Opposition, ``Kim`s Bank Accounts Should Be Searched``

The Grand National Party (GNP) demanded on Oct. 24 the dismissal of Supreme Prosecutor`s Office Public Security Department Chair Park Jong-Ryul and an apology of the New Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) lawmaker Kim Hong-Il before the nation regarding Park`s accompanying Rep. Kim to Jeju Island during Kim`s vacation in August.

But the MDP Spokesman Jeon Yong-Hak refuted it, saying, ``A vacation trip is a matter of privacy but GNP is using it maliciously for the sake of re-elections.``

▽ GNP`s offensive==Spokesman Kwon Chun-Hyun said at a briefing on the GNP chairman and staff meeting, ``That the top official of the prosecution`s public security department accompanied the president`s son during his vacation trip indicates this administration`s lack of morality.`` insisting, ``The President should dismiss Prosecutor Park immediately and crack down on absurdities and evil customs of his relatives and associates.``

He continued, ``Rep. Kim should apologize as well before the nation for his `trip of corruption on the whole` that he made as the president`s son with high-ranking officials and business personnel, and should explain the whole story of how he came to associate with those people.`` and urged, ``The Prosecutor`s Office and the Financial Supervisory Service should track Rep. Kim`s bank accounts to establish law and order of the nation.``

The GNP Floor Leader Lee Jae-Oh said, ``Rep. Kim tripped to Jeju in January with Chung Hak-Mo, head of the sports organization of a certain firm related to `Lee Young-Ho Gate`.``

▽ Rep. Kim`s statement==Rep. Kim released a personal statement, in which he asked, ``Is it wrong to make a vacation trip with a prosecutor with whom and whose wife and children he and his family have been known for a long time? Anything wrong with catching the same flight?``

He also said, ``I didn`t go to Jeju Island on the same day by the same flight (with Prosecutor Park), and we stayed at different places.`` and questioned, ``Is the president`s son supposed not to make a vacation trip, and is he supposed to stop seeing those he has been associated with?``

Moon Chul fullmoon@donga.com