That day those of Kwangju City, North and South Jolla provinces held a press conference outside the building of the Jonju District Court of North Jolla Province at which they termed the decision of the regime invalid.

They censured the central election management committee for deciding to deprive those from the UPP of their qualifications on Dec. 22 last year in the wake of the disbandment decision by the "constitutional court".

They declared the decision of the central election management committee not only null and void but illegal, charging the committee aligned itself with the "constitutional court" in disregard of its duty.

On the same day Ri Jae Hwa, a south Korean lawyer, at a seminar in Kwangju denounced the decision on the forcible disbandment of the UPP as a premeditated fabrication.

It is contradictory to charge that a mass political party which has conducted activities under its open action programme had hidden purposes, the lawyer noted, adding:

History will set right the wrong decision.