[Editorial] The Words That President Kim Should Say

The whole country is ruined by corruptions. Even the core group of the government is involved in various `gates`. There was no such a time that the core circle of national authority, such as Cheong Wa Dae, National Intelligence Service, and Prosecution, is involved in corruptions as it happened in current government. The trust in the government and the moral foundation of the government are collapsing together.

What President Kim Dae-Jung should do immediately is clear. He must clean the corrupted power group as soon as possible and should establish the foundation for a sound country. It is a critical moment that the success and failure of the government will decided. The President should clean up the `dirty stage` that the current government made in order to prepare a stage on which the next government can practice its vision. It means that the `gates` should not become a stumbling block for the next government that would waste national strength.

President Kim announced that he will concentrate on the national administration when he resigned the Presidentship of the New Millennium Democratic Party in November 2001. He said that he will retire after doing his best on nation`s important affairs, such as the local and presidential elections and World Cup 2002. At the beginning of this year, President Kim reaffirmed his will to focus on the national administration. "I will do my best to establish a foundation for sound national development that will provide a prosperity of next government without burden." No one would oppose against President Kim`s this will.

However, our judgment is that President Kim cannot become a president who will be remembered in history as he himself and the people wish without an immediate big reshuffle on the core group of the government that became a hotbed of the `gates`. When he embraces the corrupted core circle of the government, the people will turn their back, and it is impossible to establish a sound foundation for the next government. The corrupted power group will try to conceal their corruptions, and new corruption cases would revealed. Then, the remaining term of President Kim will repeat the same situation as it happens currently.

Although the remaining term of the current government is not too long, there are so many things to do including many affairs that will decide the fate of country. If President Kim delays, he will lose the opportunity to reshuffle the corrupted power group and will be drawn into the continually arranged national affairs.

President Kim plans to announce the general direction of national administration for the last year of his term at his New Year`s Press Meeting on 14th. We wish that the President will present his plan to eliminate the corruption of the core circle of the government with a firm resolution for the sake of his political life and national fate. Only then, the way to concentrate on the national administration, which he himself emphasizes, will open to President Kim.