Quotations of the day

The guide showed me the wrong way to ascend to the platform. ( Prime Minister Lee Han-Dong, Friday, talking about an incident in which he came up to the stage of the opening ceremony for the Seoul ASEM at COEX Convention Center in Samsung-dong before leaders of the member countries and was forced to greet incoming leaders and the audience from the elevated platform.)

The executive positions in the Highway Traffic Safety Control Corporation are monopolized by retired police officers. (Rep. Lee Jae-Min of the United Liberal Democrats on Friday during a parliamentary audit of the corporation in the Committee on Government Administration and Local Autonomy, saying that 64 percent, or 42 of the posts above division chief are filled by former police officers)

You must see to it that all diet products carry a warning: ¡®Sudden weight loss may cause serious health problems.¡¯ (Rep. Kim Myung-Sup of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party during an interpellation of the Food and Drug Safety Agency at the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee, warning against misleading advertising of diet products deluding consumers.)

The ASEM ought to also take up the debt, population problems and the people's right to existence in Third World countries. (Members of the People's Rally caucus on Friday in a letter of protest read during their demonstration against the ASEM.)

It is likely that North Korea will adopt the open-door policy used by China and the dictatorial strategy of development employed by Park Chung-Hee. (Jung Seong-Jang, research fellow at the Sejong Institute on Friday, in a paper presented to a symposium sponsored by the Korea Political Science Association.)