DP refuses talks on constitutional revision

Ruling party still pushing for negotiation with opposition groups


The main opposition Democratic Party has said it will not participate in any talks on constitutional revision before the parliamentary elections next year.

“There will be no discussions on constitutional amendment in the 18th National Assembly,” DP floor leader Park Jie-won said Tuesday during his speech as the representative of a parliamentary negotiating group.

“It is already too late to push for constitutional revision and the Grand National Party does not even have a unified draft.”

Park’s remarks came a day after ruling GNP floor leader Kim Moo-sung proposed organizing a special parliamentary committee to discuss the amendment, which is likely to include changes to the single-term, five-year presidency. 

GNP Chairman Ahn Sang-soo said Tuesday his party would try to negotiate the issue with opposition parties.

“Constitutional revision is impossible without the opposition parties’ consent,” Ahn said.

The latest calls by President Lee Myung-bak and his associates in the GNP to rewrite the constitution, last revised in 1987, have received tepid responses from opposition parties and a GNP faction following Rep. Park Geun-hye, Lee’s political archrival since their competition for the party’s presidential candidacy back in 2007.

Members of the pro-Park faction suspect the pro-Lee majority’s efforts for constitutional revision are aimed at keeping Park in check when she is elected president. Many opposition politicians accuse the GNP of trying to use the amendment issue for partisan interests to win the next presidential elections in 2012.

Park Jie-won had been one of the few opposition heavyweights supporting the amendment, but he apparently shifted his position after consultations with DP Chairman Sohn Hak-kyu.

“(The DP) strongly urges (the ruling GNP) to stop insincere and unviable discussions on constitutional revision and pay attention to the people’s livelihoods instead,” Park said.

Park called on President Lee’s elder brother Rep. Lee Sang-deuk to leave politics, holding him “fundamentally” accountable for the GNP’s factional feuds that distract assemblymen from important state agenda.

Park also demanded dismissing Won Sei-hoon, director of the National Intelligence Service, for the NIS agents’ bumbled attempt to steal arms procurement information from visiting Indonesian envoys’ laptops last week. News reports here said the two men and a woman who broke into the envoys’ hotel room turned out to be NIS officials.

About relations with North Korea, Park called on President Lee to make a bold decision to hold summit talks with the country’s leader Kim Jong-il as soon as possible.

Park reaffirmed the DP’s objection to the revised free trade agreement with the U.S. and reiterated that the party would thoroughly look into the impact of the FTA with the European Union on domestic industries.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)