South Korean President Lee Myung-bak canceled his traditional speech before the new National Assembly yesterday as an opposition boycott over a widely unpopular US beef import agreement brought the legislature to a standstill.
The main opposition parties refused to attend the formal opening of the legislature in a protest aimed at pressuring Lee to renegotiate the US deal.
In another setback for Lee, the ruling Grand National Party suffered a bruising defeat in local by-elections on Wednesday. While small-scale, the results contrasted sharply with the April parliamentary elections in which the conservative party clinched a majority.
PHOTO: AP
The new National Assembly was scheduled yesterday to elect a new speaker, have legislators take oaths and listen to a speech by Lee — the standard practice on opening day.
Those plans unraveled after most opposition lawmakers failed to attend. Ruling blocs typically do not open the legislature in the face of an opposition boycott for fear of a public backlash.
As a result, Lee shelved his speech plan, his spokesman Kim Hun-jin said.
The squabbling comes after Lee’s government signed an accord with Washington in April to resume imports of US beef. The deal has come under fire amid widespread public perception that it fails to protect the nation from mad cow disease by allowing beef from older US cattle, considered at greater risk of the brain-wasting illness.
Opponents of the deal have held daily street protests demanding that it be scrapped or renegotiated.
Earlier this week, South Korea said it had asked the US to refrain from exporting any beef from cattle 30 months of age or older. Still, it stopped short of directly asking Washington for a renegotiation.
US Ambassador Alexander Vershbow told ruling party leaders yesterday that Washington was working hard to address South Korean worries over US beef.
In an indication of Lee’s sharp drop in popularity, his ruling party won only nine of the 52 seats at stake in the by-elections. The United Democratic Party, took 23 seats, while the remainder went to smaller opposition parties and independents.
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