GNP Asks Ministry to Present Report on Canal Project

The word that a study on the “Grand Inland Canal Project,” presented as a political pledge by Grand National Party presidential hopeful and former Seoul mayor Lee Myung-bak, is just a fabrication is spreading now.

Park Hee-tae, head of the campaign committee for Lee, held a press conference yesterday at a committee office in Yeouido and argued, “The conspiracy against Lee’s project was revealed yesterday at a meeting of the Construction and Transportation Committee of the National Assembly,” adding, “President Roh was the one behind this scheme.”

Park said, “It was confirmed that materials that argue for the low feasibility of this project was fabricated. We will ask for those who spread this wrong idea to the public and the mass media to claim responsibility.” He added, “Cheong Wa Dae must reveal who made such report (37 pages), why they distributed it to the political circles, and the purpose behind this.”

Targeting Lee’s rival, former GNP Chairwoman Park Geun-hye, Park argued, “A political group that confused the nation based on fabricated materials should reveal how it obtained this and whether it knew that it was fabricated before. Also, it should assume responsibility for this and make a sincere apology to the public.”

Meanwhile, President Roh ordered at a Cabinet meeting to open the report (nine pages) to the public, saying, “It is a duty of government officials to present materials to the National Assembly, regardless of whether it is helpful or harmful to a certain political party.”

Regarding this, presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-seon said, “Even though in early May we saw a nine-page report titled, “Intermediate Report on Grand Inland Canal Project,” the 37-page report is very new to us,” adding, “We don’t even use the term ‘VIP’ at all (This is used as a term to call the president in the 37-page report).

The spokesman added, “We don’t think that it is a big deal that president should explain himself, and we believe the Ministry of Construction and Transportation (MCT) will deal with this matter.” Meanwhile, the MCT planned to present the report to the National Assembly by midnight yesterday.

Regarding this, Hong Sa-deok, head of campaign committee for Park Geun-hye, criticized Lee, saying, “By digressing the people’s attention to things that are not related to the genuineness of the problem, they are just interrupting the effort for revealing the truth.”

taylor55@donga.com