General Election Will Be Separate from Referendum on Roh’s Troubled Leadership

President Roh Moo-hyun officially declared his support for the Uri Party yesterday and promised once again that he will join the party before April’s general elections take place.

“I support the Uri Party and want to go together with them throughout my political career.” President Roh said at a news conference held in the Chun Chu Kwan of Cheong Wa Dae. “I am not sure when, but I want to join the Uri Party, and I think, this is the way I have to go.”

On the subject of exactly when he will join the party, he said, “I will decide after the investigations surrounding myself and my aides are finished because I do not want to burden the Uri Party.” Roh’s decision is expected to come in late February or early March when the special probe investigating allegations of corruption against Roh’s aides comes to an end.

In response to the views that Roh will probably ask his aides and cabinet members to be actively involved in the general election in April, he said that he “did not want to.” However, he left the possibility open when he said that “I do not think it is proper to force those who want to stay in the National Assembly to give up their determinations.”

President Roh has made it clear that he did not relate a referendum questioning his troubled leadership to the general election in April. “I will clear my position to the nation after all suspicions around me come clean and the investigation comes to ends,” said Roh.

Addressing the topic of unfavorable remarks made by officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs against President Roh, he said that “some officials have siphoned off information with the aim of changing the current government’s foreign policy and have raised their objections concerning this with humiliating language and unpleasant feelings.” Roh added that “personnel measures will take place because of this.”

When addressing the subject of the direction of economic operations this year, Roh said that he would give top priority to job opportunity creation and that he would make every effort to cooperate with civic groups, political leaders, labor figures and industrial figures to open conferences on increasing job opportunities, which has been suggested by political spheres.

Meanwhile, Park Jin, the spokesman of the opposition Grand National Party, denounced Roh by saying, “Roh’s statements were mostly filled with abstract public pledges targeting the general election and reiterations of his schemes to snatch victory in the upcoming election rather than expressing his reflections on the prevailing corruption around him and his troubled leadership.”

In addition, the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) called for an apology from Roh for his remarks. “The MDP has been divided into two group: one that supports reform and another that denies reform,” according to a party spokesperson.

Jeong-Hun Kim jnghn@donga.com