Rep. Park Sang-cheon and Cheong Mong-jun Have Difference over Creation of New

There is confusion arising as Independent lawmaker, Cheong Mong-jun is denying the argument of Park Sang-cheon, a supreme councilor of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), that Mr. Cheong and the MDP agreed on the creation of a new party in principle.

In a press meeting on Tuesday held on the request of Rep. Park, he said, “I met Rep. Cheong last night and we agreed to form a new party in order to play politics uniting the Korean people.”

“The formation of the new party will be led by some lawmakers outside the MDP and later MDP members, the United Liberal Democrat, the Korean Coalition for the Future and Rep. Cheong will join the new party,” said Rep. Park.

According to Rep. Park, he said, “The way to select a presidential candidate had better be through primaries,” while Rep. Cheong said that it should be decided by the new party. This suggests that there was little difference between the two on the matter of primaries.

In a press gathering held at the Press Center on the same day, however, Rep. Cheong contradicted Mr. Park’s announcement, saying, “Rep. Park’s assertion that I agreed on the creation of a new party and the establishment of an organization in charge of promoting the formation of the new party is not true.”

He said, “We talked about amendment of the constitution, clean-up of political corruption and politics consolidating the public, and I just mentioned during the dialogue that a new party led by only a few people is not desirable.” He added that he could discuss a new party with people who have the same mind on the necessity of uniting the Korean public. But he clarified that rather than connecting his saying to a restyled MDP or a new third party, lawmakers should cooperate to establish a framework for political reforms.

Young-Chan Yoon Sung-Won Park yyc11@donga.com swpark@donga.com