The chairman of the National Assembly’s committee on foreign affairs stepped down Thursday, two days after the Grand National Party railroaded through the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.

Rep. Nam Kyung-pil had come under attack as the vote ended in chaos, despite his efforts to achieve a bipartisan compromise.

“Now that the long-pending FTA has been ratified, I shall step down from the committee chairmanship and focus on my post as the party’s Supreme Council member,” Nam said.

“I dreamt of turning the ratification processes into a culture of communication and negotiation in our parliament, but that dream unfortunately ended unattained.”

However, he claimed that the voting processes did not involve physical violence and hinted that that he will run for re-election next year.

The fourth-term lawmaker was among the 22 GNP members who pledged to not seek re-election should they participate in a parliamentary vote where representatives fought.

“The teargas commotion was an unexpected event performed by a minority group,” he said.

Rep. Kim Sun-dong of the minority left-wing Democratic Labor Party on Tuesday detonated a teargas grenade in the Assembly’s main chamber in protest.

Nam was among the 151 lawmakers who voted for the pact, but claimed he was unaware of the party’s intent to hold a snap session and said he was urgently summoned while attending a book-publishing party.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)