Last Friday, opposition lawmakers barricaded themselves inside the main parliamentary chamber to thwart approval of the agreement and other legislation. --PHOTO: REUTERS
SEOUL - SOUTH Korea's main party leaders agreed on Thursday to resume talks aimed at ending a sit-in that has paralysed the country's parliament.
The ruling party said it would resume stalled negotiations with the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), nearly a week after DP legislators occupied parliament to thwart approval of a free trade pact with the United States.
The DP responded by ending its occupation of the speaker's office, but said the main sit-in would continue until the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) promised not to ratify contentious bills unilaterally.
Clashes involving sledgehammers and fire extinguishers broke out on December 18 when the GNP began procedures to ratify the free trade agreement with the United States.
The ruling party had insisted that the free trade pact, signed by Seoul and Washington last year but awaiting ratification by both legislatures, should be approved quickly.
The opposition, which has 83 seats in the 299-member legislature compared with the GNP's 172, says South Korea should not ratify it until the US Congress also moves to do so.
But the ruling party sees the pact as necessary to stimulate the slowing economy and argues that approval by Seoul will encourage the US Congress to move faster.
Business groups want early ratification, but Korean farmers are demanding more measures to protect them against cheaper imports.
The deal with South Korea would be the biggest of its kind to be signed by the United States since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994. -- AFP
