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President Roh Moo-hyun on Monday took his attack on the two Uri Party presidential hopefuls, former party chairmen Chung Dong-young and Kim Geun-tae, over the Uri Party¡¯s future into the open. On the Cheong Wa Dae website, the president told the two, who want the party dissolved, to just leave if they think that it is not worth making an effort to rebuild the party. Ironically, Roh is no longer a party member, having quit earlier this year to spare Uri the fallout from his low popularity ratings.
¡°Are you the same people who read the founding declaration of the Uri Party, which pursues the abolition of regionalism?¡± Roh demanded. ¡°I think you two are typical old-style politicians.¡± He accused the two ex-chairmen of trying to dodge the responsibility for the political failure of the party and ¡°make a scapegoat¡± of the president, who founded the party, by calling for its dissolution. ¡°It is deceitful. You are lying to the public and yourselves,¡± he wrote. ¡°If you think the party has failed so much that it deserves dissolution, the right thing to do is to retire from politics. That is the way you two can take public responsibility. Tactics and tricks are not everything in politics.¡±
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President Roh Moo-hyun (center), former Uri Party chairmen Chung Dong-young (left) and Kim Geun-tae (right)
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Chung was having none of it. ¡°The president left the party,¡± he said Monday. ¡°It is my principle to follow the founding spirit of the Uri Party. But preserving the party is not the call of the age.¡± Kim also hit back at Roh and his supporters. ¡°You cajole me on one hand while attacking me on the other. That is an example of old-styled politics.¡± The head-on clash between Roh and the biggest factional leaders in the rump Uri Party could split up the party earlier than expected. It remains to be seen how the party, its various splinter groups and the Democratic Party will regroup for the presidential election.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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