The country’s progressive minor opposition Democratic Labor Party (DLP) Wednesday lost a seat in the National Assembly by-elections. continue

The ruling Uri Party has invited the Workers’ Party of (North) Korea to the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) to be held in Seoul in September next year, party officials said. continue

North Korean residents of Japan have found unlikely allies in a group of politicians from Seoul who have vowed to help defend a school that teaches Pyongyang’s doctrines in Tokyo - and which the city’s governor wants to tear down. continue

Rep. Yoo Jay-kun of the ruling Uri Party on Friday criticized U.S. Congressman Henry Hyde for his recent remarks over South Korea’s deletion of the term "main enemy," referring to North Korea, in its annual defense white paper.
Yoo, chairman of the National Assembly’s Defense Committee, called the remarks "diplomatic insolence" and "interference in domestic affairs."
The lawmaker, who also heads a South Korean-U.S. legislators’ association, echoed Unification Minister Chung Dong-young who (...) continue

President Roh Moo-hyun said Tuesday that South Korea will not allow U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula to expand their role and get involved in disputes in Northeast Asian nations without South Korea’s consent.
In a speech at an Air Force Academy commencement ceremony, Roh said, "I clearly state that the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) should not be involved in disputes in Northeast Asia without our consent," Roh said.
Roh’s remark follows a report that the United States is adopting "strategic (...) continue

Bowing to escalating public and political pressure, Finance Minister Lee Hun-jai resigned yesterday to take responsibility for multi-billion won property deals that sparked ethical and legal questions.
Lee, Korea’s top economic policymaker and the most recognized Korean leader among global financial institutions, said he was stepping down to avoid being a distraction to the economy, which has shown signs of emerging from a two-year domestic slump.
No replacement was immediately announced. (...) continue

At a press conference yesterday, Uri Party lawmakers and former political activists accused a sitting member of the National Assembly of torturing political dissidents when he was an investigator with the national spy agency.
The lawmakers and former dissidents said Chung Hyung-gun, a lawmaker with the opposition Grand National Party, beat activists when he was a high-ranking investigator for the National Intelligence Service in the 1980s and 1990s. They produced a list of 10 investigators (...) continue

The ruling Uri Party on Tuesday vowed to pursue an inter-Korean meeting at party or parliamentary level to support the six-way talks for resolving North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
The meeting also aims to come up with possible measures for agricultural cooperation to address food shortages in the communist country, party officials said.
Reps. Song Young-gil, vice director of a fund for inter-Korean economic and cultural cooperation, and Lew Seon-ho will take charge of the efforts to (...) continue

The bill to extend the time Korean troops are in Iraq for another year passed late at night in the National Assembly on December 31, the very day the current authorization expired. Though an important question, one that relates to the country’s identity and the people’s lives, there was no debate. That is most regrettable.
There is no need to mention yet once again how sending troops to Iraq is by its nature a participation in the United States’ war of aggression. The US is pouring a (...) continue

Chairman Lee Bu-young resigns
The ruling Uri Party is to select new members for its leadership as chairman Lee Bu-young and other key post holders resigned en masse Monday apparently due to pressure from party hardliners who criticized them for failing to scrap the National Security Law.
Lee, who assumed his post last August when Rep. Shin Ki-nam resigned after his father was found to have served in the Japanese military police during the nation’s period of colonial rule, tendered his (...) continue

Yang Hong Gwan, who dragged Uri Party member of the National Assembly Lee Chul Woo into the issue of the National Liberation Patriotic Front and in doing so ended up providing material for the accusations about Lee being a "North Korean operative active in the National Assembly," is claiming that Grand National Party (GNP) Assemblyman Chung Hyung Keun personally tortured his genitals back when Chung was a powerful official at the Agency for National Security Planning (now the National (...) continue

The ruling Uri Party on Monday called for a comprehensive parliamentary probe into several cases of human rights abuses including torture and the manipulation of information by the nation’s intelligence agency under previous authoritarian governments.
The party said it would set up an information center for victims of torture during the period when the predecessor of the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) was the governing party.
"The GNP should sincerely apologize for its absurd claims (...) continue

The allegation about a "North Korean Workers’ Party member secretly active in the National Assembly" being made by some in the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) is an extremely irrational form of white terror. The GNP has dug up a fabrication of pro-communist activity from 12 years ago and is turning the Assembly into a stage for accusations of espionage.
The country had to watch yet another tragedy as the first ordinary session of the 17th National Assembly came to a close. (...) continue

The ruling Uri Party is determined to introduce a bill for the annulment of the National Security Law in parliament’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee on Monday, which is likely to prompt an uphill battle with the opposition Grand National Party (GNP).
"In any case, we will lay the bill to scrap the security law before the committee at 2 p.m. Monday," Rep. Chun Jung-bae, floor leader of the Uri Party, told reporters on Sunday. "If the committee chairman continues avoiding putting it on (...) continue

