Park Kwan-yong Suggests an Oath Ceremony to Four Party Representatives

Park Kwan-yong, speaker of the National Assembly, proposed to the representatives of the four parties on Monday to administer “an oath ceremony that President Roh Moo-hyun would accept the decisions made by the Constitutional Court on the impeachment case.”

Speaker Park held a press conference this day and revealed, “The extreme antagonism and split in public opinions are poignant due to the impeachment,” and added, “In order to curb chaotic situations after the Constitutional Court gives the decision, let’s make the representative of each party or the representatives chosen by each party meet and pledge before the citizens to accept humbly the decision by the court.” Speaker Park also drew a line on withdrawing the impeachment by adding, “The four party representatives should discuss on settling anxieties of the citizens, but the topic of withdrawing impeachment case should not be a matter of discussion.” Speaker Park justified the Assembly’s vote on impeachment saying, “Any citizen can have different opinion about this incident, but any irrational behavior of calling the decision ‘violence of the National Assembly’ or ‘National Assembly’s coup d’etat’ is an insult to the National Assembly.”

Myoung-Gun Lee gun43@donga.com