MDP agrees to dissolve, start over as a new party

Executives of the Millennium Democratic Party resolved Friday to reorganize as a new political party a day after its humiliating defeat in by-elections for National Assembly vacancies.

A party committee will be named to promote the establishment of a new party. All 11 Supreme Council members, including the party chairman, Hahn Hwa-kap, will resign with the launch of the new party, accepting responsibility for the setbacks this week and in the June 13 local elections.

Roh Moo-hyun, the MDP presidential candidate, said he would participate in the new party. Mr. Roh had opposed calls within the party that, to stand a chance in the December presidential election, the Millennium Democrats should replace their leadership and presidential candidate and change their name. His position changed abruptly with Thursday's election defeat. But his resentment at the anti-Roh faction within the party that has called for him to step down before the organization of a new party burst out Friday. "They lack fundamentals," he said.

Discussions within the MDP on the timing and method of the party launching and how to reselect the presidential candidate are expected to speed up. But observers forecast that the MDP would have difficulty striking a deal on how to conduct the new nomination process.

Mr. Roh said that if a new selection is held under the aegis of the MDP, more than 50 percent of the electors in the process should be nonparty members. If a primary is held after the new party is formed, he said, all voters should be nonparty members. Mr. Roh added that the runoff should be completed before the Chuseok holidays, which begin Sept. 20.

The anti-Roh camp in the MDP said that the new party should start from a clean slate. Some members want to launch the party at the end of October.

Many MPD lawmakers said Friday that the election results had left them despondent. "We should accept the people's scolding humbly," said Mr. Hahn.

"The MDP is not accepted by the people," said Kim Young-bae, a party adviser. "We can win the election if we select a new presidential candidate -- let it be Mr. Roh or a new party." He told reporters later that if Mr. Roh were to stand down from the race, it would give him "pleasure beyond words."

Chough Soon-hyung, a senior MDP adviser, opposed organizing a new party. "Forming a new party after Mr. Roh won the primary in which many non-party members participated, is invalidating the result of the people's primary and breaking the promise the party made to the people," he said. Mr. Chough added that forming a new party violated democratic principles if the purpose is to avoid taking responsibility for the Kim Dae-jung administration's mismanagement.

by Lee Jung-min, Kang Min-seok