Interpellation Session

[Anchor Lead]

A parliamentary interpellation session on foreign affairs, unification and national security has entered its second day. Both the ruling and opposition parties focused on the collapse of the North Korea-U.S. summit in Hanoi, and the issue of denuclearization. However, their approaches and solutions were completely different. Here are the details

[Pkg]

The ruling party asked the government to play a more active role in resolving the denuclearization issue, saying that greater attention should be given to what was left by the Hanoi summit.

[Soundbite] Rep. Park Byung-seok(Democratic Party) : "It is necessary to promote denuclearization and the co-existence system on the Korean Peninsula through realizing Chinese President Xi Jinping's visits to South and North Korea in the first half of the year."

[Soundbite] Lee Nak-yon(Prime Minister) : "To my knowledge, China and Japan are in discussions about the President Xi's diplomatic visit the first half of this year. It is the same with South and North Korea. We are keeping a close eye on when he makes such visits."

The main opposition Liberty Korea Party criticized the government's diplomatic incompetence, saying it caused the sudden collapse of the second Kim-Trump meeting.

[Soundbite] Rep. Kim Young-woo(Liberty Korea Party) : "I think foreign affairs officials of the government must be replaced for the errors they have made until now."

The rival parties also differed on solutions to denuclearization. The ruling bloc stressed the need for continued dialogue and negotiations,

[Soundbite] Rep. Kim Kyung-hyup(Democratic Party) : "There are people who insist that dialogue with North Korea is useless. They believe the regime will never give up its nuclear weapons."

while the main opposition emphasized imposing sanctions and pressure on the regime.

[Soundbite] Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun(Liberty Korea Party) : "The U.S. says it doesn't trust North Korea. But the South Korean government says it still believes the regime's denuclearization promise. Isn't that making a fool of the Korean people?"

The government made it clear that it will not lift sanctions before Pyongyang keeps its denuclearization promise.