Fleshed-Out Initials Lead To Defamation Lawsuits

Lawsuits have been filed in Seoul against two opposition Assemblymen who accused President Kim Dae-jung's son and another lawmaker of involvement in the Lee Yong-ho scandal.

The Millennium Democratic Party filed a defamation complaint against Representatives Ahn Kyung-yul and You Sung-keun of the Grand National Party with the Seoul District Prosecutors office on Saturday, and President Kim's son, Representative Kim Hong-il, filed a separate complaint there on the same charges. The two opposition legislators had, in privileged Assembly speeches, translated the initials of two persons rumored to have been involved in the scandal into the names of the two ruling party lawmakers. Lee Yong-yo is a businessman under investigation for alleged stock manipulation and bribery.

The Millennium Democratic Party berated the opposition for dragging the two MDP lawmakers into the matter; the GNP countered by demanding Sunday that the bank accounts of the president's son be investigated.

"I feel disappointment and anger at the groundless suspicion," Chairman Han Kwang-ok of the MDP said at a press conference. "We plan to address problems of the abuse of legislative immunity at the Assembly's Special Committee on Political Reform."

GNP spokesman Kwon Chul-hyun claimed that ruling party attempts to limit or strip legislators of immunity "smacks of anti-democratic motives and collusion."

by Lee Sang-il