Unguarded Remark on Newspaper Levy

Secretary General of the New Millennium Democratic Party (NMDP) Kim Myung-Seop said that the levy on the newspaper companies should be lowered. He suddenly blurred out in the midst of refuting to the newly-elected and secondly-elected representatives, who have demanded for the resignation of top-5 party officials, on 31st last month.

As soon as he encountered some reporters in front of the party building at Yoido, Secretary General Kim said with an angry voice that the newly-elected representatives have insisted on his resignation, but they did not understand his inner-most thoughts during taking his office as a general secretary.

And then Kim said, ``they did not realize why our party lost the election. We were defeated because the government arrested the owners of the newspaper companies and the coalition of DJP was broken up. Despite the fact that a proper measures should be established, they have tried to attribute the responsibility to irrelevant person like me. The government should have reduced the levy on the newspaper companies, and charges to the National Tax Service (NTS) should also have moderate in the court. I told to the Commissioner of NTS (he misnamed the commissioner of the Seoul District Tax Service) few days ago.``

However, General Secretary Kim said through the aide yesterday, ``I did talk about the defection of the peoples` sentiments, but I never mentioned about the levy.``

issong@donga.com