TOKYO (AFP) — Fresh from a cordial Camp David summit, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak said Monday he is confident the US Congress will ratify a sweeping free trade agreement this year.
"I'm convinced that US Congressional ratification ...will be realised this year," he told Korean reporters in Tokyo before a summit with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on his way home.
"I heard a number of opponents in the US Senate and House have changed their position in consideration of US national benefits," Lee was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying.
The two nations reached the deal last June which awaits ratification by the legislatures of both countries.
Buoyed by his party's general election victory this month, Lee hopes to have the FTA ratified soon in Seoul. Despite South Korea's decision Friday to lift curbs on the imports of US beef, it faces a rougher ride in Congress.
Senior Congress members say it does too little to free up the auto trade which is heavily lopsided in Korea's favour.
US President George W. Bush, at his weekend summit with Lee, called on Congress to ratify the pact this year. A joint statement said it would create additional jobs and opportunities for both nations.
Total trade is now worth an annual 80 billion dollars and some studies show this could eventually rise by up to 20 billion dollars under a free trade regime.
Bush and Lee also agreed that North Korea must follow through on promises to scrap its nuclear weapons programmes, with Bush vowing to "actively explore ways to improve relations" if it does so.
Washington agreed to scrap earlier plans to cut the size of its military forces in South Korea from the current 28,500 to 25,000 by the end of this year, the South Korean leader said.
Lee said this decision was one of the summit's major accomplishments.
"The 3,500 troops originally scheduled to leave Korea this year represent the core power of US Forces Korea as they are mostly US airmen related to Apache helicopters and other strategic weapons," he said.
"I first floated the idea of the US cancelling the USFK reduction plan during my meeting in Washington with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who reacted negatively citing a previous bilateral agreement," Lee was quoted as saying.
"But surprisingly, Bush first promised to revoke the USFK troop reduction plan at the beginning of the Camp David summit."
Lee said he and Bush had built a strong rapport and "talked to each other like old friends."
Bush promised Seoul the same level of access to US weapons purchases as NATO nations and Japan, Australia and New Zealand have.
Lee said Bush had also promised that his government will take steps to implement a US visa waiver programme for South Koreans by October.
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