While Reformists Maintain the Reprimand of Core Personnel of Party

Internal trouble in the New Millennium Democratic Party moves to a new round instigated by the announcement of the party`s young lawmakers who requested for the acceptance of 5 demands for the reformation of the party and the government and assured of collecting signatures from the lawmakers of the party if the requests are denied. In addition, some Supreme Council members who had supported the reformists expressed their intention to resign from the office or were considering resignation.

Particularly, responding to the overall protest by the Donggyo-dong circle in the executive meeting of the party against the young lawmakers who insisted the resignation of former Supreme Council member Kwon Rho-Gap, the young lawmakers are considering calling a national convention for the reformation of the leadership of the party.

Young Caucus Announced Joint Resolution: 5 representatives of the young caucuses of NMDP, including Chang Young-Dal (Open Politics Forum), Shin Gi-Nam (Institute for Practice of Righteous Politics), Park In-Sang (Daybreak 21), Lim Jong-Seok (Institute of People`s Politics), held a press conference to announce joint resolution that includes 5 requests such as the reprimand of the core personnel of the party, government, and Cheong Wa Dae.

They also assured that they will resume collecting the signatures of the party members for the reformation of the party and the government if President Kim Dae-Jung would not offer acceptable measures at the Supreme Council meeting tomorrow, saying ``we postponed the collection of signatures simply to avoid that the party would be divided by the supporters and the opponents in terms of the signature collecting.``

A leading member of young caucuses remarked, ``if the President`s will to reform is not strong enough, the signature collecting movement might be expanded to request for the convocation of the national convention for the change of the leadership of the party including the direct election of the chairperson of the party.``

Clashes In the Executive Meeting of the Party: the lawmakers of the young caucuses and the runners for the Presidential candidacy who had supported the immediate reformation of the party and the members of the Donggyo-dong circle clashed against each other at the executive meeting, exchanging personal remarks concerning the reformation of the human resources.

Rep. Kim Ok-Du criticized the young lawmakers, ``If you are bold enough to request for the resignation of specific persons, aim your attack against the Grand National Party that had raised groundless suspicions.``

However, Rep. Chun Jeong-Bae and his colleagues reiterated, ``those who worked for the President close at hand must hand in their resignation all together.``

Rep. Lee Yoon-Soo said, ``It seems too much to request for the immediate disorganization of a specific group [Donggyo-dong circle], a few person who have been blamed have to be removed.``

Supreme Council Members Considering Resignation: Supreme Council member Chung Dong-Young expressed his intention to resign from his office, `I feel deeply responsible` for the terrible outcomes of the 10.25 re-election and by-election, when the responsibility of the Supreme Council members for the defeat of election and the internal strife of the party.

Supreme Council member Han Hwa-Gap remarked ``I will make a final decision after the Supreme Council meeting tomorrow.`` and Rep. Kim Keun-Tae also said, ``I will take any responsibility for the current situation.``

chang@donga.com