Parties at odds over S. Korea's imminent participation in PSI

SEOUL, April 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's major political parties on Monday expressed conflicting views over the government's likely decision to join the U.S.-led anti-proliferation regime following North Korea's controversial rocket launch that shook the international community.

North Korea claimed it successfully sent a communications satellite into orbit
after launching a three-stage rocket on Sunday morning in violation of United
Nations Security Council resolutions. South Korea and the U.S. said hours later
that the rocket launch ended in failure, as stage two and three of the rocket and
its payload fell into the Pacific Ocean.
President Lee Myung-bak said in a meeting with Assembly leaders that his
government will push to take retaliatory measures against North Korea, including
Seoul's early participation in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative
(PSI) that seeks to stem trafficking in weapons of mass destruction.
The PSI, launched in 2003 by the U.S. government, is aimed at interdicting ships
suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and related materials.
South Korea has limited its role in the PSI, currently with 74 member states, to
act only as an observer in a bid not to antagonize the communist neighbor and
sever ties that are on the verge of being shattered.
Prime Minister Han Seung-soo also told lawmakers at an interpellation session
that the government is determined to join the PSI and now gauging the most
appropriate timing.
"The government's participation in the PSI would be only natural as the
initiative is aimed at preventing the spreading of WMDs," Rep. Yim Tae-hee, head
of the ruling Grand National Party's policy planning committee, said in a local
radio interview.
GNP Rep. Hwang Jin-ha, in a separate radio interview, also urged the government's
participation in the initiative, saying that its participation has long been
belated.
Rep. Lee Hoi-chang, head of the ultra-conservative Liberty Forward Party, also
pressed the government to take part in the U.S.-led program, saying that the
government has virtually announced its likely participation.
Opposition lawmakers, however, called for a more discreet government deliberation
in terms of making any kind of decision regarding North Korea, urging abstention
from any measures that would likely shatter already chilled ties with the North.
"(I told the president) that the issue should be handled with a bit more prudence
and that better management of the situation would be preferential over moves that
may increase tension with the North," Rep. Chung Sye-kyun, head of the main
opposition Democratic Party (DP), said after his meeting with President Lee
earlier in the day.
Rep. Song Min-soon of the DP, a former South Korean foreign minister, also said
that PSI participation is "not a card that should be drawn in the current
situation," calling for a calmer reaction from the government.
odissy@yna.co.kr
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