GNP Presidential Candidate Lee Mentions Constitutional Revision

Lee Hoi-chang, the presidential candidate of Grand National Party (GNP), said on June 3, “The issue of revising the constitution should be approached not from the perspective of political maneuvers but from that of a national reform.” He added, “If I take office as the president of Korea, I’ll make the constitutional revision a public issue with the help of the ruling and opposition parties and wrap it up as soon as possible.”

In an interview published in this week’s edition of ‘Hankook Weekly’, Mr. Lee said, “The five-year single presidential term under the current constitution is the product of the past history. In this context, I think there are some provisions that should be revised. But I don’t agree with some arguments that manipulate as if the constitution has some fundamental problems.”

He added, “I’ll thoroughly review all the issues related with the presidential and the parliamentary cabinet systems and the former with five-year single or four-year multiple terms and then let the people decide.”

This is the first time the candidate has mentioned the issue by himself, even though the National Reform Committee of the party raised the necessity of making the constitutional revision a public issue in a general report convention of the GNP on May 17, saying, “If our party wins the upcoming presidential election, we should touch upon the issue and complete public disputes over it within the tenure of the next president.”

Yeon-Wook Jung jyw11@donga.com