Lee Issues Apology For Campaign Plan

Opposition leader Lee Hoi-chang apologized Wednesday for the proposed campaign strategy plan to manipulate the press that was reported in a newspaper Tuesday.

The plan included measures to control press coverage of candidates in the 2002 presidential race."To interfere with or control the press amounts to demolishing democracy," Mr. Lee said in a meeting held at the opposition Grand National Party's headquarters in Yoido. "I do not intend to control the press."Mr. Lee went on to say that he and his party have been greatly helped by Korea's free press.

Party spokesman Kwon Chul-hyeon said that the tentative plan was drafted by an employee at the party's secretariat, and appropriate measures will be taken against the staff member.

The plan, printed in the Tuesday edition of the Daily Naeil, included grouping journalists into pro-Lee and anti-Lee camps and digging up dirt on anti-Lee journalists.

The employee who wrote up the tentative plan is in hiding. But before fleeing, he said that he will resign.

Meanwhile, the ruling Millennium Democratic Party continued to level criticism at the opposition leader for blatantly revealing his ambitions for the presidency.

Ruling party spokesman Park Byeong-seug demanded that Mr. Lee apologize to the press and dissolve the party's political strategy unit.

by Choi Sang-yeon