Despite President Park Geun-hye’s practical retraction of her prime minister nomination Tuesday, opposition parties resisted initiating a bipartisan selection process, demanding assurance she would hand over state affairs to the premier and take a backseat.

National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun convened an emergency gathering with the floor leaders of the ruling Saenuri Party, main opposition Democratic Party of Korea and minor opposition People’s Party.

The session was designed to trade views on whom to endorse as the premier and how, in line with Park’s request during earlier talks with Chung for the parliament to come up with another individual to steer the Cabinet and “normalize the government administration.”

But the four-way meeting ended in 45 minutes without any progress on what would be an unprecedented parliamentary nomination, with the opposition slamming Park’s proposal as an attempt to dilute the current stalemate without coming clean about her future role.

“Is it that hard to say that she will give (the prime minister) the authority to nominate Cabinet members and Cheong Wa Dae won’t interfere with domestic affairs?” Democratic Party floor leader Rep. Woo Sang-ho asked reporters after Park’s visit.

“Despite the speaker’s repeated questions, she did not answer clearly and just left. ... The president and Cheong Wa Dae should address our demands themselves.”

People’s Party floor leader Rep. Park Jie-won also dismissed the president’s offer as aimed at “buying time” while the parliament weighs potential premier contenders.

“The president kept mum about what she would do herself,” he said at a news conference following the quadripartite talks during which he said “nothing was agreed upon.”

“Even though the assembly does recommend a candidate, what would he do, at a time when the enraged public calls for her resignation, impeachment and pullout from government operation?”

The ruling Saenuri Party, in contrast, welcomed the request, saying Park accepted the opposition’s demand for a retraction of her nomination of Kim Byong-joon, which had been criticized for her failure to consult with lawmakers prior.

Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Jung Youn-kuk also sought to defend the president’s comments, saying she would grant “substantive authority” to run the Cabinet to the prime minister.

Given the persistent resistance, however, Chung said he would seek to clarify the president’s position with her office, Saenuri spokesperson Rep. Min Kyung-wook said.

To secure their united front, the two opposition parties plan to hold a consultation with another minority Justice Party on Wednesday, Democratic Party spokesperson Rep. Ki Dong-min noted.

With bipartisan endorsement, the candidate would be tasked with reconstituting the Cabinet and taking over economic, social and other domestic affairs from Park, as the Choi Soon-sil scandal has paralyzed her government. Presumably, a person with morality, bipartisan values and experience in politics and public policy would be desirable.

It is expected to also have an impact on the president’s other nominees -- Yim Jong-yong for deputy prime minister and finance minister and Park Seung-joo for minister of public safety and security.

Yet the Assembly’s own selection process will likely entail painstaking negotiations in light of the differences in positions between the parties, such as on the prime minister candidates and how much power should be left to Park.

Among the most talked-about figures are former Democratic Party chairs Sohn Hak-kyu and Kim Chong-in. Having built ties with both conservatives and progressives, their names have recently been floated by some Saenuri and Democratic Party members. Sohn was governor of Gyeonggi Province, while Kim served the late President Roh Tae-woo as his top secretary on economic affairs.

But some opposition lawmakers close to former Democratic Party head Moon Jae-in could feel uncomfortable with a Kim premiership given the friction between the two. Instead they have suggested former Bank of Korea Gov. Park Seung and Seoul National University professor emeritus Ahn Kyung-hwan.

Former Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik has also been brought up, especially among Saenuri lawmakers outside the pro-Park faction.

A fresh revelation surfaced Tuesday that before resorting to Kim Byong-joon, Cheong Wa Dae had offered the post to the People’s Party’s Park Jie-won, a four-termer in the National Assembly who previously served as the late President Kim Dae-jung’s chief of staff.

“Park would do well at the job, building on his administrative experience, but I understand he declined the proposal saying it would ‘deny his identity,’” the party’s deputy floor leader Rep. Kim Kwan-young told reporters.

“At this point who on earth would resist the powerful premiership with bipartisan backing? I think Park, Kim Chong-in, Sohn and Kim Han-gil, a former chair of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (a predecessor to the Democratic Party) all would do a good job.”

Instead of touching on the offer, Park Jie-won lashed out at Saenuri leader Rep. Lee Jung-hyun for having unilaterally sounded out another close confidant of Kim Dae-jung about the premiership.

“I learned that Lee has called (the other confidant) and said if I recommended him as the prime minister, so would the ruling party,” Park said at a meeting with party members earlier in the day.

“This shows that President Park Geun-hye and the Saenuri chair are still taking the current situation too lightly. Contacting someone one-sidedly as a prime minister candidate amounts to not only ignoring the opposition’s demand and destroying us, but also embarrassing me.”

By Shin Hyon-hee ()


koreaherald@heraldcorp.com