By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Lee Hoi-chang, chairman of the minor opposition Liberal Forward Party (LFP), urged the main opposition Democratic Party, Monday, to attend the National Assembly to normalize operations there.
If the Democratic Party does not do so, his party will work together with the governing Grand National Party (GNP) to normalize the Assembly from Thursday, Lee told reporters at party headquarters in Seoul.
The major opposition party did not immediately respond to Lee's remarks.
The Democratic Party and other members of the opposition have boycotted the Assembly, demanding that the issue over the government's decision to resume U.S. beef imports be resolved.
Chung Sye-kyun, who was elected Democratic Party chairman at the party's national convention Sunday, said his party would collaborate with the ruling party on the matter, if the GNP agrees to conduct a parliamentary probe into the resumption of the imports.
Handling a bill to monitor infectious diseases in cattle is also a prerequisite to Assembly normalization, the Democratic Party said.
The LFP leader said: ``The Democratic Party should address the concern with other parties in the legislature after making it function.''
Lee's party said last month that it would help activate the unicameral legislature, whose four-year term began on May 30, but the ruling and opposition parties failed to open the Assembly due to the beef row.