Peoples' Party calls for inter-Korean summit
By Jun Ji-hye
Rep. Park Jie-won
Rep. Park Jie-won, the interim leader of the country’s second-largest opposition party, called on President Park Geun-hye, Wednesday, to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to break the deadlock in inter-Korean relations.
He also asked President Park to push for a constitutional revision during the remainder of her term that ends in February 2018.
“The most important things that Park should do during her remaining year-and-a-half in office are to push for an inter-Korean summit and a constitutional revision at the earliest possible date,” Park of the People’s Party said in a speech at the National Assembly.
He said pushing for the inter-Korean summit, even if the attempt fails, will be able to help the President take the diplomatic initiative and ease military tension on the Korean Peninsula.
“If Park pushes for an inter-Korean summit, she will receive applause from the people, not criticism,” he said.
He also said that talking about constitutional revision was not a “black hole” that disturbs the government’s economic revival efforts, referring to the President’s earlier comment that the idea of constitutional revision may trigger economic problems as the discussions could cause social conflict.
“A constitutional revision is a project to renovate the nation,” the four-term lawmaker said.
Whether the country should revise the Constitution to change the current presidential system has been a long-running issue, and the debate was reignited after Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun said in June that changing the current presidential system was a “task that must be done.”
Politicians from rival parties mostly agree that the current presidential system, introduced in 1987, should undergo some changes. But there are various opinions regarding how to change it ― some call for changing the current five-year, single-term presidential term to a four-year, two-term presidency, while others want to introduce a “semi-presidential” system, under which the president would be responsible for foreign and national security affairs, while the prime minister would be responsible for domestic affairs.
Rep. Park also called on the government to resume rice aid to North Korea on humanitarian grounds, saying the economic aid will help improve inter-Korean relations and save starving North Korean people.
Economic aid, mostly rice and fertilizer, was given under former Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun. But the Lee Myung-bak administration severed all economic ties with the North on May 24, 2010 in retaliation for the North’s torpedoing of the South’s warship Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors.
“The Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administrations have not given anything to the North, but the regime there has developed its nuclear capability,” he said. “Rice and tangerines do not become nuclear weapons.”
Touching on the planned deployment of a U.S. missile defense system, Rep. Park said that the issue should be discussed at the Assembly and that President Park should make more efforts to listen to the opposition.
“The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense dispute should be brought to the table in parliament,” he said.
Opposition parties say the battery will be ineffective in protecting the country and adversely affect relations with neighboring countries such as China, while the Saenuri Party stresses the system is vital in coping with Pyongyang’s provocations.
The government has maintained the deployment does not need to win approval from the National Assembly.
“Only after we reach a conclusion in parliament can we discuss our actions with the United States and China,” Park added.