President Roh and the Leaders of Four Parties Meet on December 14

President Roh Moo-hyun and the leaders of the four parties will meet to discuss state affairs including the troop dispatch to Iraq issue at Cheong Wa Dae at 10 a.m. on December 14.

Yu In-tae, the chief presidential secretary for political affairs, said, “We decided to limit the discussion to the troop dispatch in general. If we achieve an agreement on the plan for the dispatch in the discussion on December 14, we will announce the final plan and submit the troop dispatch motion to Parliament immediately.”

According to this plan, Defense Minister Cho Young-gil and National Security Advisor Rah Jong-yil will visit the Grand National Party (GNP) on December 11, and on December 12 they will visit the Millennium Democratic Party, Uri Party and the United Liberal Democrats Party to explain the government’s plan for troop dispatch to the leaders of each party.

Secretary Yu explained, “Considering that there were many discussions which resulted in quarrels, for a productive discussion we agreed with the four parties to concentrate on the dispatch plan this time and to talk about other issues afterwards.”

However, if the GNP claims unfairness over the investigation on the campaign funds from last year’s presidential election by the prosecutors, disputes may be possible regarding this issue.

Jeong-Hun Kim jnghn@donga.com