SEOUL, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- When Unification Minister Chung Dong-young declared last week during a parliamentary hearing, "I expect that the 'two-states theory' I am proposing will soon become the government's official position," he ignited a political storm.
He quickly added that his view "fully accords with the Constitution," signaling that he had no intention of retreating. The reaction in the National Assembly was immediate and explosive.
Ahn Cheol-soo of the conservative People Power Party charged that Chung's idea was unconstitutional, since Article 3 of South Korea's Constitution defines the nation's territory as "the Korean Peninsula and its adjacent islands."
He further argued that any doctrine implying permanent division would directly contradict Article 4, which commits the Republic "to peaceful unification based on the liberal democratic order."
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