Assembly ready for parliamentary diplomacy

Written by Writer on Monday, November 10th, 2008

Assembly ready for parliamentary diplomacy

The National Assembly has formed 88 councils to work with overseas parliaments to improve communication and cooperation.

Ruling Grand National Party legislators will chair 50 councils, while lawmakers from the main opposition Democratic Party will head 25. The remaining 13 will be led by a third group, formed by the minor Liberty Forward Party and the Renewal of Korea Party.

The chairmanships of the councils are distributed among the three parliamentary negotiating blocs in proportion to the number of the seats they hold in the 299-member Assembly.

The councils to be led by GNP lawmakers include those with the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Australia, India, Taiwan, Israel, Kuwait, Spain and Argentina.

Chung Mong-joon, a six-term GNP lawmaker and FIFA vice chairman, has been appointed to lead the Korea-U.S. inter-parliamentary council, which consists of 50 members while other councils comprise about 30 members.

The Korea-China council is to be headed by four-term GNP lawmaker Kim Moo-sung while the councils with Russia and the European Union are to be led by Chun Jung-bae and Kang Bong-kyun, both of whom are senior DP lawmakers.

Rep. Lee Sang-deuk of the GNP, elder brother of President Lee Myung-bak, has been appointed as chairman of the Korea-Japan group.

The DP controlled councils will include those with France, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, Singapore, Iran, Mongolia and Sweden.

The councils controlled by the third negotiating group will include those with the Philippines, Senegal, Slovenia, Georgia, Serbia and Costa Rica.

By Song Sang-ho
(sshluck@heraldm.com)
2008.11.10
The Korea Herald