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Rep. Won Hye-young (left) talks to Rep. Lee Jae-ho of the Grand National Party.
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Controversy continues over Uri members’ dancing in N.K.
Members of the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) prevented ruling Uri Party’s secretary general from participating in the National Assembly’s National Defense Committee’s annual review of government affairs on October 24, taking issue with the fact he danced in a restaurant in Gaeseong (Kaesong) industrial complex, North Korea last week.
The Uri Party called the GNP’s actions "violence that contradicts parliamentary democracy."
Committee members were about to board a bus from the National Assembly in the Yeouido neighborhood of Seoul for a fact-finding visit to the air force operational command in Osan, Gyeonggi Province, when GNP members on the committee demanded that Rep. Won resign from his position for dancing with waitresses at a restaurant at the Gaeseong Industrial Park.
Several Uri members paid a visit to the joint Korean investment zone on October 20, less than two weeks after the North’s nuclear test on October 9. They were there to observe plant operations, and the tour culminated in a traditional meal in which the waitresses reportedly invited the guests to dance. Ruling party member Kim Geun-tae also danced with the North Korean waitresses.
GNP committee members refused to board the bus on the morning of October 24 for an hour and 40 minutes. Eventually, Rep. Won got off and the bus departed. The demand that Won resign as member of national defence committee was led by Song Young-sun and Gong Sung-jin. Both are members of the GNP’s hard line faction, which says South Korea should be ready to go to war with the North in response to Pyongyang’s recent nuclear test. The GNP’s Hwang Jin-ha has accused Won of "celebrating" the nuclear test after pictures of the dancing surfaced. "I'm sorry for the stir I have caused in the course of my visit to Gaeseong," said Rep. Won. "But it is unacceptable for the GNP to use that as an excuse to go on a shameless political offensive designed to deliberately prevent me from participating in the government audit." "I'm going to yield today so that the review can proceed, but I’ll be participating tomorrow," he told reporters. Uri spokesman Woo Sang-ho called the GNP’s actions "a clear obstruction of parliamentary activity." "Even gangsters don’t behave like that," he said. Park Yong-jin, spokesman for the minor Democratic Labor Party, said it was "nonsense" to "prevent an Assembly audit from happening because of political infighting," He added that is was "all the more shocking" because GNP members Rep. Song and Rep. Gong were once criticized for playing golf on a military base during the workweek. "It’s also shocking that the ruling party lets itself get dragged around like that," he said.
