Controversy Over Government’s Special Team Against Constitutional Petition

The Uri Party and the government decided on July 15 to create a special team led by Choi Jae-deok, vice-minister of the Ministry of Construction and Transportation, to prepare countermeasures against the constitutional petition and motion for the provisional disposition of the special law on the construction of the new administrative capital.

Kim Hyun-mi, the spokesperson, reported that on the afternoon of July 15, officials from both the party and government, including Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan, ministers of related ministries, Uri Party’s chairman Shin Ki-nam, and floor leader Chun Jung-bae, had gathered to hold a high-ranking party-government consultative conference and decided to run a special team.

Spokesperson Kim added, “The special team will be made up of defense lawyers from the promotion team tasked with constructing the new administrative capital and the Ministry of Construction and Transportation, and the Ministry of Justice. The team will bring the opinions of the government to the Constitutional Court and prepare public debate.”

Ruling party-government also decided to form a council represented by officials from government, party, and Cheong Wa Dae, including Kim Young-joo, chief political secretary of the President, Han Duk-soo, the leader of regulation of state affairs, and Kim Han-gil, the Uri Party’s chairman of the committee on the construction of the new administrative capital. They will meet every week to prepare promotion plans as the ruling party.

Worried, the Grand National Party said that the government-wide special team “might affect the decision of the Constitutional Court.”

Lee Han-gu, the GNP’s chairman of the special committee on the relocation of the administrative capital, said in a phone call with the press, “The legal stuff should be left up to the lawyers, and the government should make public the matters that people might want to know, like the propriety, effectiveness, and the cost of the relocation.” He criticized the ruling party’s intentions of making the matter political.

Seung-Heon Lee ddr@donga.com