Hyperbole, insults and a half-empty hall

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Hyperbole, insults and a half-empty hall

The National Assembly session entered its second day Tuesday with members of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party absent. Opposition members questioned the government on issues concerning unification, foreign policy and security. But Grand National Party member Park Sung-kook's remark, "The Kim Dae-jung administration is the Red Guard of the Kim Jong-il regime," sent the ruling party members into a uproar.

This was the first time that the Assembly has begun a business day without any ruling party members. The fireworks erupted Monday when Mr. Park criticized President Kim's "sunshine" policy and made the "Red Guard" remark. Millennium Democratic Party spokesman Lee Nak-yon responded, "This remark gives us serious misgivings about Mr. Park's spirit of nationalism." He demanded that the remark be stricken from the record and called for Mr. Park to apologize. The ruling party held an emergency general meeting and vowed unspecified strong measures against the assemblyman for his remark, including filing a complaint against him with the special committee on Ethics

The Grand National Party and the Millennium Democratic Party met Tuesday before the Assembly session opened but failed to reach an accord on what should be done about the remarks of Representative Song Sok-chan of the MDP. Mr. Song had referred to U.S. President Bush as an "avatar of evil."

The ruling party had initially decided not to attend the assembly session Tuesday because opposition party members refused to apologize for having tried to pull Mr. Song off the podium when he launched into an attack on Lee Hoi-chang, the Grand National Party leader. Speaker Lee Man-sup had Mr. Song's remarks calling Mr. Bush "the avatar of evil" and the opposition leader "the root of evil" expunged from the Assembly's record Tuesday.

by Lee Sang-il

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