Government and the Ruling Party Voice Opposition to Referring the North Korean Nuclear Issue to the U.N. Security Council

The government and the ruling Uri Party held a meeting on April 20 and announced their opposition to the movements in the U.S. administration towards referring the North Korean nuclear issue to the United Nations Security Council and imposing sanctions on the North.

Lawmaker Kim Sung-gon of the Uri Party said that Unification Minister Chung Dong-young and Uri Party members who participated in the meeting agreed that referring the North Korean issue to the U.N. Security Council or imposing economic sanctions on the reclusive nation could worsen the situation surrounding the nuclear issue.

Rep. Kim said, “The government and the Uri Party members agreed that the North should return to the negotiation table of the six-party talks as soon as possible because if the situation surrounding the North Korean nuclear issue takes a turn for the worse, not only North Korea itself but also all Korean people could suffer.”

The government and the ruling party also agreed that inter-Korean economic cooperation such as the Gaesong Industrial Complex should continue despite the fluctuations of the North Korean nuclear issue.

Oh Young-sik, the deputy floor leader of the Uri Party, said, “We did not discuss specific measures to notify the U.S. about the results of today’s meeting, but the party members asked the government to come up with practical measures to block the referral of the North Korean issue to the U.S. and the imposition of the sanction.”

However, the government said that it had not received any plans from the U.S. regarding the referral of the issue to the U.N. or the imposition of sanctions.

Myoung-Gun Lee gun43@donga.com