The Constitution of the Republic of Korea vests the President with power to conclude and ratify treaties in article 73 and Congress with power of approval to the President in article 60, paragraph 1. The concrete distribution of treaty-making power between the President and Congress should be clarified by interpretation of the Constitution. Article 60, paragraph 1 of Korean Constitution regulates: “The National Assembly shall have the right to consent to the conclusion and ratification of treaties pertaining to mutual assistance or mutual security; treaties concerning important international organizations; treaties of friendship, trade and navigation; treaties pertaining to any restriction in sovereignty; peace treaties; treaties which will burden the State or people with an important financial obligation; or treaties related to legislative matters.” With regard to the interpretation of this regulation, some members of the Congress insist that the National Assembly shall have the right to consent to the beginning of the negotiation of the trade treaty, as well as its ratification. But the scope and limits of foreign affairs power must be justified by the Constitution. Even if it is requested practically that Congress as the democratic representative organ of the people should control over the executive's performing of foreign affairs, Congress is not supposed to take part in foreign affairs in a way to exceed the constitutional limit. Accordingly, article 60, paragraph 1 of Korean Constitution means that the National Assembly has a right to give its consent to the signature or the ratification by which a treaty would come into effect, and it is not appropriate to insist that the National Assembly shall have the right to consent to the beginning of the negotiation of the trade treaty.
More than anything else, it is necessary to enact a new procedural law for the conclusion of treaties to regulate the process of the conclusion of treaties to clear the denunciation about the interpretation of the Constitution and secure the practical exercise of the right of consent to the conclusion of treaties by the National Assembly.