Quotations of the day

The Education Ministry did not tell the police to strip-search the teachers. (Education Minister Lee Don-Hee, Thursday, answering questions by opposition lawmakers who called him to task for body-searching teachers belonging to a radical teachers union during an interpellation of administration officials at the Education Committee session. The teachers were taken into police custody for mounting violent demonstrations and some opposition National Assemblymen blamed the ministry for doing nothing to protect the dignity of educators.)

It is a shame to partition the compartments but it is an inevitable choice unless and until students come to have new awareness. (The president of the Woman Students Association at the Korea University for Foreign Studies, Thursday, commenting on the step taken by the school to partition off the restroom for women from that for male students to prevent acts of sexual harassment)

It is a fundamental human right to fight against the ASEM as part of our struggle against new-liberalism. (The Human Rights Forum Against the Globalization of Capital, Thursday, demanding the government to respect their freedom of assembly and demonstration during the ASEM period.)

It is necessary to levy environmental contamination fines on ¡°love hotels¡± and similar facilities polluting the environment and to introduce a measure to regulate the sum total of "harmful facilities and institutions" that affect new cities. (Rep. Kim Ok-Doo of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party, Thursday, during a questioning session of the Government Administration and Local Autonomy Committee to audit the administration.)