President’s Remark in Civil Revolution Causing Disputes

The opposition parties are considering an accusation against President Roh Mo-hyun for his remark that the civil revolution will continue at the “Remember 1219” ceremony on December 19. The “Remember 1219” ceremony celebrates the first anniversary of the presidential election. They are insisting that the remark is a preliminary election campaign.

The sensation is likely to spread further, particularly since the National Election Commission has taken action toward an investigation into whether or not the remark and the ceremony violate the Election Law on December 21.

Spokesperson Park Jin from the Grand National Party (GNP) said at a main party posts’ briefing on December 20, “The Grand National Party is strongly considering an accusation process regarding the remark made by President Roh,” adding, “President Roh should apologize for his imprudent act and disband the illegal private organization of “Nosamo” (abbreviation of the Korean words of “Gathering of People who Love Roh Moo-hyun”) and its presumably subsidiary “Power of the People.””

Vice spokesperson Chang Jung-hyun of the Millennium Democratic Party said in a commentary on December 21, “President Roh’s remark at the time clearly falls into the category of preliminary election campaign. We are planning to discuss our plan of action against him as such, including the accusation to the National Election Commission at the Permanent Central Committee tomorrow (22nd) morning.”

Meanwhile, regarding the ceremony of “Remember 1219” that President Roh attended, the National Election Commission announced, “We are closely investigating whether this is a violation of the regulation of interdicting preliminary election campaign.”

A related official at the Commission said, “We have sent our employees to Yeouido Park, the site of the ceremony on December 19, to collect documents to help determine illegality. We will take a proper action if there are any sources of illegal acts found.”

Yoon Ta-young, spokesperson at Cheong Wa Dae said, “The president’s mentioning of “civil revolution” is merely paraphrasing that the people’s participation in the last year’s presidential election through ‘Nosamo’ and other organizations have changed the political culture,” and refuted, “The opposition parties are insisting it is preliminary election campaign, but it was only to emphasize on the necessity of political reform.”

Yeon-Wook Jung Sung-Won Park jyw11@donga.com swpark@donga.com