[Editorial] Close bipartisan cooperation after in-depth talks

President Kim Dae-Jung and opposition Grand National Party leader Lee Hoi-Chang had an inter-party summit Monday at Chong Wa Dae to talk about wide-ranging state affairs including inter-Korean issues. Talks apparently lasted for three hours, which is the longest, ever, such meeting between the two leaders.

The long hours were probably needed to remove deep distrust and grudge that were accumulated between them since the railroading passage of the National Assembly Law`s revision bill at the parliament`s steering committee, which gave rise to street protests of the opposition party and a long period of suspended inter-party contacts.

It is rather reassuring to learn that they spent such long hours to address the inter-party confrontations. In view of the fact that the standoff was unusually tense and rough, the long hours for frank talks and unreserved expression of their mutual feelings would have been needed to restore their normal relations.

The two leaders have agreed on four issues. They are the routinization of bimonthly inter-party summit; establishment of parliamentary ad-hoc committee for consultations of inter-Korean affairs; activation of inter-party policy coordination committee, which was established in April, to tackle the issues of ordinary people`s day-to-day living; and, mutual assurance and promise of the two parties` cooperation to deal with the issues of economy and people`s daily living.

The most likely circumstances that brought them to agree were due to the general public`s snowballing, harsh criticism against the two parties` unproductive partisan diatribe and rhetoric together with their total neglect of the issues relating to people`s welfare and daily living. No matter what brought them to agree, the agreement is meaningful and has considerable merits in overall terms.

In particular, what draws our special attention and expectation here is the bimonthly summit between the two leaders because this is the first such agreement to routinize inter-party summit. This may reflect the mutually calculated self-interests of the two leaders. As for President Kim, he needed it in order to neatly complete his term of office against the odds that his party is the minority ruling party in the parliament. Opposition leader Lee, on the other hand, can maximize his position as the leader of the parliament`s largest party. The meeting can also help Lee emerge as the leading contender among the Presidential aspirants.

Whatever their respective circumstances for the bimonthly inter-party summit, it is apparent that the meeting of the two leaders to discuss, face-to-face, the pending state affairs is desirable. We have high expectations about the meeting.

The agreement to establish an ad-hoc committee for inter-Korean affairs in the parliament is a timely step in view of the internal disputes within the South over the South-North issues. Because this will enable our parliament to fully discuss the controversies over our North Korea aid and the disputes about whether our approach to Pyongyang is rather hasty or slow.

The activation of the stalled inter-party policy coordination committee, and the mutual assurance of utmost bipartisan cooperation for the issues of economy and people`s welfare represent clear political progress. This signifies no small consolation or hopes for the people with great disappointment and loss of faith in our politics.

Now, our concern is to see how long such an atmosphere for dialogue between the two leaders and their mutual assurances of cooperation will last, and whether or not they will be translated into political realities. We are familiar with the past cases to show that partisan bickering and denunciations followed the meeting only after a few days as to ruin agreements of the two parties` summit. At some instances, inter-party relations became worse after the meeting. There is now an unmistakable bipartisan realization that they must cooperate as equal partners for the management of state affairs.

Without such bipartisan cooperation, nothing can be gained and all the parties, be they the ruling and opposition parties or the general public will become despondent and futile. The two party leaders must be able to muster all the necessary wisdom and devotion to win the challenges before the nation and its history by transcending any narrow-minded perspectives and self-serving considerations.