President Roh, “No Negotiations with Illegal Demonstraters”

President Roh Moo-Hyun ordered to the related office on November 18 to emphasize that “no one will achieve his or her desired goal if he or she demonstrates by means of illegal violence, and negotiations will cease in such cases.”

On this day, President Roh was reported on “The recently gathered demonstration trend and counter plan” by MOGAHA (Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs) at the state affairs meeting held at the Blue House and expressed his view and insisted, “It is the participatory government’s major reform task to improve the demonstration culture, and it should be corrected in accordance with the change in the times to preserve the order of law for the people and to restore the trust of nation.”

With the state affairs meeting following it, he added, “Ordinary citizens and well-behaved members of the demonstration should be distinguished from the leaders who habitually lead and instigate illegal violent demonstration, and each office should make consistent efforts to talk to these well-behaved members.”

In regards to this, the Blue House spokesman Yoon Tae-Young explained, “What President Roh means by stopping the negotiation in case of an illegal violent demonstration is that he will eradicate the existing thought that the government would take a step back and yield in order to compromise a little with the other side when a violent demonstration takes place.”

In addition to it, he mentioned, “The demonstration taking place in Buan area, Jeolra buk-do Province over being chosen as a radioactive waste disposal site should be understood as an exceptional case from the principles as the government is trying to settle the issue with talks.”

Meanwhile, the government voted for the revised proposal of local official appointments to abolish the local examination and integrate it with the administrative examination and run them together. As a result, the local examination, which had been disputed over regarding the reduced number of examinees and successful candidates, and the resistance of local self-governing organizations, will be eliminated and the “self-government” subject will be newly established in the administration examination accordingly. Those who pass the self-government examination will be obliged to serve for three years at large self-governing bodies after the appointment.

Jeong-Hun Kim Jong-Hoon Lee jnghn@donga.com taylor55@donga.com