President’s affection for laborers merely a well-off’s pity: Rep. Dan
The Democratic Labor Party, whose members are known as the "godfathers" of the labor movement, has taken dead aim at President Roh Moo-hyun, with one prominent member staging a hunger strike and another firing a fierce salvo at the administration and ruling party.
Enraged by the government’s labor policies and a police search of his office to arrest a member of the public employees’ labor union which staged an illegal (...) continue

Volksvertegenwoordiger Chun Jung-bae, leider van de Uri-partij (aan de macht), heeft voorgesteld een tweede inter-koreaanse top te houden om hoofdzakelijk de spanningen op te lossen rond het nucleaire wapenprogramma van Noord-Korea.
« Ik heb president Roh Moo-hyun en leider Kim Jong Il van Noord-Korea gevraagd om in een open sfeer besprekingen te houden over de toekomst van het Koreaanse schiereiland, verklaarde Chun. Noord en Zuid moeten over alle belangrijke kwesties praten, waaronder (...) vervolg

Le député Chun Jung-bae, dirigeant du parti Uri au pouvoir, a proposé la tenue d’un second sommet inter-coréen notamment pour résoudre les tensions sur le programme d’armement nucléaire de la Corée du Nord.
Dans un discours à l’Assemblée nationale, Chun a aussi exprimé son intention de visiter Pyongyang pour relancer les pourparlers au niveau des gouvernements, y compris un sommet entre le Nord et le Sud.
« J’ai demandé au président Roh Moo-hyun et au dirigeant de la Corée du Nord Kim Jong (...) suite

Voorzitter Lee Bu-young van de URI-partij drukte zijn ernstige bezorgdheid uit over de bespreking van de Wet over Mensenrechten in Noord-Korea, in de senaat van de Verenigde Staten. Tezelfdertijd protesteerden een aantal partijleden met de vraag aan het Witte Huis zijn exclusieve vetorecht te gebruiken tegen die nota.
"Ik ben erg bezorgd over deze kwestie want ze kan een zeer negatief effect hebben op de inter-Koreaanse relaties en de 6-partijen-besprekingen," zegt Lee aan de (...) vervolg

A number of lawmakers from the ruling Uri Party on Sunday decided to adopt a statement, rather than pushing their original plan of submitting a resolution to the National Assembly, expressing their discontent with a North Korean human rights bill passed by the U.S. Congress last week.
"We are currently aiming to get signatures from 80 to 90 lawmakers for the statement this week," the Uri Party’s Rep. Chung Bong-ju said. "I expect there to be many opposition party legislators joining hands (...) continue

Michael Moore’s anti-Bush documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" has turned up the heat on the anti-troop dispatch movement in South Korea.
Bush-bashing film screened at Assembly
More than 900 people, including about 20 lawmakers, crowded into the 450-seat National Assembly hall yesterday to see "Fahrenheit 9/11," Michael Moore’s harshly critical documentary of U.S. President George W. Bush.
The screening was organized by the liberal Democratic Labor Party two days before the film goes public at (...) continue

The ruling party’s plan to launch a new investigation into the 1987 bombing of a Korean Air (KAL) passenger plane is facing strong resistance from the nation’s conservative circle, including the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) and the National Intelligence Service (NIS).
NIS head Ko Young-koo raised firm opposition to the move, thwarting the ruling Uri Party’s attempt to lead a presidential commission to reopen the case with the support from the National Assembly.
Ko told the (...) continue

Chun Jung-bae, floor leader of the governing Uri Party, proposed yesterday that the governing and opposition party leaders jointly visit North Korea for various exchanges, including the opening of inter-Korean parliamentary talks.
"Let us jointly visit North Korea in the near future, and meet with the responsible authorities on ways to encourage exchanges," said Mr. Chun as he spoke on behalf of the Uri Party at the National Assembly yesterday. "Party leaders should work, in a bipartisan (...) continue

The National Assembly impeached President Roh Moo-hyun on 12, morning, suspending his constitutional powers in an action unprecedented in this country. Roh took office in February 2003 and his tenure runs through 2008.
At the Assembly, lawmakers approved the impeachment motion 193-2. Legislators from Our Open Party (Uri Party in Korean), which supports Mr. Roh, had been physically ejected from the chamber by security guards. They had been blocking the speaker’s podium to prevent a vote on (...) continue

All 47 lawmakers in the pro-government Uri Party resigned from the National Assembly after the parliament impeached President Roh Moo-hyun. Many Uri members burst into tears in the parliament after the impeachment bill passed at 11:55 a.m. "I will take this (Assembly) badge off from today," a crying Uri vice floor leader Kim Young-choon said. "Let’s resign immediately and go on a hunger strike." Uri floor leader Kim Geun-tae said, "March 12 will be remembered as the most humiliating day (...) continue