Obama not likely to hurry summit with N.K. leader: lawmaker

By Hwang Doo-hyong

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama will not likely fly to Pyongyang for a summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il soon after his inauguration, but will take a more cautious step in dealing with the North, a senior South Korean lawmaker said Thursday.

"It is wrong for us to assume that Obama will run to Pyongyang just because he
talked about direct diplomacy with North Korea," said Rep. Park Jin, chairman of
the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee.
"We anticipate that Obama will be cautious," he told South Korean reporters here.
"Obama's North Korea policy will likely differ from the first term Bush
administration, but will be almost the same as the second Bush administration."
Park was referring to outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush's active engagement
of North Korea since October 2006, when the communist state detonated its first
nuclear device. The turnaround came despite Bush's labeling of the North in 2001
as part of an "axis of evil" with which he would not negotiate.
Park was briefing reporters on his team's meetings with U.S. officials and
congressmen, as well as aides to Obama in past days to discuss the North Korean
nuclear issue, a pending bilateral Free Trade Agreement and other issues of
concern to the two countries.
Among those Park met with were Tom Daschle, a former Democratic Senator and
strong candidate for health secretary for Obama, Sen. Chuck Hagle (R-Nebraska),
possible candidate for secretary of state or defense, Sen. Richard Lugar
(R-Indiana), Rep. Ed Royce (R-California) and Dan Price, deputy adviser on
international economy at the National Security Council.
Rep. Moon Hak-jin of the opposition Democratic Party, meanwhile, said that Obama
will take a "step-by-step" approach in meeting with Kim Jong-il, adding such a
meeting should take place only after verifiable progress is made on the North's
denuclearization.
Park said ratification of the pending bilateral free trade agreement would take
time as the incoming administration is setting resolution of the current economic
crisis as its top priority.
The lawmaker was, however, optimistic that the deal will eventually pass through
Congress.
"I met with U.S. officials and congressmen over the past days here and I
concluded that Obama's position on that issue may change in a positive
direction," he said.
Obama had labeled the Korea-U.S FTA "badly flawed," citing an imbalance in auto
trade between the two nations.
"Also, there are mixed responses to South Korea's possible ratification of the
FTA in advance of the U.S. Congress," he said. "Some say that it will lessen
protectionist sentiments in the U.S., while others worry it will have an adverse
impact because it could act as a burden on the U.S."
Park said the U.S. side responded favorably to his proposal that they hold formal
discussions on the controversial FTA.
Rep. Hwang Jin-ha said some U.S. congressmen called for South Korea to ratify the
trade deal first as the South had originally initiated it.
"Nobody has raised the possibility of renegotiating the free trade deal," Hwang
said.
"We need to respect the current agreement which was made in consideration of all
the difficulties," Park said. "If the U.S. wants to talk about the auto industry,
then we have another issue to raise."