Roh calls for new party coalition

Roh Moo-hyun, the ruling Millennium Democratic Party's presidential nominee, took his proposal for political realignment a step further Monday, evoking a heated response from the opposition that he was practicing political maneuvering.

"A crack is already in place with the current political structure, and there will be some symbolic changes before the June local elections," Mr. Roh told reporters at his party's headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul.

He termed his realignment a "new grand coalition of democratic forces."

The 56-year-old former human-rights lawyer said that "politicians of both the ruling and the opposition camps are increasingly seeing the need for change."

Political insiders said Mr. Roh's statements indicate that he is already in contact with politicians from opposition camps.

Representative Park Chong-ung of the main opposition Grand National Party, who acts as a spokesman for former President Kim Young-sam, said his party was watching Mr. Roh's proposal of forming a coalition of democratic forces with interest.

Representative Kim Deog-ryong, a Grand National who has long voiced his differences with his party's former leader, Lee Hoi-chang, said, "A common sentiment is spreading in the political arena that the existing political order will not do."

An opposition vice spokes-man, Kim Seong-sik, attacked Mr. Roh for practicing "the political maneuvering that President Kim Dae-jung has employed at every major election."

Within the main opposition Grand National camp, there is strong speculation that heavyweights are looking to defect. A Grand National heavyweight, Representative Park Geun-hye, a daughter of former President Park Chung Hee, left the party in February, decrying the "imperialistic" leadership style of Mr. Lee.

Meanwhile, Mr. Roh and the newly elected leadership of the ruling party paid a 25-minute visit to President Kim Dae-jung, formerly the ruling party's president, on Monday.

by Kim Chong-hyuk