YONHAP NEWS

(LEAD) Opposition intensifies fight against Sejong City revisions

SEOUL, Nov. 28 (Yonhap) -- Opposition parties vowed Saturday to intensify their struggle against a government move to reduce the number of administrative offices relocated to a new city in the central part of the country, one day after President Lee Myung-bak said the city would be a disaster if built as planned.

   The main opposition Democratic Party was set to hold a street rally later Saturday in South Chungcheong Province where construction for the originally envisioned administrative city, Sejong, was under way.

   The party plans to hold more rallies where other industrial and business cities are slated to be built, according to party officials.

   Sejong City was originally planned to house up to nine ministries and four other government offices under a special law enacted under the former Roh Moo-hyun administration in 2005. But the current government is moving to scrap the plan and instead make it into a business or education hub.

   The Democratic Party claims the move will negatively impact 10 other industrial or business cities already under construction.

   President Lee on Friday said the other cities will not suffer, speaking in a nationally televised town hall meeting with some 100 political and business experts and citizens.

   The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Saturday said the TV program may not have been enough to ease public concern over the project, but that it was a start.

   "All the heads of government ministries and their officials will begin efforts to persuade and convince the people as the president initiated the move," an official told reporters, asking not to be identified.

   Prime Minister Chung Un-chan backed the president's claim Saturday, saying the government move is no way an effort to downsize or scrap the Sejong city plan.

   "The new plan for Sejong city the government is trying to draw up is to make the city better than it will be under the current plan," Chung said in a meeting with a group of residents in the area.

   The minor opposition Liberty Forward Party, most of whose 17 lawmakers are based in the Chungcheong provinces, is reacting with greater anger.

   The party plans to hold rallies in each and every city in South and North Chungcheong provinces before the end of the year to campaign against the "injustice" inflicted on the area by the president and his government, party officials said.

   All of the party's legislators earlier threatened to quit the parliament, but party officials said they have decided to put off their resignations for now to continue fighting the government move within the National Assembly.

   bdk@yna.co.kr
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