Blue House chief of staff lashes out at GNP leader

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Blue House chief of staff lashes out at GNP leader

Jeon Yun-churl, the Blue House chief of staff, launched an attack Thursday on the opposition Grand National Party's de facto leader Lee Hoi-chang, who called the current administration a "leftist-like regime."

At a press conference, Mr. Jeon criticized Mr. Lee's Wednesday speech at Korea University as an "anachronism when the world is advancing into the information age." Mr. Jeon also demanded that Mr. Lee apologize to the people for encouraging societal divisions. He even hinted at taking Mr. Lee to court.

Mr. Jeon said President Kim Dae-jung was "disappointed" by Mr. Lee's speech.

The chief of staff argued that the opposition has cooperated with the so-called "leftist" party in drawing up policies for agriculture, start-up businesses, education and science technology.

To Mr. Lee's criticism that the ruling party caters to the lower classes with its social welfare policies, Mr. Jeon retorted that only 8 percent of the Korean government's budget goes to social welfare, compared to 40 percent of Argentina's budget.

Mr. Lee was undaunted by the Blue House rebuke. He said the Blue House had no problem with being called "moderately leftist" by Anthony Giddens, the British sociologist who is director of the London School of Economics. He said, among other things, he considers the ruling party leftist because it referred to the Korean War as a failed attempt to unify the peninsula, it neglects economic principles in supporting North Korea and is reluctant to urge Pyeongyang to return war prisoners and abductees.

by Chun Young-gi

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