President Park Geun-hye paid respect to the nation’s fallen soldiers during a Memorial Day ceremony on Monday, urging the people to unite against the security threat from North Korea and warning that Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions will lead to its “self-destruction.”
President Park’s speech, delivered after she attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the National Cemetery, came after her return from an overseas trip during which she spent much of her time building international coalition against the reclusive regime.
President Park Geun-hye, cabinet members and party leaders walk up to a pagoda at the National Cemetery to pay respect to the fallen on Sunday. Yonhap
During her 12-day visit to Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and France, Park emphasized the threat posed by the North’s provocations through its nuclear and missile tests and rallied for support to pressure the regime to abandon its nuclear program.
“When it comes to national security, there is no room for partisan politics or regional and generational differences,” said the president to some 10,000 attending political and judicial leaders, war veterans and citizens.
“National unity is the only way to end the history of divided Koreas and usher in an era of peace and unification,” she said.
Describing Pyongyang’s nuclear program as the biggest hurdle to the two Koreas’ unification and as a path to the regime’s self-destruction, Park warned that the North would be met with tougher sanctions unless it stops developing nuclear
In order to achieve the goal, Park said the South Korean government would keep its hard-line stance against the North by pledging to retaliate against the regime’s potential military provocations and gathering international support for Seoul and its allies’ enhanced sanctions on the North.
President Park Geun-hye. Yonhap
Political Parties echoed the call for a tougher stance on national security, briefly putting aside their differences over how to distribute key parliamentary positions such as the post of National Assembly speaker and key parliamentary committees.
“Honoring the memory of those who died while serving our nation, we would fulfill our duty as a political party to maintain robust national security,” said the main opposition The Minjoo Party of Korea’s spokesperson Lee Jae-kyung.
Political parties on Monday resumed negotiations over the assignment of key parliamentary positions to meet the self-imposed deadline. The ruling Saenuri Party, the Minjoo Party and the People’s Party had agreed to elect the speaker by June 7 and select the chiefs of the Assembly’s standing committees by June 9.
Over the past week, the three major parties have clashed over the posts. Although the parties elect the speaker through a floor vote, they usually reach a compromise through negotiation before the voting.
The Saenuri Party has been adamant that their lawmaker become the new speaker, saying that it is “customary” for the ruling party to hold the positon. It also wants to keep the chairpersons’ seats in the house steering, legislation and judiciary, strategy and finance, budget and intelligence committees.
The conservative party had initially been open to giving the speaker’s seat to the main opposition toward the end of the last Assembly term, but it has recently been demanding that the ruling party status must be respected with the speakership.
The Minjoo Party of Korea counters that as the new No. 1 party with 123 seats (Saenuri has 122), it must be given the speaker’s position as well as the chief posts for the house steering and national policy committees.
The People’s Party is eyeing to take at least two of the committees on strategy and finance, education, health and welfare, agriculture and food or trade and industry. Outside of that, the third-biggest party has yet to make a specific proposal.
Instead, People’s Party floor leader Rep. Park Jie-won offered an apology to the people for failing to open the Assembly by the deadline, saying that the delay is caused by the Saenuri Party’s confusion and the Minjoo Party’s avarice.
By Yeo Jun-suk