[EDITORIALS]Election Shenanigans

The discovery of documents, dealing with constitutional revision and detailed strategies on selecting 2002 presidential candidate of the ruling camp, that the ruling Millennium Democratic Party allegedly created is stirring a big controversy among politicians.

One document, allegedly drawn up in April by a top ruling party insider, said a constitutional revision will be considered by the party if some tangible progress is made at proposed talks between the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and President Kim Dae-jung in Seoul.

Another document details a merger between the ruling Millennium Democratic Party, the United Liberal Democrats and the Democratic People's Party to ensure a win in the upcoming presidential election.

Park Yang-soo, an assemblyman in the ruling party and suspected as the creator of the documents, is a member of the "Donggyo-dong faction." Thus, the Grand National Party is attacking the ruling party reasoning that the documents contain conspiracies to take over the country through constitutional revision and political reshuffling.

Meanwhile, the ruling party continues to insist that "those are strange and unidentifiable documents." The confusion seems to deepen as Mr. Park stands strong against the opposition party. He said that he does not know about the documents at all.

However, the ruling party's reaction that the documents are "just a doodle" or "reports made by its enemies" do not sound justifiable since they contain passages that detail the pros and cons of its future presidential election candidates. And the ruling party's various strategies for holding onto power in the next presidential election seems to be reflected in this maneuvering.

In that sense, the Millennium Democratic Party should actively investigate the documents. Mr. Park, who is suspected of creating the documents, has been in charge of the party organization for a long time and is a special assistant to the party president.

Thus, the ruling party should start finding out the truth about the issue rather than just counter-attacking the opposition party.