“Impeachment of President Roh,” Truth or Bluff

Is it the “truth” or a ‘bluff’?

The issue of whether the National Assembly’s motion of impeachment will be actualized before the April 15 election is making headlines, as the National Grand Party and the Millennium Democratic Party are openly making their positions clear on the non-refusal of the impeachment proposal.

For now, the Opposition Party sends a “powerful warning” to discontinue the operation of illegal key elections and the obliteration of the Opposition Party. However, from the looks of the recent attitudes among the Opposition Party, it’s hard to simply interpret the message as a bluff.

Until late last year, the position of the Opposition party was to promote a constitutional amendment after the election to drastically reduce President Roh’s authority while guaranteeing his term of service through the decentralization of the Presidency or Cabinet government.

However, just 2 months before the election, there were increasing sentiments that “a special measure is called for” from both parties as President Roh’s “all-in strategy” was working and support was on the rise for the Uri Party.

The key issue at hand is the attitude of the Government Party. This is because various public opinion polls reflect the view that the majority of the public is apprehensive about the impeachment itself and frustration is growing with President Roh’s administration of the state of affairs. At the election fund hearing on April 10-12, the Opposition Party responded by expressing its plan of seizing an opportunity to go ahead with the impeachment if a major blow is to be struck on President Roh, while stating that “in order to actualize the impeachment motion, an explosive boiling point is needed.”

A high-ranking member of the Millennium Democratic Party said, “If the National Grand Party promises not to present a presidential candidate after the impeachment, an amicable compromise with the National Grand party will be possible. We are negotiating with a strategist from the National Grand Party.” This statement was a reflection that there indeed is serious talk between both parties under the surface.

On the other hand, the number of parliamentary seats (47) of the Uri Party does not reach the impeachment motion passage (approval of 2/3 of the enrollment) and does not even support an impeachment proposal (approval of majority of the National Assembly enrollment).

Yong-Gwan Jung Myoung-Gun Lee yongari@donga.com gun43@donga.com