U.S. might sour relations with S. Korea

Rep. Lee Hoi-Chang, president of the main opposition Grand National Party, has claimed that the United States might trouble South Korea now and then if it allows the initiative to North Korea in resolving the pending North Korean missile issue.

He made the remarks in a special interview published Tuesday with Taejon Ilbo, a daily published in Taejon, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its founding.

¡°It is not desirable for the U.S. to alienate by South Korea, obsessed with improving its relations with North Korea by any chance, or for inter-Korean relations to be subordinate to the composition of the North Korea-U.S. ties.

¡°The Chungchong region (including Taejon) supported the weak party in the 1997 presidential election, and as a result, the (current) regime is running about in confusion, causing a chaos in state affairs. (We) could learn a lesson (through the election) that how the Chungchong region decides and with whom it will hold hands will determine whether a sound or fragile regime will be born (in the next election).¡±