Lee and Roh, Unveiling Policy Pledges

Lee Hoi-chang of the Grand National Party and Roh Moo-hyun of the Millennium Democratic Party held a press conference on 11 respectively and were engaged in fierce policy competition in order to appeal to young and swaying voters.

The GNP nominee held the press conference at the party headquarters and made public a ten-point pledge targeting voters in their 20s and 30s. He said, “Until the problems of youth unemployment are solved, university tuition fees will be maintained at current levels and scholarships will be offered to more than 50 % of university students in science and engineering departments.” He also stressed, “Financial resources will be in place without any trouble because I promised investment in education would be gradually increased to 7% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and investment in university to 1% of the GDP.”

In addition, he pledged to cut the reserve army service period and training hours up to 25% and training period of the civil defense corps to one year, implement a “Electronic military service system” aimed to nurture talented people in the information and communications field while serving in army, drastically reduce telephone fees and establish “International Korean-youth volunteer organization” affording 5000 young people every year the opportunity of experiencing foreign countries.

In particular, he presented solutions to the growing number of credit delinquency among young people. “I will seek ways to cut overdue and cash advances service fees of credit card companies and strengthen monitoring and supervising functions on credit card service offered by financial institutions,” he said. “I will draw up complete measures to restore individual credit standings in order for 2,530,000 of individual credit delinquents not to give up their life and surrender to the temptation of being involved in crimes,” he added.

Roh Moo-hyun of the MDP also held his press conference on the same day at the party headquarters. In the press conference, he said, “I will enact a law banning people who were ever implicated and suspected in corruption cases from being employed as public servants and also being nominated as candidates in elections called by the party.” He also said that in case of ministerial posts, a senior official personnel committee would be set up and senior official nominees should undergo a through screening and verification process in advance.

He promised that ministerial-level senior officials would be obliged to put in trust their assets and report how to those assets were accumulated, put in trust assets held by President’s family members and relatives and report any changes to those initially reported assets. He also promised to exclude President’s family members and relatives from being selected as public servants and do his best to fight corruption and irregularities through establishing a corruption investigative team and permanent special prosecution system.

Roh also presented a measure to prevent party members from moving freely to the other party. He said that he would enact a law to prohibit a defected lawmaker from joining another party within one year since his defection. And also, under the presented law, for a lawmaker elected by the proportional representative system, if he is eliminated from the party register, he will not be allowed to enroll another party register within one year. He also signaled a reformation of the party by saying, “People who will lead the party to a new direction and new politics even by changing the party into a new one, should be at the center stage.”

Yeon-Wook Jung Yong-Gwan Jung jyw11@donga.com yongari@donga.com