By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
Rep. Kim Han-gill, a three-term lawmaker of the liberal United New Democratic Party (UNDP), announced Sunday that he will retire from politics and not seek re-election in the upcoming general elections.
Kim told a press conference at the National Assembly that he made the decision to take responsibility for the party's crushing defeat in the presidential election last December.
``It was painful to see fingers pointing at us with the criticism that nobody is willing to take responsibility for the defeat,'' he said. ``I will be the first one to give up all the vested rights if sacrificing myself will help all of us revive. That's why I decided not to run in the elections.''
The elections to pick 299 Assemblymen are slated for April 9.
Kim is the first UNDP member to announce his retirement following the presidential election.
His decision may spark serial defections or worsen internal feuding over responsibility for the debacle and how to choose subsequent leaders, party sources said.
``I bolted from the (now-defunct) governing Uri Party early last year judging I could no longer expect President Roh Moo-hyun to make a change. I feel responsible that we couldn't end his haughtiness and arrogance,'' he said.
Kim added he regrets he failed to make a grand coalition by merging the UNDP with the minor opposition Democratic Party (DP).
Kim, a novelist-turned-politician, served as minister of culture and tourism between 2000 and 2001 under the Kim Dae-jung administration and floor leader between 2006 and 2007 for the Uri Party, the de facto predecessor of the UNDP.
He deserted the Uri Party with his fellow lawmakers in June 2007 when the party was suffering from rock-bottom popularity of about 10 percent in most opinion surveys.
A month later, Uri defectors and some DP lawmakers created the UNDP trying to pick a unified candidate of liberal forces to run in December's presidential race.
After its failure to field a joint candidate, its nominee Chung Dong-young was defeated by Lee Myung-bak of the conservative Grand National Party.