leader Kim Jin-pyo said his party would not cooperate with President Lee if he comes to the National Assembly “empty handed,” meaning he is there without any fresh concessions over the trade deal.
Fear factors
Prof. Shin predicted DP hardliners will keep boycotting the FTA.
“They have no other option. If they make concessions, they fear that they will lose their tight grip on the FTA initiative over the civic sector which emerged as an alternative force through the Oct. 26 by-elections,” Shin said.
The political scientist claimed that the DP’s inaction on the trade accord will not deal a serious blow to the main opposition party in the general elections slated for next April.
“Seen from the campaign landscape in the October elections, I assume that next year voters will be asked to make a choice between candidates from existing parties and those who represent the civic sector. The FTA will hardly likely be a campaign issue,” Prof. Shin forecast.
Rep. Chung Dong-young, another hardliner, said Monday that President Lee had better rethink his plan to visit the parliament if he intends to ratchet up political pressure against the DP to make it give up.
Chung’s remarks reflected a sense of uneasiness shared by opposition lawmakers about the possibility of creating unfavorable public sentiment.
The worst-case scenario for the opposition party is that President Lee is viewed as a leader who tried to live up to his commitment by doing all he could to pass the pending motion for the sake of the national interest.
Despite this, the scenario goes that stubborn, self-serving liberals didn’t listen to him.
If Lee’s parliamentary visit is related to the creation of unfavorable sentiment, a backlash from the general public will be unavoidable.
Chung, a former rival of Lee in the 2007 presidential election, warned the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) against pushing the trade motion taking advantage of its majority status in the parliament.
The GNP has sufficient parliamentary seats to get its members to ratify the trade pact alone without getting help from the opposition.
But the GNP’s go-it-alone strategy, even if all its efforts turn out to be in vain, will also be a high-stakes poker game because another backlash could erupt over the ruling party’s poor management of interparty relations.