US, Korean officials discuss pending trade agreement

On Monday, Lee met with Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) to discuss the pending trade deal and the security situation on the Korean Peninsula. 

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Seoul on Sunday and reassured Lee of President Obama’s “firm support for the trade pact.” 

Her comments came after Lee said delay of the trade agreement “is preventing the two countries from enjoying the enormous economic and security benefits it would bring about.” 

Later this month, several lawmakers will travel with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to South Korea ahead of congressional consideration of the U.S.’s pending free-trade agreement. 

The delegation includes Reps. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.), four out of five of whom sit on the House Ways and Means Committee, along with other Commerce Department officials.

Technical details are being ironed out by lawmakers and the Obama administration, and the free-trade agreement should soon be ready for its formal arrival on Capitol Hill. 

The agreement, which was first signed in 2007 and then changed in December, has been stalled in both countries. 

Senate and House Republicans have said they want all three pending U.S. trade agreements — with South Korea, Colombia and Panama — to be ready so they can be quickly ratified by Congress one after the other. 

“President Lee and the senators agreed that it was most important for the two allies to join efforts in dealing with issues related to North Korea,” said Kim Hee-jung, Lee’s spokesperson, according to the Korea Herald. 

Seoul has said it won’t return to six-nation nuclear talks unless North Korea admits and apologizes for the attacks on the naval ship Cheonan off Yeonpyeong Island last year, which killed 50 South Koreans.

The senators discussed “key security issues on the Korean Peninsula and in East Asia” with Lee and Kim, as well as with senior Korean and U.S. military officials, said Hoeven, including Gen. Walter Sharp, commanding general of U.S. forces in Korea. 

“The United States clearly has vital economic and strategic interests in Korea’s national security, and it’s important that we in the Senate maintain an understanding of the challenges and needs of both the South Korean government and the U.S. military in light of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and belligerent defiance of the world community,” Hoeven said. 

The Senate delegation will move on to Delhi, India, on Wednesday to meet with government and business leaders on trade and regional security issues.

Meanwhile, Hoeven met separately with top Korean business leaders to promote North Dakota commercial interests, including the expansion of beef exports, according to his office. 

“South Korean consumers clearly want North Dakota beef, and given the more open market conditions that a U.S.-Korea trade agreement would create, we can help supply that demand for them and at the same time create good jobs for our state,” he said. 

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) also has called on Korea to allow more American beef into the country.