The Parliament Stirred by a Demand for President Kim`s Resignation

The National Assembly conducted the parliamentary interpellation session of the government on political affaires on Oct. 10, but faced an agony when Grand National Party (GNP) lawmaker Ahn Teak-Soo urged President Dae-Jung to resign, the ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) called for an apology from GNP leader Lee Hoi-Chang and Rep. Ahn.

Rep. Ahn said on that day with regard to President Kim`s reference to Korean War as an attempt at unification at the ceremony of Armed Forced Day (Sept. 28), ``I am so agitated and agonized by President Kim`s official speech, who is the supreme commander of all armed forces of this nation.`` and demanded President Kim`s resignation.

Rep. Ahn continued to point out the followings as President Kim`s significant mistakes: △ allowing representatives to visit Pyongyang for the 8.15 Liberation Day celebration △ appointing former Minister of Unification Lim Dong-Won special presidential adviser on unification △ permitting civic organizations to run a negative anti-campaign against candidates in last year`s General Election. △ referring to National Defense Commission of North Korea chairman Kim Jung Il`s toleration of the US army in Korea. He also requested Prime Minster Lee Han-Dong to urge President Kim to apologize before the nation.

The MDP members had an emergency party caucus, in which they defined Ahn`s remarks as reckless and demanded an apology from GNP leader Lee Hoi-Chang and to have Ahn’s statement deleted from the parliamentary stenographic records, saying if this did not happen then they would boycott the parliamentary interpellation session of the government.

But GNP ignored the MDP`s demand, regarding it as political propaganda. Consequently, the National Assembly finished the lawmakers` interpellation session only, but could not proceed to the session for the government’s answers scheduled in the afternoon till late in the evening.

Meanwhile, Rep. Lee Sang-Bae of GNP claimed in the interpellation session, ``It is necessary to have the current Cabinet resign and form a neural Cabinet by the end of this year to revive the economy and stabilize people’s livelihood.``

Rep. Kim Hak-Won of the United Liberal Democrats (ULD) pointed out with regard to the tax probe into the news media, ``World media organizations including the International Press Institute (IPI), World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and the Committed to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued a statement demanding the Korean government to stop suppressing the media and to release the imprisoned media owners.`` and urged that the government should free the media owners.

Rep. Lee Kang-Rae of the MDP said concerning Lee Yong-Ho scandal, `` The Prosecutor`s office lost authority and honor, and the public distrust reached its extreme because of the scandal.`` and insisted, ``The reform of prosecution must be carried out as soon as possible through establishing an agency for investigation into high ranking official`s corruption.``

Song In-Soo issong@donga.com