By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
The ruling Uri Party’s think tank proposed on Monday that the nation introduce a U.S.-style presidential system by installing a vice president and enabling the president to seek re-election.

The Uri Party Foundation said the president should be allowed to seek re-election to avoid being tagged as a ``lame duck’’ in the latter half of his or her term of office.

The system of a president sharing power with a vice president will help ease regionalism-based politics in the nation, the foundation said in the first issue of its quarterly, ``Open Future.’’

The think tank rebuffed the demands for the introduction of a parliamentary system of government, saying it could exacerbate regional animosity and bring back the collusive links between politicians and businessmen.

The think tank has been focusing on possible ways to revise the Constitution to overhaul the current five-year, single-term presidency, which could begin with the next president, party officials said.

The foundation warned of confusion in politics next year, during which parties and presidential hopefuls could seek alliances across political factions ahead of the presidential election in 2007.

``We have to build a front against the Grand National Party (GNP),’’ the think tank advised the ruling party of the conservative GNP, the largest opposition group in the unicameral legislature. ``We need to strengthen our identity as the middle-class in the direction that workers and small businesses want it to go, and fight against the market-almighty ideology of the GNP.’’

It argued that the ruling party should stand shoulder to shoulder with the progressive Democratic Labor Party to pass reform bills in social and economic sectors, while pointing to the minor opposition Democratic Party for an alliance in its policies on North Korea.

The foundation also predicted the second inter-Korean summit is likely to be held around the sixth anniversary of the June 15 Joint Declaration, or Aug. 15 Liberation Day, next year.

``If the ongoing six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear programs make progress, it is likely that an agreement on the North’s return to the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) will be reached early next year,’’ it said. “The second inter-Korean summit will be based on such rapprochement.”

saltwall@koreatimes.co.kr