Opposition parties launch anti-FTA campaign
The Hankyoreh | Nov.28, 2011
Opposition parties launch anti-FTA campaign
The parties have planned on demonstrations and challenging the constitutionality of the KORUS FTA
By Seok Jin-hwan
South Korea’s five opposition parties, while spreading their outdoor campaigns to have the South Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) nullified across the country, have decided to increase cooperation amongst themselves.
Those parties plan to make nullification of the agreement a joint manifesto pledge at next year’s general election.
As the first part of the a KORUS FTA scrapping strategy divided into several time periods and stages, the five opposition parties are planning a large-scale outdoor demonstration to stop President Lee Myung-bak’s signing of the KORUS FTA ratification bill, which is due to take place on Tuesday. They have decided to hold national citizens’ rallies in the center of Seoul on Nov. 30, Dec. 3 and Dec. 10, following that which took place on Saturday. They also plan to hold a large-scale rally in Busan on Dec. 2, expanding their outdoor campaign across the country.
The Democratic Party (DP) has decided to recruit a “citizens’ advertising team” of 5,000 people in order to place advertisements in newspapers urging that the agreement be abolished. In addition to the outdoor campaign, it has begun a legal examination with MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society in order to launch an appeal to the Constitutional Court to have the agreement ratification nullified, as well as putting together a “constitutional appeal group” of 10,000 people.
