Citing recent election losses, S. Korean
president resigns as head of his party
By Jim Lea, Stars and Stripes
South Korean President Kim Dae-jung announced Thursday he will resign as head of the
ruling Millennium Democratic Party.
Kim said he must take responsibility for party losses in recent parliamentary
elections, which triggered factional party fighting.
In a statement read at a party staff meeting, Kim said he was deeply saddened by the
election losses and friction among party members. He said he will devote his efforts to
the intensifying international situation and to reversing the economic slowdown South
Korea has experienced since the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
He also said he would concentrate on making successful the World Cup soccer tournament,
the Asian Games, and local and presidential elections — all scheduled for next year.
The monthlong soccer tournament to be hosted jointly by South Korea and Japan begins
May 31 and will be played at 10 stadiums each in South Korea and Japan. The Asian Games,
an Olympic-style event, will be held in Pusan later in the year. The presidential election
will be held in December 2002.
Kim is constitutionally prohibited from running for re-election. Instead, he said he
will devote efforts to strengthening the party’s stature and working to help select
election standard-bearers at the party convention, to be held in January.
The major opposition Grand National Party, which had been calling for several weeks for
Kim to make the move, welcomed the announcement. A party spokesman said now that Kim has
stepped out of partisan politics, the GNP would work more closely with him on national
issues.
The GNP picked up the three parliamentary seats in the recent election, giving it 136
seats in the 271-seat National Assembly.
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