GNP, Cautious Approach toward the Postponement

It turns out that Lee Hoi-chang, the president of Grand National Party (GNP), was the first politician to find out about the postponement of the inter-Korean summit.

On June 11 around 11:30 a.m, Lee called President Kim to express his hopes for a successful summit, "Good luck on the conference." Lee said. President Kim answered by saying, "Thank you. However, a problem has occurred. The summit conference has been postponed."

GNP members were quick to criticize the ruling party despite its having nothing to do with the delay, "It is absolutely an unprecedented matter in diplomatic history to delay the conference date only a day before without even asking our opinion." a GNP member was quoted as saying.

"Our national honor seems to have been disregarded." said a source near Lee.

Lee called the GNP's spokesman Kwan Chul-hyun and told him to deal with the matter in a cautious manner. In his public announcement Kwan put more emphasis on criticising North Korea, rather than the government, by saying, "We cannot help but point out the totally irresponsible attitude of North Korea. If they intended to delay to achieve more political and economical profits, they should be chastized severely."

Kwan closed his statement by saying, "We will not use this postponement to create political strife."

by Park Seung-hee