By Park Ji-won
Political party leaders accompanying President Moon Jae-in to Pyongyang will likely focus on pushing for party-to-party diplomacy with North Korea, which has been on and off since 1985.
For their first-ever participation as party leaders, they pledged to push for regular meetings with their North Korean counterparts or have parliamentary-level gatherings.
“My purpose to visit the North is to meet people who were involved in activities with South Korea in the past, and have a deep conversation with them to push for party-to-party summits,” Rep. Lee Hae-chan, leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), told reporters during a press conference Monday when asked the aim of visiting North Korea as the leader of the DPK.
“I will do my best to hold a parliament-to-parliament summit by this year,” Chung Dong-young, leader of the Party for Democracy and Peace (PDP), said Monday.
As the special entourage for the third inter-Korean summit between President Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which will be held from Tuesday to Thursday in Pyongyang, Lee and the leaders of two liberal opposition parties, Chung and Lee Jeong-mi of the Justice Party, have agreed to join the trip to the North.
Adding to them, Rep. Park Jie-won of the PDP will also join the trip. Park had visited the North as a special envoy while serving as culture minister during the first inter-Korean summit in 2000 between then President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. He was also present for the dinner party for Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un's first inter-Korean summit on April 24.
Lee and Chung had also been to Pyongyang as key aides for previous presidents. Lee had been to Pyongyang in 2000 as the policy chief for the then Democratic Party. Chung had been to Pyongyang as minister of unification in 2005.
As the parliamentary team has a strong lineup, public attention has focused on whether they accomplish anything in parliamentary negotiations through a meeting with North Korea's ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-nam, the North Korean counterpart to South Korea's National Assembly speaker.
Parliamentary-level exchanges have been stalled largely due to the political shake-ups between conservative and liberal political regimes.
The leaders of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party and minor opposition Bareunmirae Party and National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang declined the proposal from Cheong Wa Dae to join the trip to the North.