GNP threatens to boycott Assembly session

The opposition Grand National Party decided Tuesday that it will boycott the parliamentary session from Wednesday unless the National Assembly makes public a floor schedule for the addressing of a party-proposed impeachment motion against Prosecutor General Park Soon-Yong and deputy prosecutor general Shin Sung-Nam.

GNP floor leader Chung Chang-Hwa, in a meeting with his counterpart Chung Kyun-Hwan of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party, notified Chung, the MDP whip, of the GNP¡¯s demand for the impeachment motion to be tackled during the question-and-answer session between Nov. 13 and 17 at the latest.

GNP spokesman Kwon Chul-Hyeon said in this connection that if the motion signed by 133 GNP lawmakers is not even put on the floor agenda, further parliamentary proceedings are meaningless. If the ruling MDP fails to comply with the GNP request, the party will hold a general caucus of party legislators and decide on an action plan for future struggles, the spokesman said.

However, the MDP floor leader claimed that the GNP motion failed to meet the legal requirements for impeachment, signaling a partisan confrontation on the floor Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, the GNP, in connection with MDP Rep. Lee Won-Sung¡¯s remarks that he explored ways of conducting political reform while he was a prosecutor, decided to submit a resolution signed by all party lawmakers to the Assembly that demands the deprivation of his parliamentary membership.

In the resolution, the opposition party claimed that Lee's statement at the MDP lawmakers' meeting last Friday that he thought of the need to reform the political landscape even through the use of the prosecution's power and actually ordered some prosecutors to study a plan to that end violates Article 43 of the Prosecutors' Office Law and insults the parliament.

Meanwhile, The National Assembly wrapped up 20 days of parliamentary inspections of the 357 government agencies and their subordinate organizations at the 13 Assembly standing committees.

The Assembly plenary session is scheduled to hear the 2001 budget policy address from Prime Minister Lee Han-Dong on behalf of President Kim Dae-Jung on Wednesday, and will hear keynote speeches from GNP president Lee Hoi-Chang on Thursday and MDP chairman Suh Young-Hoon on Friday.