President Roh Moo-hyun of the Republic of Korea (ROK) held a televised news conference on Thursday to make a position on the interim outcome of a prosecution investigation of corruption scandals involving his former aids.

Local English newspaper The Korea Time quoted Roh's spokesman Young Tai-young as saying on Thursday that "In the first place, the purpose of the news conference is to react to the announcement by the prosecution on the interim result of its investigation."

Young said, however, that the president may respond to the impeachment motion "if questions are raised on that."

The prosecution announced on Monday that Roh's campaign team took 11.3 billion won (US$9.62 million) illegal fund raising in the presidential election in December 2002.

While the country's biggest opposition Grand National Party was found to have accepted 82.3 billion won (US$70.1 million) illegal donations in the election.

And on Tuesday, 159 lawmakers from the GNP and the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) introduced a motion to impeach Roh, accusing him of violating the election law by making remarks in support of pro-government Uri Party for the April 15 parliament general elections.

By law, the one-house National Assembly must vote on the impeachment motion during the period from Wednesday afternoon to Friday afternoon.

(Xinhua News Agency March 11, 2004)