» Eggs have been thrown at the bus carrying members of the Joint Civil Society-Government Task Force to Revise the Sejong City Plan by residents of Yeongi County in South Chungcheong Province, Nov. 28.

As President Lee Myung-bak declares his clear intention to force through the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project budget and revisions to the Sejong City Development Plan, the Democratic Party (DP) and other opposition parties are slamming the Lee administration for unilaterally railroading the projects and have pledged a strong response, including extra-parliamentary action if necessary. In a counterattack, the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) is calling the opposition’s views “infantile,” and a political clash is anticipated over the projects’ budget bills, over which deliberation is expected in the National Assembly this week.

At a press conference Sunday at the Democratic Party headquarters in Seoul’s Yeouido neighborhood, DP Chairman Chung Sye-kyun said his party will never accept the Lee administration’s unilateral nullification of the Sejong City Development Plan, its push for the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, or its railroading of the respective budget bills. Chairman Chung added that President Lee must wake up from the delusion that he is right about his vision for the future of the country while other representatives and citizens simply do not understand, and stop amplifying divisions and tensions among the citizenry. Chung also revealed a plan for a unified front that not only includes the Democratic Labor Party, and Creative Korea Party (CKP), but also the Liberty Forward Party (LFP), the Pro-Park Coalition Party and pro-Park figures within the GNP.

The DP is planning to hold large-scale rallies to save the original Sejong City Development Plan and suspend the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project Dec. 1, 3 and 8 in Cheongju, Cheonan and Daejeon. It has also decided to wage a public relations campaign focused on the development of the 10 so-called “innovation cities” across the country to link the problems with revising the Sejong City Development Plan with the future of innovation cities and balanced regional development.

The LFP has additionally made the decision that should the original Sejong City plan be altered, all 17 of its lawmakers will resign in protest. The LFP also plans to travel around Chungcheong Province to conduct a public relations campaign to save the original Sejong City Development Plan. At a press conference Sunday held at the National Assembly, LFP Chairman Lee Hoi-chang said President Lee’s nationally-broadcasted “Dialogue with the President” was an attempt to justify his lies and smooth over his words, using the notion that he was falling his “calling as president” as a shield. Chairman Lee said in order to protect this long-standing national project, the LFP plans to oppose any measure President Lee takes to amend the original plan.

Meanwhile, Chang Kwang-keun, secretary-general of the GNP, said during a press conference at the DP headquarters in Seoul’s Yeouido neighborhood that the DP’s declaration of an extra-parliamentary struggle and the Liberty Forward Party’s threat to resign en masse are symptomatic of an infantile disease stemming from party politics. He called on the opposition, which he says is stuck in the ideology of incitement, to think of the future of the nation and the people of the Chungcheong provinces and cease its exhaustive arguments. In response to the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, Chang said the DP must confess that it is worried the fruits of the project will become apparent and give the GNP a boost prior to the next presidential election. Chang said minor changes are possible in the project’s budget, but the GNP would never permit the budget to be so slashed as to nullify the project itself.

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