Parliamentary Speaker Refused Premier`s Speech for President

The plenary session of the National Assembly was delayed for an hour as Park Gwan-yong, Parliamentary Speaker refused to preside over the session, saying that he could not accept Prime Minister Kim Seok-soo reading the keynote speech on behalf of President Kim Dae-jung. It was the first time for parliamentary speaker to refuse premier`s reading the parliamentary speech on behalf of the president in history.

Park was persuaded by Rep. Lee Gyu-taek of the Grand National Party(GNP) and Rep. Chung Gyun-hwan of the Millennium Democratic Party(MDP) to resume the plenary session. He expressed deep regret saying, "I have continued to ask the President to come to the National Assembly and made the address by himself for the past three months. But the Presidential office of Chung Wa Dae rejected my proposal saying there was no precedent. I think it is wrong."

Park added, "The practice of having premier read parliamentary speech on behalf of the president is the legacy of the past authoritarian era. Hence no need to preserve. I asked the President to made the address by himself in order to put in right perspective the prestige of the National Assembly and to do my job as parliamentary speaker. My appeal did not target a specific regime. Whoever the president is, he should deliver the speech by himself."

In response, a Chung Wa Dae official said, "The budget for the next fiscal year has already been made public, and it has been a deep-rooted practice for the prime minister to read parliamentary speech for the president."

President Kim Dae-jung said in his address read by Prime Minister Kim, "The fair implementation of the presidential election is very essential for the country to take a leap forward in the 21 century. I will bend over backward to make the upcoming presidential election the fairest election ever in the nation`s history."

He added, "I take this opportunity to appeal political parties to come up with measures to conduct a full-fledged political reform."

Regarding the economic policy, President Kim said, "There are growing uncertainties on external markets. First, I will give more flexibility in implementing macro-economic policy so each economic sector including domestic demand, export and investment can grow together. I will lay out countermeasures to overheating areas such as real estate and house loans."

President Kim also said, "I will revise work hours, holidays and vacation system so the five day workweek system can be settle in a rational manner. In order to provide a strong footing for public education, I will increase the number of teachers by 13,000 and extend the compulsory education to second-year of the middle school by next year."

In the meantime, the National Assembly adopted a resolution urging the International Hydrographic Organization to publish the revised version of the international hydrographical chart as soon as possible and to put down the East Sea and the Japan Sea together.

Oceans

Yeon-Wook Jung jyw11@donga.com