President Roh insists on “American style presidential system”

President Roh Moo-hyun said on August 25 that, “we first need to properly operate the American style presidential system, which is considered as the typical type of presidential system,” and that, “by doing so, the government is aiming to establish the relationship between the President and the Assembly, similar to that of the American President and the Congress.”

On the day that marked the 6th month since his inauguration, President Roh met with 15000 public officers from across the country online, and stressed on this point saying that, “Korean political parties exercise collective control like in the parliamentary cabinet system, while the government has adopted the presidential system. Under such conditions where the President and the parties are closely linked, the President will easily get involved in conflicts within parties, making it difficult for the administration to stay neutral.”

President Roh also added that, “the French presidential system is similar to the Korean one, but due to the different political practices, a lot of time will be required to pursue the French style, and more discussion is necessary.” But he said that, “it is not yet the time to hold such discussions.”

The President continued that, “I made a promise during the National Assembly speech in April that we may go for a kind of dual-system, when regionalism is fully overcome, where the Prime Minister will be appointed according to the Assembly’s recommendation, but the political circle gave me no response,” and indicated that the proposal to transfer the PM designation right to the dominant party after next year’s general election would be difficult to be realized.

Jeong-Hun Kim jnghn@donga.com