President Roh’s Political Behaviors Attacked by Arguments

President Roh Moo-hyun was politically active including holding a meeting with the major figures of the Open Uri Party just after the April 15 election and stating directly regarding the sensitive pending problems in the political world: the Grand National Party (GNP) stands up for struggling against it.

In particular, as President Roh has been confirmed to have focused on the necessities of a “nationwide party” in relation to the by-election of the mayor of Busan and the provincial governor of Kyungnam Province. The GNP has criticized his behavior as “unreasonable” because the impeachment judgment for President Roh is currently under review.

On April 21, President Roh held a dinner party and invited the major figures of the Open Uri Party including party leader Jung Dong-young, floor leader Kim Kuen-tae, and the other 19 party executives to Cheong Wa Dae, remarking, “If I join the party, I will participate in the party activities as an active party member, and I will not meddle in the factional interests such as executive nomination, candidate recommendation, and party chief selection,” passed on by the spokesperson of Cheong Wa Dae, Yoon Tae-young. It has been known that President Roh will join the leading Open Uri Party as a regular party member just after the impeachment decision is given.

In advance of the dinner party, Roh met with the presidential aide in economics, Kim Hyuk-gyu, on April 16 and discussed the by-election problem, requesting, “The nationwide party system should be accomplished through the upcoming election, and a large percentage of the people’s concern should be stirred by undergoing a candidate election procedure in the party.”

On April 17, he also remarked at the meeting table with the special presidential aide in politics, Kim Won-ki, that “this election should be considered as a result of the people’s confidence toward the president. I definitely accept the people’s decision.”

According to these remarks, the spokesperson of GNP, Jun Yeo-ok, commented, “President Roh should take care of himself until the Constitutional Court produces its decision on the impeachment bill,” and focused, “No matter what the Constitutional Court decides, the outcome will be burdensome for our party, but we will protect the constitutional government by denying any political decisions.”

Young-Chan Yoon Yeon-Wook Jung yyc11@donga.com jyw11@donga.com