Floor leaders' talks end in failure

The floor leaders of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) and the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) held a meeting at the National Assembly Wednesday, the third day of their talks, to discuss the three major inter-party disputes, including the MDP's railroading of a National Assembly revision bill through the Steering Committee.

At the meeting, MDP floor leader Chung Kyun-Hwan proposed that the contentious revision bill be disposed of within the current regular Assembly session in an agreement among the MDP, the GNP and the United Liberal Democrats (ULD). The revision eased the stipulations for the formation of a floor negotiating group in favor of the splinter ULD. But Chung's GNP counterpart, Chung Chang-Hwa, countered that the bill should be handled without any time limits. Thus, the rival parties failed to resolve the controversy.

With this, the GNP proposed that the revision issue be handled at the projected bipartisan summit between President Kim Dae-Jung and GNP leader Lee Hoi-Chang, but the MDP whip asserted that the Kim-Lee talks should be held following an inter-party agreement on the railroading matter. The floor leaders decided to continue negotiations on the issue to clear the stumbling block in the way of the bipartisan summit.