Legislature is deadlocked over counsel, nomination

The National Assembly has begun work in the Roh administration where it left off in the Kim administration ― divided, bitter and deadlocked. A plenary session yesterday that was to have included a vote on whether to confirm Mr. Roh’s nominee for prime minister, Goh Kun, was postponed for a day.
The Assembly was stalled over the timing of a vote proposed by the opposition Grand National Party to name an independent counsel to investigate the cash-for-summit scandal. The GNP contends that cash payments to North Korea in 2000 were a bribe to induce the North to stage the June inter-Korean summit meeting that year.
The session was scheduled to open at 2 p.m., but Assembly members argued over both bills until 7 p.m. before agreeing to try again today. Members of Mr. Roh’s party, the Millennium Democrats, wanted the Assembly to vote on Mr. Goh’s nomination yesterday and defer a vote on the independent counsel until later.
MDP legislator Chung Kyun-hwan told GNP party members that the MDP would cooperate with the opposition to pass a bill to name a counsel if the GNP would agree to consider the nomination first. Rhee Q-taek, the floor leader of the GNP, said his party would not agree, saying, “If the counsel bill were taken up later, MDP members might filibuster against it.”
The MDP said the opposition was trying to throw sand into the gears of the new administration.

by Lee Sang-il, Park Sung-hee