By Lee Tae-hoon
Ruling and opposition parties Wednesday expressed the need to adopt a resolution denouncing Pyongyang for firing a barrage of artillery shells onto Yeonpyeong Island, killing two South Korean soldiers and two civilians.
However, they failed to reach an agreement on the details of the motion and when it should be put to a vote at a plenary Assembly session in a meeting of floor leaders.
In the meeting, the governing Grand National Party (GNP) and minor opposition Liberty Forward Party (LFP) called for an immediate endorsement of the resolution, while other parties, including the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), demanded that it should be thoroughly reviewed by a standing committee first.
The two conservative parties, GNP and LFP, want the resolution to denounce the North and urge prevention of recurrence, but liberal parties, such as the DP and the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), insist that it should also include a clause that calls for prevention of war, according to party officials.
They point out that the motion may be put to a vote at a plenary Assembly session scheduled for today, after being reviewed at the parliamentary committee for foreign affairs, trade and unification.
Leaders of the GNP and DP showed their strong support for the adoption of a resolution that denounces the North for the surprise attack onto Yeonpyeong Island, located only 2 kilometers south of the disputed western maritime border.
“We must deploy a strong deterrent that can foil any attempt to trigger war on the Korean Peninsula,” GNP Chairman Ahn Sang-soo said.
“It was the first attack against our civilians on our territory since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.”
Former GNP Chairwoman Park Geun-hye underlined that the North’s indiscrete shelling of the island was an apparent act of provocation and can be construed as a declaration of war.
“We must clearly tell the North that it will have to pay a huge price for a provocation by deploying all possible diplomatic and military measures,” Park said.
Expressing support for the motion, she added that Seoul must make the North take the responsibility through close cooperation with the international community and the United Nations.
Park Jie-won, floor leader of the DP, said that his party would support the GNP’s move, noting that one of its lawmakers has already completed a draft resolution.
In June, the Assembly Defense passed a resolution condemning the Stalinist North for its sinking of a South Korean warship on March 26 in the disputed western sea border, which was also the scene of the bloody naval clashes in 1999 and 2002.