Roh hopes vote on Kim is avoided

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Roh hopes vote on Kim is avoided

President Roh Moo-hyun yesterday indicated that he would try to persuade the opposition Grand National Party not to vote on a motion to oust Kim Doo-gwan, 44, minister of government administration and home affairs. Last week, the party submitted a motion to oust Mr. Kim to the National Assembly. Grand Nationals have contended that he failed to prevent attacks by a banned student group, Hanchongryun, on a U.S. military firing range and on the opposition party’s headquarters last month.
The governing Millennium Democratic Party opposes the motion, but said it would not use physical force to bar a vote on the proposal.
The opposition party said yesterday that it would submit the motion to the floor of the National Assembly for a vote at Thursday’s plenary session. The Grand Nationals, who hold 149 seats in the legislature, can push the motion through with little support from the Millennium Democrats and the minority United Liberal Democrats. This is because their number exceeds the required majority of votes in the Assembly, 137, needed for the motion to pass.
Mr. Roh was quoted by Yoo Ihn-tae, Blue House senior secretary for political affairs, as saying, “I don’t understand the reason for the motion.” And Chyung Dai-chul, chairman of the Millennium Democratic Party said, “The Grand Nationals’ justification for the motion is weak.”
But the opposition party leadership, facing internal challenges, has a lot riding on the motion.
Chairman Choe Byung-yul reminded all fellow Grand Nationals to toe the party line. “I am sure that not one lawmaker in our party, when voting on the motion, will cite personal differences and depart from the party’s official line on an issue that is so crucial to our party,” Mr. Choe said. “The motion is a declaration of an all-out war with the Roh Moo-hyun administration,” said Hong Sa-duk, the opposition party’s floor leader.


by Park Shin-hong
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