SEOUL, 30 July 2003 — A South Korean parliamentary panel yesterday voted to urge IOC vice president Kim Un-yong to resign from his lawmaker seat over claims that he had sabotaged the country’s Olympics bid.
The 20-member temporary Olympics bidding committee said it passed a resolution recommending Kim step down by July 31 or face possible censure at the formal ethics committee.
“The resolution has no legal binding but it would put huge political pressure on him,” Chon Hyung-jin, a parliament official, told AFP, adding eight of the 13 votes cast at the panel were in favor of the resolution.
Kim, 72, a legislator from the ruling Millennium Democratic Party, immediately rejected the resolution.
“They have just passed a legally non-binding resolution. I cannot accept it,” he said at a press conference held late yesterday.
Kim said he would file a libel suit against opposition Grand National Party lawmaker Kim Yong-hak and other critics who led the campaign against him.
After South Korea’s failure to win the right to host the 2010 Winter Olympics earlier this month, International Olympic Committee member Kim was accused of putting personal ambition ahead of national interest.
