The National Assembly of the Republic of Korea (ROK) postponed convening a plenary session to discuss the impeachment bill against President Roh Moo-hyun on Thursday, according to local TV channel YTN.  

The ROK unicameral was scheduled to hold the session at 2:00 pm (0500 GMT). And when to convene the session is unknown, said YTN.

The GNP holds 145 seats and the MDP has 62 seats in the National Assembly. And according to rules, the bill can become true when two-thirds of the total 271 lawmakers in the parliament vote for it.

The pro-government Uri Party holds 47 seats in the parliament and it vowed to block the ballot over the bill by any means, even physical one. Television footage showed scores of Uri Party legislators sit down around the speaker's seat, preparing to prevent Speaker Park Kwan-yong to convene the plenary session.

Outside the parliamentary building, hundreds of activists demonstrated for and against the impeachment push. There were no reports of clashes.

A total of 159 lawmakers from the GNP and MDP submitted the impeachment motion to the parliament on Tuesday, accusing Roh violated election law by publicly voiced support for Uri Party.

According to rules, the parliament must deal with the impeachment bill from Wednesday afternoon to Friday afternoon, otherwise the motion will be null automatically.

(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2004)