Angst in the Ruling Camp

Were Directives Obeyed During President's Trip?

With President Kim Dae-jung returning Thursday from a seven-day trip to Norway and Sweden, ruling Millennium Democratic Party lawmakers say they are worried about how to brief the president on what happened during his absence.

Before leaving Seoul last Friday, Mr. Kim had given the ruling party lawmakers two assignments.

One was to quell the internal dissension triggered by calls from within the party for the "Tonggyo-dong" faction led by Kwon Roh-kap to retire from frontline party leadership.

The 11 core members of the faction agreed to step aside from major party posts Monday.The second assignment was to come up with a blueprint for overhauling the party and the administration in order to assuage public concerns about the faltering economy.

Ruling party lawmakers, including Chairman Suh Young-hoon, toured parts of Seoul, Inchon and Pyongtaek, Kyonggi Province to get public feedback on the economy Tuesday.

The response from the streets was harsh.

A 71-year-old woman who runs a fabric store in Kuro market in Seoul said that "there has not been a harder time" to run a store or a household.

by Park Sung-hee