Is That, Umm, Constitutional?

South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun, who recently lost his parliamentary majority, has some very novel ideas about power-sharing. The idea that this is meant to forestall the gridlock that sometimes comes from divided government is about as plausible as any that comes to mind, which means “not very.” He’s now revealing the specifics of his plan for “coalition government,” but I can’t make a whit of sense of this:

Bringing specifics to President Roh Moo-hyun’s recent talk of “coalition government,” the chairman of the governing Uri Party yesterday proposed that the major opposition parties be given the right to appoint Korea’s prime minister, in exchange for accepting a sweeping change to the nation’s electoral system.

Moon Hee-sang said the Uri Party wants a system in which more than one legislator would be elected from each district. He said this would deal a blow to the regionalism in Korean politics, in which political parties tend to be strongly identified with certain parts of the country. “We will suggest to the president that he give the right to appoint the prime minister to the opposition, if the opposition agrees to a change to the constituency system that will contribute to solving the problem of regionalism,” Mr. Moon said at a press conference at Uri Party headquarters.

The scariest part is that it’s the DLP guy who is asking the right question.

This isn’t terribly comforting, either:

The editors-in-chief of two of the country’s major conservative newspapers, the Chosun Ilbo and the Dong-A Ilbo, did not attend the lunch, notifying the Blue House of their absence on Wednesday. The president criticized both papers in a letter posted online that day.

How do two major dailies justify boycotting a major on-the-record meeting with the country’s president?