No summit talks in the past ended in a total rupture like the meeting between President Kim Dae-Jung and opposition leader Lee Hoi-Chang on Thursday.
In the talks that lasted one and a half hours, the two clashed with each other over all the pending issues ranging from the cross-party lending of lawmakers and the alleged inflow of the intelligence agency¡¯s money into the political world to the restructuring and pump-priming measures.
As a result, the aftermath was something like seeing two trains collide head-on.
It is hard to predict at this juncture how the political situation will develop. But it seems evident that a game of uncertainty allowing no prospects at all will be launched. It even makes some people worry that it is a signal for a political situation of hard landing.
Of course, the two leaders are not expected to define each other as persona non grata and to declare suspension of dialogue and giving up their partnership now, because such an action certainly would strike a devastating blow on the political situation.
However, it seems that the two leaders have crossed a bridge they hardly can return to both politically and emotionally. During the talks, President Kim uttered, ¡°The opposition party is attempting to make me a failed president.¡±
The ruling camp has claimed that Grand National Party (GNP) leader Lee¡¯s strategies to bid for the next presidency is totally to blame for the hitherto crippled political situation, and President Kim directly condemned them as the main culprit of the difficult situation at this time.
It¡¯s the same with Lee. Lee consolidated his understanding through talks that President Kim regarding the ¡°Lee Hoi-Chang system¡± as the subject to be eliminated instead of his partner in administering state affairs.
Lee¡¯s aides said that Lee got to understand that the second DJP -- Kim Dae-Jung and Kim Jong-Pil, leader of the United Liberal Democrats (ULD) -- coalition initiated from the lending of lawmakers by the ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) to the ULD to make the ULD a floor negotiating group is the very means for the goal.
Such a mutual understanding of the situation of the two leaders might bring about a premature presidential election atmosphere. If the two leaders think the political behavior of others as the product of strategies to take the next presidency or to maintain power, not as differences in opinions on the ways of administering state affairs, and cope with each other on these understandings, it will not be so difficult to figure out the result.
Another noteworthy point is that Lee apparently was pressing Kim Dae-Jung with former president Kim Young-Sam in mind during the talks. Lee must be alert against the coalition of ¡°three Kims,¡± which has been talked about in the MDP-ULD camp.
Under this situation, the prosecution is investigating the allegation that a huge amount of money of the former Agency for National Security Planning, now the National Intelligence Service, was funneled into the then-ruling New Korea Party ahead of the 1996 general election, seemingly targeting Lee and Kim Young-Sam. So Lee was attempting to cut off the possibility for a coalition of three Kims by pressing the president and Kim Jong-Pil during the talks, backed by Kim Young-Sam¡¯s rage.
Anyway, the Thursday talks appeared to be a clear signal that the political situation of this year will be suffering from a premature heated race for the next presidency.