A sharp-tongued veteran politician has become the new leader of a key political party in South Korea at a time when the country is roiled by an illegal funding of politicians scandal.
Five-term legislator Chough Soon-hyung was elected late on Friday to lead the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), which put former president Kim Dae-jung and his successor Roh Moo-hyun in the country's top job.
Chough, 68, beat off seven candidates for the top spot at the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP)'s national convention, receiving 3,199, or 31.03 percent, of the 5,046 votes cast.
A 45-year-old female politician, Choo Mi-Ae, took second place with a 21 percent vote. The former court judge has thus laid the foundation for a challenge to become South Korea's first female president.
Chough is a rare politician with a clean image in South Korea's political circle tainted with corruption scandals. He has never been involved in any corruption allegations.
"I will accept people's demand for changes and reform to renovate our party," said Chough in an acceptance speech. "It's time for the MDP to take the lead in overcoming the national crisis."
The change of leadership has given new momentum for solidarity to the party, which suffered a split in September when loyalists to the current president deserted the party to create a separate political group, the Uri Party.
Chough will lead the MDP through next April's parliamentary elections in which the conservative Grand National Party (GNP) is likely to benefit from the division of its main liberal rival.
Currently the GNP has 149 seats in the 272-member National Assembly, followed by the MDP with 60 seats and Uri Party with 44 seats. Others include independents and splinter groups.
President Roh Moo-hyun, who was elected last year on the MDP ticket, left the party in September. Outraged, the MDP called him a "turncoat."
Chough urged the GNP to end a boycott of parliament and return to parliamentary work.
GNP Chairman Choe Byung-yul, has been on a hunger strike since Wednesday, accusing Roh of covering up corruption surrounding his former aides.
A probe into the scandal, however, has ensnared members of all three parties, with the GNP suspected of taking some eight million dollars of illegal funds from SK business group.
The GNP's boycott of parliament added a political crisis to tough challenges facing South Korea that include an economic downturn, North Korea's nuclear program and a sensitive US request to send more troops to Iraq.
People with missing teeth might be able to grow new ones, said Japanese dentists, who are testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants. Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth. However, hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, said Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka, Japan. His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency and the Pentagon on Monday said that some North Korean troops have been killed during combat against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region. Those are the first reported casualties since the US and Ukraine announced that North Korea had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help it in the almost three-year war. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said that about 30 North Korean troops were killed or wounded during a battle with the Ukrainian army at the weekend. The casualties occurred around three villages in Kursk, where Russia has for four months been trying to quash a
FREEDOM NO MORE: Today, protests in Macau are just a memory after Beijing launched measures over the past few years that chilled free speech A decade ago, the elegant cobblestone streets of Macau’s Tap Seac Square were jam-packed with people clamouring for change and government accountability — the high-water mark for the former Portuguese colony’s political awakening. Now as Macau prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of its handover to China tomorrow, the territory’s democracy movement is all but over and the protests of 2014 no more than a memory. “Macau’s civil society is relatively docile and obedient, that’s the truth,” said Au Kam-san (歐錦新), 67, a schoolteacher who became one of Macau’s longest-serving pro-democracy legislators. “But if that were totally true, we wouldn’t
ROYAL TARGET: After Prince Andrew lost much of his income due to his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, he became vulnerable to foreign agents, an author said British lawmakers failed to act on advice to tighten security laws that could have prevented an alleged Chinese spy from targeting Britain’s Prince Andrew, a former attorney general has said. Dominic Grieve, a former lawmaker who chaired the British Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) until 2019, said ministers were advised five years ago to introduce laws to criminalize foreign agents, but failed to do so. Similar laws exist in the US and Australia. “We remain without an important weapon in our armory,” Grieve said. “We asked for [this law] in the context of the Russia inquiry report” — which accused the government
RSS