Legislator Sues Paper Over New Basic Law

Representative Park Yang-soo of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party filed a defamation suit against the Chosun Ilbo on Friday.

The newspaper reported Thursday that Mr. Park, special aide to President Kim Dae-jung, authored a classified document favoring a constitutional revision should a much-anticipated visit to Seoul by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il produce "tangible results."

On Friday, the conservative daily reported that Mr. Park wrote another report advocating a merger between the Millennium Democratic Party, the United Liberal Democrats and the Democratic People's Party in order to present a unified front in next year's presidential election.

Mr. Park said he never saw the documents and that he suspects groups hostile to the government and the ruling party fabricated them. At a meeting of senior party officials Friday Mr. Park displayed a document titled "The Problems of Selecting Candidates for Presidential and Local Elections," saying it is the only classified party report he has authored.

Kwon Chul-hyun, a spokesman for the opposition Grand National Party, questioned whether President Kim Dae-jung already had a constitutional change in mind when he said in October that there may have to be a referendum on North-South relations.

by Kim Jung-ha