Political parties agree to reopen parliament

 

Political parties agreed Saturday to reopen parliamentary proceedings that have been suspended over a row triggered by an insult leveled at President Park Geun-hye by an opposition lawmaker.

All parliamentary activity came to a halt on Friday after Democratic Party spokesman Hong Ik-pyo referred to President Park as a "gwitae" or a "baby born to a ghost" the day prior. This word can be interpreted as a child of someone who should never have been born.

The remark is a direct insult to the chief executive and her father former President Park Chung-hee, who ruled the country for 18 years before he was assassinated in 1979.

The insult drew immediate attack from the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae and the ruling party, both of which boycotted all proceedings until Hong issued a formal apology and resigned from his post as spokesman.

The Saenuri Party demanded the DP also apologize for the actions of one of its members.

At a closed door meeting attended by Saenuri floor leader Choi Kyoung-hwan and his DP counterpart Jun Byung-hun, both sides concurred to end the standoff and move forward with the last meeting of a parliamentary probe that will decide whether to report South Gyeongsang Province Governor Hong Joon-pyo for rejecting a summons to appear before parliament.

The governor, a member of the Saenuri Party, has drawn flak for forcefully closing a medical facility thatr he claimed was inefficient and a hotbed of militant unionists.

The two sides said they will also move to review classified documents related to comments made by late President Roh Moo-hyun on the de facto sea border between the two Koreas at a summit meeting in 2007.

After the meeting, Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun, the deputy floor leader of Saenuri, said that the ruling party accepted the regrets expressed by DP chairman Kim Han-gil on the gwitae issue the day before. He, however, said the party will refer the DP lawmaker who made the controversial remarks to the Special Committee and Ethics.

The lawmaker who made the remark expressed his apologies on the commotion he created and stepped down from his party post.

In accordance with the agreement reached, both sides will hold the special probe meeting at 4 p.m., while lawmakers plan to visit the National Archives of Korea on Monday to read the actual records of the summit meeting that has become the center on intense political clashes.

The conservatives claim that Roh effectively "gave up" the demarcation line that has been defended with South Korean lives, while liberals counter that the president made no such claim, and that Saenuri used the classified incident to tarnish the image of the opposition candidate during last year's presidential race. The DP fielded Moon Jae-in as its standard bearer. The lawmaker was chief of staff to Roh and would have known the details of the summit meeting. (Yonhap News)