The party that brought South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun to power pledged on Friday to seek his impeachment if he does not apologise for what they called partisan election comments.
The National Election Commission ruled this week that Roh had broken the election law by backing a party before an April 15 parliamentary election. It criticised Roh but did not penalise him and Roh's team said it respected the ruling but regretted it.
"Unless President Roh apologises to the country by March 7 (Sunday), we will submit an impeachment bill the next day," a spokesman for the Millennium Democratic Party said by telephone.
It was not immediately clear whether Roh - who split with the Millennium Democrats in September - could be impeached for violating election rules that say the president should stay above the fray.
Financial market reaction was muted.
"People doubt if it will actually lead to the impeachment of Roh," said Kim Jeong-hwan, an analyst at LG Investment and Securities Co. "We've seen a lot of political games before the elections and it may end up like one of those shows."
Roh's spokesman said the president - who has just completed the first year of a single five-year term - had not considered apologising for saying last month he would do "everything legally possible if that will help the Uri Party get votes".
Comments
Comments are closed.