Opposition Takes Its Demands to the Street

The opposition Grand National Party (GNP) waged a protest rally August 30 by marching silently from the Seoul train station to Chong Wa Dae. The GNP asserts that the Kim Dae-jung administration has failed completely in running the nation, especially in its handling of the charge that the MDP impeded the investigation into campaign spending during the April general elections.

GNP president Lee Hoi-chang and 250 other party members participated in the rally.

In a statement released during the rally, the GNP said: "We want to convey the sense of outrage that is engulfing the nation to the Kim Dae-jung administration. The president of the people must be honest about what happened." The statement also demanded an official apology from the president.

Meanwhile, GNP Spokesman Kwon Chul-hyeon attempted a political offensive by questioning how a former Chong Wa Dae official arranged for his brother to get loans of up to 46 billion won from Hanvit Bank, how that individual could get a job at Chong Wa Dae in the first place, why the Public Prosecutors Office hastily wrapped up its investigation into the matter, and why a special police unit investigated the man who refused to extend loan guarantees to the former Chong Wa Dae official's brother.

by Ko Jeong-ae