South Korea's major opposition party on Wednesday called on the Unification Minister in charge of inter-Korean relations to resign, criticizing him as having a pro-North Korea view.
The Grand National Party (GNP) took an issue with a New Year's email that Minister Lee Jae-joung sent to junior officials, which stressed the South having a responsibility to help relieve poverty in the North. "It is absurd to provide economic assistance to North Korea when the problem of nuclear weapons is left as it is," the GNP said in a statement.
The GNP called Lee a "pro-Kim Jong-il leftist" who echoed the voice of North Korea.
Lee took office as the chief point man on North Korean affairs last month amid strong objection from the conservative GNP that saw his appointment as catering to the North.
Lee said in the email on Tuesday, "Unless we fundamentally solve the problem of poverty in North Korea, security on the Korean Peninsula will always be in danger and we will not be able to guarantee peace on the peninsula." South Korea suspended its food and fertilizer aid to North Korea after it conducted missile tests in July. A possible resumption of the aid wasblocked due to the North's nuclear bomb test in October.
The governing Uri Party sharpened its edge defending the minister. It criticized the GNP as reviving an "old-era ideological logic."
"We cannot help but lament over the GNP's anachronistic politics that try to take interest in the presidential race by reviving ideological conflict, which is now being dumped as useless," Uri spokesman Woo Sang-ho said in a briefing.
Meanwhile, Rep. Chung Hyung-geun, a hawkish conservative with the GNP, made an even harsher attack against the Unification Ministry, claiming that one of its former heads has secretly met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il after the North conducted its nuclear weapon test in October.
In a telephone interview with Yonhap, Chung said that he heard of the secret visit by "a former unification minister," but refused to identify the name or cite his source.
Chung quoted the former minister in question as saying: "North Korea was in full readiness to prevent the GNP from winning this year's presidential election in order to put a pro-North candidate in the presidential seat." The Unification Ministry and President Roh Moo-hyun's office described Chung's claim as groundless.
The major opposition GNP comfortably leads the 2007 presidential race. Its two major contenders, former Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak and former GNP chairwoman Park Geun-hye, will beat any runners from the ruling Uri Party with overwhelming support ratings, media polls suggest.
Concerned about any shift in public support 11 months before the election, the GNP criticized the government and the Uri Party as trying to reverse the tide with political gestures, such as talk of a second inter-Korean summit.
Government officials have recently raised the possibility of a second inter-Korean summit between President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. The two Koreas held their one and only summit in 2000 between President Kim Dae-jung at that time and the North Korean leader.
"The government and the ruling party should avoid mentioning the possibility of an inter-Korean summit as the nuclear issue is not resolved yet," Na Kyung-won, a spokeswoman for the GNP, told reporters. "They are only trying to divert the public's attention."
Seoul, Jan. 3 (Yonhap News)
South Korea's opposition party urges unification minister to resign |
