Breaking News, World News and Taiwan News.

Updated Thursday, February 9, 2012 0:06 am TWN, AFP

Sponsors
▪	Buy china wholesale products from reliable chinese wholesalers on DHgate.com!
▪	Save 75% for all hotels in Shanghai, Beijing and whole China. Lowest rates for Flights in China.
▪	Get the best deals for Guangzhou Hotels or choose from more than 10,000 hotels in 499 Chinese cities.
▪	Find great real time deals on China Flights. Book flights to China or China domestic flights 24/7.

S. Korean opposition threatens to scrap US trade agreement

SEOUL -- The head of South Korea's opposition party, which currently leads opinion polls before an April election, vowed Wednesday to dump a free trade pact with the United States unless it is renegotiated.

About 100 leading members of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) and the minor Unified Progressive Party jointly urged U.S. President Barack Obama to begin to renegotiate several terms.

“The disputed terms should be revised before the pact takes effect. Otherwise, we will dump the whole pact by winning the parliamentary and presidential elections,” DUP chief Han Myeong-sook told reporters.

The ruling conservative party pushed through the long-delayed trade pact last November despite intense protests from left-leaning opposition lawmakers.

It will likely go into effect by the end of February, Trade Minister Park Tae-ho said in an interview this week.

The opposition wants more protection for South Korea's small- and medium-sized companies.

It also bristles at a trade dispute settlement mechanism seen as undermining South Korea's legal independence in cases between the Seoul government and foreign investors.

Han said the deal favors American interests and would devastate the lives of ordinary South Koreans.

“If the renegotiations are not made before the pact takes effect, we will make sure that the FTA will be dumped ... once the new administration takes hold after the presidential election in December,” she said.

Recent voter surveys showed the DUP party beating the ruling conservatives in the April parliamentary election. It is also seeking to win the presidency currently held by the conservatives in an election this December.

Later in the day, about 50 incumbent and former opposition lawmakers rallied in central Seoul to urge their government to suspend the FTA's implementation.

Two DUP legislators delivered three letters signed by 96 lawmakers to the U.S. embassy, Yonhap News Agency reported.

It said the letters, intended for President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner, express support in principle for a trade deal but call for “flaws” in the current pact to be fixed.

“If our cordial and earnest request is overlooked by your administration, we will have to take all measures possible to freeze the implementation of the FTA,” Yonhap quoted the letters as saying.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here