From: seo@capone.ccsm.uiuc.edu (Jong-Wook Seo)
Subject: Re: Recent News in Korea
Organization: Microelectronics Lab - Univ. of Illinios
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 1992 01:50:30 GMT

In article <1992Nov12.170626.18374@tc.cornell.edu> 
jfe@alchemy.tn.cornell.edu (Brian Chung) writes:

> In article <BxJC53.9y@news.cso.uiuc.edu> seo@capone.ccsm.uiuc.edu 
(Jong-Wook Seo) writes:
> >In article <1992Nov10.002202.20998@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> 
> >gior@eecg.toronto.edu (GIOR Kevin Kyu-Sik) writes:
> >
> >> 2. Difficulty in choosing a candidate in New-Korean Party 
> >(Shin-HanGukDang)
> >So long, TKs.
> 
>         Could some kind soul tell me what this party is all about?  I've
> been out of touch with reality for a while in my ivory tower, and I 
haven't
> heard of this party before.  Also, I should be home in time to vote in
> the election, so I'd like to know more about all the parties before I go
> back home, and Shin Hanguk Dang is the only one that I don't know about.
> Thanks.
> 
> >
> >Jong-Wook Seo
> 
> 
> -- 
> T. H. Brian Chung                      | IRC nick:  Idaho                
> Internet: jfe@alchemy.tn.cornell.edu   | I'm the one with the Earl Grey 
tea.
> Bitnet: jfe@cornella                   | 
> DECnet: lns62::thc                     | 


Let me be a kind of soul to tell you something about the party.
Neo-Korea Party (? "Shin Hanguk Dang") is the one which was organized 
mainly by 
Lee Jong-Chan and other ex-DLP("Min-Ja-Dang") members who withdrew the 
party just after Park Tae-Joon announced to do so.
They are Park Chul-Eon and his three followers.
Before these four guys withdrew, a few ex-congressmen including Chae 
Moon-Sick
and Yoon Kill-Joong withdrew from DLP.
They did it because they feared that there is nothing for them in DLP.
Most of them are TK hard-liners.

Park Tae-Joon : (not a member of NKP)
       Ex-chairman of Pohang Steel Company.
       He has been a co-chairman of DLP before Kim Young-Sam was nominated 
       as a presidential candidate of the party.
       He withdrew the party because he think he can not get anything from 
       DLP without No Tae-Woo.
       That is partly because he chose a very unclear position during the 
       preliminary election in DLP.
       I think he did so because he didn't realize how fast the political 
       power of No Tae-Woo would move to Kim Young-Sam after his nomination.

Yoon Kill-Joong :
       This man had a hard time under Park Jung-Hee since he was a member 
       of liberal political group.
       But, under Chun Doo-Hwan, this guy changed his political position 
       and idea to be a right wing politician.
       So, he has both wings.

Chae Moon-Sick :
       This guy changed his party membership so many times.
       As far as I remember, he has been a member of Liberty 
       Party("Ja-You-Dang"), Democratic Party, Republic Party, and then 
       DLP. (I am not very sure about some of these, though.)
       Simply speaking, he is a typical "Sakura".

Park Chul-Eon :
       A brother-in-law of No Tae-Woo.
       He led the secret project to combine the three parties - Democratic 
       Justice Party ("Min-Jeong-Dang" led by No), Democratic Party(led by 
       Kim Young-Sam), and Republic Party (led by Kim Jong-Pil) - to form 
       DLP at the end of 1989.
       Then he tried to be a leader of TKs in DLP.
       But, he lost his political initiative to Kim Young-Sam because he 
       misjudged the character of the TK members, being opportunist, and   
       over-estimated his potential. 

Finally, Lee Jong-Chan :
       Even though he has a good personal background compared to the 
       others, he chose a wrong way in his political career, I think.
       He is a son and grandson of a well known independent movement 
       leaders.
       However, he served as a deputy chief of Korean Central Intelligence 
       Agent at bad time.
       And, later he joined Chun Doo-Hwan to be a congressman, and he was 
       elected in Chong-Ro-Goo.
       His political activities in Democratic Justice 
       Party("Min-Jun-Dang") was exceptionally reasonable, though. 
       (For instance, as a majority leader, he refused to bring a fascist 
       bill called "Hak-Won-An-Jung-Bub".)
       However, he misjudged his political status and over-estimated his 
       political capacity to lead a new political group out of DLP, so    
       called anti-two-Kim-line.
       Anyway, he has ruined his political career, I think.

The other guys : 
       Just typical TK hard-liners sharing blind political idea to grasp 
       the TK nostalgia 
       with Park Chul-Eon.

I hope I am not giving you an incorrect 'reality'.


Jong-Wook Seo
Newsgroups: soc.culture.korean