Posted September. 22, 2000 14:20,
The opposition Grand National Party, holding a protest rally against the Kim Dae-Jung government's disruption of politics in Busan Thursday, renewed its call for the introduction of a special prosecutor to investigate the Hanvit Bank loan scandal.
On the other hand, Rep. Suh Young-Hoon, chairman of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party, holding a press conference the same day, demanded that GNP lawmakers return to the National Assembly and raised the suspicion that there might be some background force behind the bank loan scandal.
Despite the persistent partisan standoff, prospects are that the ruling and opposition parties could start informal bipartisan negotiations this weekend and hold full-fledged talks starting next week, noting that even some GNP lawmakers raised the question of the GNP members' attendance at the parliamentary session.
The ruling camp is known to be studying plans to promote a political summit between President Kim and GNP leader Lee Hoi-Chang, as soon as Kim returns from his trip to Japan, to be followed by a meeting between the president and Kim Jong-Pil, former prime minister and honorary chairman of the United Liberal Democrats.
At the Busan rally, GNP president Lee contended that the resignation of Culture-Tourism Minister Park Jie-Won alone cannot make good for President Kim's arrogance and arbitrariness, adding that his stepping down is only the beginning of solving the issue. Lee continued to assert that if the Kim administration tries to cover the question with the Park resignation, the government would confront grave resistance from the people.
Even if former Minister Park's involvement in the loan scam is cleared, the bank scandal must be thoroughly investigated through the appointment of an independent counsel, Lee said.
Referring to the current medical dispute, the GNP leader claimed that the government should reconsider its policy of separating the roles between doctors and pharmacists, however good its purpose is, if the general public feel great pains from the policy implementation.
Meanwhile, MDP chairman Suh revealed in the press interview that he would delegate full power to the party representatives to promote negotiations with the GNP for parliamentary normalization, to three supreme council members, Park Sang-Cheon, Kim Keun-Tae and Chung Dai-Chul and floor leader Chung Kyun-Hwan.
Turning down the GNP demand for the special prosecutor to probe the Hanvit lending scandal, the MDP chairman stressed that Lee Un-Young, a former branch head of the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, had been engaged in continual correspondence with the outsiders and held press conferences, raising suspicions that there must been some background force behind him. (Lee blew whistles for the bank scandal with his allegations that former Minister Park had pressured him to grant a loan guarantee to his relative businessman). For that matter, Lee said that the prosecution needs to probe who actually was involved in the background force.