Quotations of the day

Please make the National Assembly a genuine "sounding board of the will of the people," not a body preoccupied with partisan strife based on bigotry and narrow gains. (National Assembly Speaker Lee Man-Sup in his address to the opening session Thursday, calling on his colleagues to join in normalizing the legislative chamber)

How can we afford to worry about routine issues of the day when the very foundation of democracy here is being shaken? (Grand National Party floor leader Chung Chang-Wha. Thursday referring to the futility of discussing issues directly affecting the people until suspicions about election irregularities are cleared)

It would be superfluous for a political party that cannot form a floor negotiating body (a group of parliamentarians representing an individual political party peculiar to the Korean legislature) to name its spokesman for the floor. (An official of the United Liberal Democrats (ULD) Thursday, commenting on the party`s appointment of a floor spokesman in addition to its spokesman outside the National Assembly as part of the ULD reorganization)