Rhee, “Roh Is a Leftist Politician,” Roh, “McCarthyism Won`t Work Anymore.”

The two candidates of the New Millennium Democratic Party, Rhee In-Je and Roh Moo-Hyun, continued to exchange furious attacks against each other yesterday, one day before the primary election in Kyongnam area begins.

Rhee criticized Roh as a leftist politician, arguing “Roh`s argument to distribute the stocks of chaebol families to laborers is so radical that the Left in Europe couldn`t even think of it.”

He also requested for TV debates about policies, saying that “I am not bringing about a McCarthyism but talking about the social economic policies. If such a person who tried to please laborers in illegal strikes becomes a president, who`s going to invest in Korea?”

In response, Mr. Roh refuted that “my reformist stance is exactly the same as the party`s platform of NMDP and therefore I have a strong support from middle class. I am willing to accept a review on my ideology but McCarthyism won`t work at all in NMDP, which had been a target of McCarthyism for a long time.”

Meanwhile, Kim Yong-Hak, vice spokesperson of GNP, commented that “no matter what is a truth, it is shocking that a candidate of a ruling party is a person classified as an extreme leftist who is stimulating class conflicts. It must be thoroughly reviewed since it was raised in the process of the primary election of a public party.”

Yong-Gwan Jung yongari@donga.com