By Park Song-wu
Staff Reporter





Chong Wa Dae and the ruling Uri Party on Friday openly criticized the Constitutional Court’s ruling against the government’s plan to relocate the administrative capital.

Uri Party lawmakers from the Chungchong provinces, including Rep. Noh Young-min, even expressed their intention of impeaching the nine justices who made the 8-1 decision against President Roh Moo-hyun’s plan to relocate the capital out of Seoul.

``The court’s arbitrary use of the customary constitution in its ruling is tantamount to creating a new clause for the written constitution,’’ Noh said during a news conference at the North Chungchong Provincial Office.

Chong Wa Dae officials also launched salvos at the court.

``I’ve never heard of a case that acknowledges the customary law’s role of restricting the parliament’s legislative power,’’ Kim Byong-joon, Roh’s top aide, said at the parliament’s audit of the presidential office. ``I am not aware of any requirement that the written constitution be revised to reflect any customary constitution either.’’

The court said in its nationally televised verdict on Thursday that a revision of the Constitution is necessary to move the capital because Seoul’s status as the capital had become part of the country’s Constitution ``by custom.’’

The government’s capital relocation plan began after the passage of a special bill in late December last year with the agreement of the then majority Grand National Party (GNP).

Meanwhile, Roh remained calm, working with top aides to find a way out of the second biggest crisis in his presidency, coming just months after his impeachment ordeal in March.

``The president is expected to keep a low profile for the time being to ponder what course of action to take regarding the issue,’’ an official told The Korea Times on condition of anonymity. ``But later he will come up with an important political decision.’’

He stopped short of indicating the content of Roh’s decision. But sources have raised the possibility of revising the current Constitution to push for the capital move by linking it to ``changes in the political power structure.’’ He didn’t elaborate on the structural change either.

``Roh will not give up the capital relocation plan, which he has described as the only way to achieve balanced regional development,’’ the official said.

Roh’s commitment to his signature pledge of the 2002 presidential election was indicated by his aides during the National Assembly’s inspection of Chong Wa Dae.

``There should be some way out,’’ Kim Woo-sik, Roh’s aide, told lawmakers. ``We will make a final decision after considering public opinion and analyzing our plan once again. Our principle of seeking decentralization and balanced regional development will not be swayed simply by the court’s decision.’’

Paradoxically, a political academic in Seoul said Roh’s second crisis in a year could help the ruling camp to unite once again, rallying people’s support for its attempt to pass four reform bills this year, including one aimed at correcting modern history.

``I don’t think Roh’s authority has been damaged by the court ruling,’’ politics professor Kim Soo-jin of Ewha Womans University said in a telephone interview. ``The current distress will unite the ruling party, which has the majority in the Assembly, allowing it to accelerate its reform drive.’’

The professor said the opposition GNP, which welcomed the court ruling as a ``victory for legalism,’’ will be forced to cooperate with the Uri Party if the ruling camp goes ahead with its reform plans within legal boundaries.

He added that the ruling camp should first accept the ruling of the highest court, even though he thinks it made a decision that could be described as ``a little problematic’’ by using the concept of ``customary constitution.’’

im@koreatimes.co.kr