The former president was also quoted as saying the party should have made it clear that Prof. Kang Jeong-koo's inflammatory pro-North Korean remarks "were wrong," and taken the firm position that without the Incheon Landing of 1950 led by U.S. general Douglas MacArthur, the Republic of Korea would not exist.

Under a presidential system, he said, it is "undesirable for ruling-party lawmakers to openly point out mistakes made by the president." He was referring to some legislators' blunt criticism of the chief executive in the wake of the party's crushing defeat in the Oct. 26 National Assembly by-elections. One lawmaker at the time asked whether the president thought he was God.

Kim also told the assembled party leaders the Korea-U.S. alliance was "absolutely necessary in view of the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear dispute, among other things." But when the meeting closed, the elder statesman told his visitors he felt they were the inheritors of his political mantle.

Few can deny that the current government, both politically and in terms of personnel, is Kim’s successor. President Roh Moo-hyun himself held a Cabinet portfolio under Kim, served as a commissioner of the Millennium Democratic Party when Kim chaired it, and was the party’s presidential candidate at Kim’s instigation. Acting Uri Party chairman Chung Sye-kyun went as far as to say in the meeting, "I started my political career because you gave me the opportunity.” The Uri Party spokesman too, briefing reporters on the meeting, called the party the former president’s successors.

Yet even against that background, the elder statesman berated the party leadership point by point, saying, "You've bungled your politics." Attacked as a "leftist" by his opponents throughout his decades in politics, Kim nonetheless noted that the ruling camp acted beyond bounds when they shielded Prof. Kang in the name of freedom of expression and defended activists who are trying to topple the MacArthur statue in Incheon.