GNP, ``Unprecedented Suppression of the Opposition in History``

A confrontation between the ruling and opposition parities was heating up yesterday as they set about inquiring into the truth of the incident that the police arrested an office worker of the Grand National Party (GNP) and searched the GNP Jeju office regarding the GNP lawmaker Yoo Sung-Keun`s disclosure of a police intelligence document.

▽ The Grand Nation Party == Eight GNP lawmakers, including the Floor Leader Lee Jae-Oh, visited the Jeju Provincial Police Agency, and argued, ``The search was nothing but an apparent suppression of the opposition party that finds no parallels in the annals of political party history.``

The Commissioner of the Jeju Provincial Police Agency Yoo Bong-An responded to this, ``The search was conducted because it might have been possible for another leaked document to be concealed or destroyed.``

But when Commissioner Yoo was questioned by the GNP lawmakers as to what he thought about the Millennium Democratic Party`s allegation that ``The GNP made or asked for making the document in question.`` he answered, ``It sounds like nonsense.``

In addition, to the question as to whether the document in question was worth a secret information he answered, ``It is not a secret because lawmakers can eat together with anyone in public places.``

Thus the GNP criticized the MDP, saying ``Even though the MDP has been alleging that GNP manipulated the document in question or asked for its production, Commissioner Yoo`s answer was its opposite.``

▽ The New Millennium Democratic Party == The MDP personnel, including Chung Dong-Young, Supreme Council member and chairman of in-house committee for eradication of malicious propaganda, visited the Jeju Provincial Police Agency and demanded a thorough investigation as they were informed of the arrests of Police Sergeant Yim, who had made the document in question and the GNP Jeju office organization director Kim.

The MDP spokesperson Jeon Young-Hak said at the briefing on the expanded executive council that the policeman had been bought off by the GNP so as to produce documents on demand, arguing, ``Suspicions are unlikely to be removed that Police Sergeant Yim might have run a risk because there must have been a special connection or a secret deal of offering tangible-intangible compensation.`` He also said, regarding the GNP`s resistance to the police search, ``It was for the first time in history that a political party has made a police official produce documents on demand through buying him off, and used them for a political maneuvering.`` He continued to criticize, ``The GNP is so braze-faced as to argue that the police search conducted to investigate a crime upon its own judgment for the establishment law and order of the nation is nothing but suppression of the opposition party.``

Song In-Soo issong@donga.com