Visits Stir Talk of MDP Reunion with ULD

On April 22, Chun Yoon-chul, the president of the FTC (Fair Trade Commission), made a home visit to Kim Jong-pil, honorary president of the ULD (United Liberal Democrats). The motives of Chun's visit has aroused speculation, as he is known to have a close relationship with President Kim Dae-jung.

Cha Heung-bong, Health and Welfare Minister,was the next to call on Kim Jong-pil, arriving an hour later, bearing an orchid accomoanied with the legend "kigonsung", meaning "best wishes for victory." This echoed President Kim's dispatch of an orchid to Kim Jong-pil right after the general election.

Relations between the two political leaders resemble nothing so much as a lovers' tiff. According to political circles, the president has made repeated overtures towards the ULD leader in the form of these visits by officials, while Kim Jong-pil has shown his displeasure towards the president since last week.

But Kim Jong-pil assistant Lee Duk-joo refuses to allow that the visits were aimed to restore political ties between the two leaders, saying they were nothing but "courtesy visits, lasting no longer than 20 minutes." He rebuffed suggestions that the visitors were special envoys from Kim Dae-jung.

However, ruling party officials are endowing deeper meaning to these visits: "Don't they demonstrate President Kim's true sincerity toward JP? Although there was no concrete message transmitted, those visits do represent President Kim's wholehearted wish for reconciliation."

Park Tae-joon will also visit JP at an 'appropriate time' to persuade him of the need of the recovery of cooperation between the two Kims.

On April 23, JP played golf at West Seoul Golf Club with several defeated election candidates, including Lee Tae-sup, Lee Keung-kue, and Lee Jung-moo. They said, "It seems JP has recovered from the shock of the general election defeat. He was cheerful today."

On April 24, JP will make his first appearance at his office after the general election, to receive Cho Nam-kee, the Chinese vice chief.

by Kim Jung-ha