Rival Parties Clash over NK Policy

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Partisan bickering in the legislature yesterday escalated the controversy at home and abroad over the government's North Korea policy on the occasion of the first anniversary of the inter-Korean summit agreement.

While interrogating Unification Minister Lim Dong-won, a major architect of Seoul's ``sunshine policy'' of engagement toward the North, the ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) and the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) collided over the nature of the policy which has been steadfastly carried out since the inception of the Kim Dae-jung administration in 1998.

Accusing opposition leader Lee Hoi-chang of consorting with U.S. hard- liners in the …