Parliamentary speaker calls for vigilance on challenges to Constitution

SEOUL, July 17 (Yonhap) -- The parliamentary speaker said on Sunday that the nation should exercise vigilance against claims challenging basic ideas and values of the Constitution.
Park Hee-tae, speaker of the National Assembly, made the remarks in his congratulatory speech on the 63rd Constitution Day.
All South Koreans should once again resolve to defend the Constitution since it is "the last bastion of human dignity, values, freedom and equality, as well as democracy and welfare," Park said.
The speaker also said he fully believes the current stark differences between the two Koreas originated from their differing constitutional ideas.
"North Korea began at the same time that South Korea wrote its own Constitution and weighed anchor to launch," Park said. "But the results were totally different, like heaven and hell, although they started from the same tribe, era and region."
"I'm sure all these originated from differences in constitutional ideas," Park said.