President Roh Holds News Conference Today

President Roh Moo-hyun will clarify his position about the prosecution’s investigation on the illegal presidential campaign funds at a special news conference to be held today at 10 a.m.

“President Roh will state his position regarding the outcomes of the prosecution’s investigation on illegal presidential campaign funds and the charges on his relatives and aides,” presidential spokesman Yoon Tai-young said yesterday. He also added, “Impeachment recently raised by the opposition parties will not be the topic of this news conference.”

However, it is widely known that if questions about impeachment against him are mentioned, President Roh will apologize indirectly by saying, “I admit that I violated the election law, as decided at the National Election Commission. However, I do not think it is serious enough to face impeachment, even though I did something that was against the law.” Consequently, he is expected to reconfirm his original position. On top of that, he is known to have ignored the opposition parties’ claim for his apology in public. However, President Roh is slated to make a direct apology on his aides’ involvement in collecting illegal presidential campaign funds and reveal his intention of wanting to take charge of this by holding a confidence vote on his presidency in a proper manner.

Jung-Hun Kim jnghn@donga.com